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with a mulch of straw or ash.AdamWater regularly but sparingly and feed fortnightly during the growing season with a high-potash fertiliser, such as tomato feed. Agapanthus flower best when they're slightly pot bound, so plant them in a container smaller

Make fat cakes for the birdsEnjoy watching birds feeding in your garden all through the winter by making your own fat cakes for them. Feeding garden birds is important for their survival over the coming months so make up a pot of our mixture

butterfliesAll you need to make nettle beer is nettles, sugar, water, yeast, an orange, a lemon and cream of tartar. There are plenty of nettle beer recipes online.Nettle beerTo make nitrogen-rich nettle feed, cut or crush the nettles into small pieces

and avoid letting the compost dry out.Once the seed leaves have fully expanded, prick out individual seedlings into 7cm diameter pots. Handle the seeds by the leaf to avoid crushing the stem. Feed with a general liquid feed - such as seaweed - once a week

with loam-based compost. Space the plants fairly closely, so they knit together as they grow, and pinch out the shoot tips to promote dense growth.Water the plants and apply a liquid feed regularly, so they grow steadily without the leaves going brown. Trim

that didn't have to be removed were left in place; although few remain, their stumps and fallen logs are still present in the gardens and the rotting subterranean timber is still feeding the stag beetle larvae.The target of the cat's interest and the pig

satisfying week.Today I sorted out the autumn raspberries: pruning, clearing and feeding the bed. Autumn-fruiting raspberries produce fruit on new canes, so they should be cut to the ground in February to encourage them to produce this season's canes

song thrush to feed.My garden, like many others, provides ideal breeding conditions for snails, but this isn't actually the main reason I garden. So if I do come across snails I do dispose of them, although I hasten to add that I never use pellets

-favourite feeding places for bees.It's vital you provide flowers throughout the bumblebee's life-cycle, from March to September. It's also a good idea to have at least two nectar- or pollen-rich plants in flower at any one time during this period. The nectar feeds

is to blame, with wild areas of farmland sacrificed for bigger yields. Bumblebees now have fewer nesting opportunities and flowers to feed from.Grow a range of flowering plants all year - especially from March to November when bees are most active - to provide