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Spring has sprung. All at once. The guinea pig and his hutch are back outside. Shieldbugs, in their purple-brown winter colours, are sunbathing on the fence. The first bumblebee of the year, a queen buff-tailed, floated past and a male feather

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

of pale, blousy flowers for the last 10 years.The rest of the garden has matured a bit since then, so we can afford a bit of bare wood before we decide what to do next. And, in removing the tangled stems, we uncovered a series of pale opalescent pearls

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

wagtails visited during the coldest weather).In spring a pair of great tits and a blue tit used my garden to snack on peanuts while foraging for their young. They were all gone by July and my garden was, once again, Pigeon City. In October there were still

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

bucketBuilding a bug box for insectsBuilding a hedgehog houseMaking a bird boxInstalling a window bird feederMaking a bat boxBrowse a variety of plants that are attractive to wildlifeView a selection of spring flowering bulbs

nest underground in old mouse or vole burrows - which this project mimics.Flowerpot, 20cm in diameterTube or piping, 30cm length x 1.8cm diameterChicken wireSlate or tileNesting materialall year round30 minutesSelect a generous amount of nesting

are continually on the move. I hope the BTO is able to keep an eye of all five of them over winter and track their return journeys to the UK in spring.In the meantime, we gardeners can take a few steps to ensure this autumn's hibernating butterflies, moths

Feeding the birdsFeeding birds used to be a winter activity, from Christmas until the first spring flowers appeared. But birds need our help in the summer months just as much as during the winter.Because birds breed in the spring and early summer