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for as long as possible, in order to feed the birds and give the frost something to hold on to, but there comes a time when one has to surrender to weather, nature and decay.As you can see from the picture above, that moment has, I think, arrived. (Just

If you have been struck by the sad plight of the battery hen recently and wish to do something about it then remember one important fact: chickens are rubbish gardeners. Forget the fanciful notion you had of having fluffy feathered folk strutting

In the words of Benny Hill: "I'll never know how a rose can smell so sweet and pure, And hold its head up high when it's standing in manure!".Old Benny cannot have been much of a gardener (a statement borne out by the fact that he lived all his life

as great gobbets of turf and topsoil are heaped into enormous piles and then, slowly, from the chaos, a pond emerges.I know this is very different from many people's experience of building a pond as this is a garden which is bigger than most

of humming birds or bats, although these plants are unlikely to be found in Britain. The hazel uses a much more basic method: anemophily, or wind pollination.So, very sensibly, the hazel catkins appear at a time of year when there is certain to be some decent

back bundles of branches that I then stick in the ground around the borders. Initially, the place appears to be colonised by enormous nesting birds, but this framework will soon be covered with plants which will, like matrons in whalebone girdles

especially to gather the droppings (not, as in Europe, to eat the birds). In dry countries other types of manure are used as fuel.Pig manure has to be about the smelliest option but provides plenty of humus. It is better in light, sandy soils.Leather scraps

of interesting things about oaks:1. Oaks are host to an awful lot of insects, lichens and birds - not to mention the various fungi that hang around the root systems.2. Because of the number of feeding insects, oak leaves look a bit shabby by July but