Search - Articles

This Saturday (30 October) is RSPB Feed the Birds Day. To celebrate, I gave my feeders a good wash with hot water and disinfectant and bought some expensive bird seed. The birds, still busy eating aphids from the trees in the local park, are none

Last winter, when I went to great trouble to feed the birds in my garden, my offerings were largely ignored. This winter, I'm trying again, leaving seeds, chopped apples and suet pellets for ground-feeding birds such as robins, blackbirds

Garden Birdwatch.Birds will only visit gardens where they feel safe. The ideal bird-friendly garden has a mixture of trees and shrubs for birds to shelter in, a lawn from which ground-feeding birds can forage for ants and worms, and a wild, grassy area

feeding, nesting and hibernation preferences. Tongue lengths determine which flowers the bees can feed on, so grow flowers with long corollas like red clover, honeysuckle and foxgloves to attract long-tongued bumblebees like the commmon carder (Bombus

visiting my plot. I put seed out for them which the pigeons couldn't reach (they had their own), and fashioned a snow-proof feeding station using an umbrella, which sheltered the birds and seed from snow. I left chopped apples in the borders. Everything

flowers (the bees just can't get to the goods).Here's a list of some of my favourite plants for bees:1. Allium2. Aquilegia3. Birds-foot trefoil4. Borage5. Campanula6. Cardoon7. Catmint8. Chives9. Clover10. Comfrey11. Cornflower12. Cranesbill geranium13

the National Bat Helpline first for advice on 0845 1300 228.

With all this talk of feeding the birds lately, it would be wrong not to mention the potential unhappy consequence of such a good deed: rats.Rats are everywhere, and some say there is one rat for every human in the UK. They used to spread the plague

- David's were all eaten by slugs, while Tamsin's disappeared overnight (probably also eaten by slugs). Despite all the attention I lavished on mine, including extra watering and a weekly nettle feed, just two of the six made it above 2m (2.24m and 2.35m

, bumblebees prefer to nest in messy gardens (although they will feed anywhere with suitable flowers), so I want to give nest-searching queens the illusion that I don't garden at all. The grass will grow long, the borders will rot into themselves