Search - Articles

starlings feeding on the lawn, not from any food I'd scattered, but simply pecking away searching for worms and grubs. And a blackbird whose youngster fledged from a nest in my ivy this week has also found the lawn a useful source of food.The drought during

, is twitching its wings on an ivy leaf. I don’t think anyone can remember why this hoverfly has such a daft common name - it’s one of the reasons I stick with my entomological snobbery and insist on scientific names, even for the most familiar of beasts

full of eggs.After freeing it from its kettle container, we release it into the ivy in the hope that it can attract a mate and lay its eggs there. Next year I’m expecting a red mist of them out there.

was the best sun in ages and these lovely bugs have started to appear, just as they always do at this time of year, sunning themselves on the south-facing fence, and the leaves of the ivy growing all over it. They won't stay that colour for long, and I expect

concealed. The tricky bit is that anything I plant has to fit in with the surrounding landscape. If you look around, most native woodland is a bit short of evergreen—there might be some ivy climbing up a tree or the occasional yew.  If you suddenly start

We are being invaded. I had not seen many harlequin ladybirds in my garden this year, but a few weeks ago I noticed that the larvae were climbing over the hedge from next door, in droves. This south-facing fence is covered with ivy and a

've written about all these early spring appearances before. There must be something different.But then my eye is caught by a perching fly, also warming itself on the ivy leaves. It is a pretty mottled grey, sometimes appearing greenish or bluish, the pattern

that the only way to tackle a shady patch is to turn it into a foliage garden filled with box, ivies and ferns. But too many dark greens can make a shady area look gloomy. Instead, use them for background structure and texture, then bring the area alive

other insects hibernate in its foliage.Ivy, Hedera helixLate-flowering buddleja supplies insects with nectar when others have finished flowering. Pollinators attracted to its blooms include bees, moths and hoverflies.BuddlejaMany hebe cultivars flower

-flowered), delphinium, eryngium, fuchsia, globe thistle (Echinops), heather, ivy, lavender, penstemon, scabious, sedum, Verbena bonariensis.Late-summer flowersFor more on garden insectsLearn how to identify bumblebees in your gardenFind out more about bumblebees