Search - Articles

In the Horniman Museum Gardens earlier today and a brightly coloured butterfly caught my eye as it visited a low dandelion flower. I skulk up to it and discover a painted lady, Cynthia cardui. This is only the third I have seen this year.A native

closely in the small back garden of our previous house in Nunhead. I was on the telephone looking out through the back bedroom window when one landed on the washing line pole. It made a few tentative taps with its beak, then hopped up the pole a few inches

millipedes. But, just like the longer-legged species, they are predators of other small invertebrates.There were hundreds of them. The rotting timber was obviously the ideal site to shelter in. When they set off, they have a lovely fluid motion, and seem

in case I was dangerous, or sizing me up as potential prey.They have slightly more interesting garden 'pests' in Florida. This paper wasp nest was tucked out of the way against the eves, and anyway it was very small.And one day I turned over a few small

legible and accessible!The garden of our semi-detached East Dulwich house in south London isn't huge at about 25 metres long, but it does boast a small pond and there are enough scruffy bits to encourage all sorts of wildlife. And some of the neighbouring

Yesterday I discovered cuckoo spit on my red valerian (Centranthus ruber). It's considered a pest by many gardeners, but, for me, it's a symbol of great achievement: I've successfully converted a barren, paved courtyard into a lush, green (albeit

the garden. It was very low, only just clearing the apple tree. This may have had something to do with the large pigeon it was clutching in its talons. It flew, rather laboriously I thought, down over the gardens to the short row of tall trees that bound

, but one I have not seen for some time, indeed, probably not since finding it in my parents’ garden 40 years ago. The small bristly black and brown boot-brush of a caterpillar eats almost anything, and it is quite at home in downland, heaths, woods, parks

couple of weeks had been moth heaven in East Dulwich. During the day the Jersey tigers had competed with the butterflies in colours and numbers and it was almost impossible to walk in the garden, or up the street, without being batted by one on its mad

’t notice its new residents. The nest inside looks quite small, so I suspect it was made by a wren. Which other small birds use boxes I wonder?People often ask me what they can do to attract birds into their garden - well, providing food and water is a great