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woodpeckers, witnessed blackbirds and robins fighting over territory, and sat a little too close to a wasps' nest.It's generally a very good habitat for wildlife: there's a mass of ivy to provide food and shelter for all manner of creatures, and something

fence was an alien country. I knew there were houses over there somewhere, in the next street, but they were all but invisible through the nettles, living and dead plum trees and sprawling ivy.Ironic, then, that our garden, when we moved in, was just

from the local wild plants. We don't have hedgerows in Hackney, but we do have a canal, besides which grows the field rose, Rosa arvensis, common honeysuckle, Lonicera periclymenum, and ivy, Hedera helix. I gathered a few hips from the rose (leaving

or planting a shrub or tree, now’s the time to do it.There’s a small selection of fruiting plants in my garden, namely holly, guelder rose (Viburnum opulus), dog rose  (Rosa glauca) and ivy. All were planted as bare-root shrubs last autumn, except the ivy

few days each year. No sign this week.Despite the apparent warm weekend weather, there is a distinctly autumnal feel in the air. Apart from a few hoverflies sunning themselves on the ivy, there is precious little wildlife out. I wonder if it has

-fruiting winter cherry, a mini skimmia and some beautiful silver-leafed cinneraria. A trip to the garden centre added to the loot with winter flowering pansies, some small variegated ivies and a job lot of spring bulbs.I don’t really like winter cherries, worse

another green shieldbug crawling over the ivy, I felt I could be brazen again.This is Piezoderus lituratus. It’s slightly narrower and more elegant than Palomena, and has a delicate yellow stripe down each side of its shiny body. Those emerging from

Sunday, and the spring sunshine hit East Dulwich with a blast of warmth that has got everything moving again. The blue sky was almost painful to the eyes, after so much grey recently. Our south-facing fence, covered with ivy, was alive

  - and politely bossy signage - whereas here the brassicas are in large pots with ivies (this time without the chrysanthemums, which some might consider a blessing). Those of you with long memories might recall my writing about the American penchant for bedding

of the lawn, then zoomed up and away. Several holly blues were skipping about over the ivy-covered fence at the weekend, all probably freshly emerged form chrysalides buried deep inside the tangled thatch.But what really caught my eye was the pas de deux dance