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It's cold, there's snow on the ground, and all is quiet in the garden. But I've just been outside feeding the wildlife. In my case that does not mean putting up nut-filled bird feeders or hanging fat balls, it means tipping the kitchen waste

It's really exciting! Now the sunshine has finally arrived and we're having our lunches outside. Bliss: open air, sun on my back… and no table to wipe down nor carpet to vacuum afterwards (the birds take over external chores and get a free snack

Walking back from the Horniman Museum last week took me past a large oaktree growing just inside a front garden. The tree looks like an old pollardand must pre-date the early 20th century houses hereabouts. What caught myattention were all

earlier.We regularly get a pair in the garden, or sitting on the fence. There were four earlier this year, and I’m guessing this represented two generations. We don’t have large enough trees in our garden, so the nest must be in one of the Lombardy poplars

Last year I wrote a blog about cuckoo spit, in which I documented the fauna that had appeared in my garden after I had transformed it from a paved courtyard. I celebrated the arrival of butterflies, birds, froghopper nymphs and moths, but was less

It's ten to nine on a weekday morning and the start of the last week of school. It's only a short walk to school and there is always the opportunity of peering over fences and hedges to see what else is going on in other people's gardens

Last year I wrote about autumn tidying and the effect this can have on wildlife. I left my garden untouched over winter, leaving hibernating creatures snuggled under a duvet of fallen leaves and rotting stems. None of my plants died or were ravaged

in May. Would they have checked for nesting birds?As gardeners we're conditioned to work with wildlife. We avoid tidying borders in winter, trimming hedges in nesting season, and are frequently reminded of the benefits of having a pond. But this message

After writing an article on how and why to keep a garden wildlife diary for BBC Gardener's World Magazine, I've been invited to go electronic and turn it into a blog. My handwriting is atrocious so maybe this will be a good way of keeping the diary

it to chase off birds. He quotes an example from the Reverend H.L. Ewen's Rectory at Offord D'Arcy near Huntingdon, reported in the Journal of Horticulture in July 1883. The cat was tethered, by a short chain from its collar, the last link of the chain ran