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. The cleverest trivial fact I know about them is that they only spring closed if two hairs are touched simultaneously. This stops it using up a lot of energy unnecessarily on very small meals. It eats more than flies*.A larger group are sarracenias or pitcher

, removing leaf litter and other debris. This will keep your pond healthy for frogs, toads and other pond life, and hopefully ensure our frogs make it through the winter, ready to give their populations a good boost in spring.

’re dead, but just that their tops will have been knocked back. Hopefully roots in fairly dry compost, and insulated from cold, will survive and start growing next spring when conditions warm-up.My colleague Lucy on Gardeners' World magazine looked very fed

.Stachyurus praecox - deciduous shrub that grows to about 3m high. The hanging, greenish flowers in early spring (before the leaves appear) are very pretty. Leaves good in autumn as well.Magnolia denudata - one of the finest magnolias which flowers a couple of weeks

to germinate, I'll put the pot straight outside and leave it be. Who knows, in spring I could go out and find my own Hackney field rose growing in the garden.

rocket and claytonia, spinach beet, French and runner beans, and turnips.Alan Titchmarsh had some helpful advice in the February issue of Gardeners' World magazine, too, encouraging us all to grow more veg. His top four space-saving crops were spring

chaff is just lazily missing the right notes.Greenfinches irritate me on the bird table - all that mess and spitting - but I do love their wheezy song. A sure sign of spring, I heard the first one of the year last week. But until now I didn't know what

of pollen and nectar cake laid in by their mother, and have developed into adults, they delay final emergence until spring. It is then the males that emerge first, often several days before females from the same nest. They then wait about until the females

through to adulthood in late May or June. Then she will have help to protect, feed and increase the nest.All too often, a promising start to spring is suddenly reversed by a bout of poor weather in May. This can cause fatal setbacks to the queen wasp

boost local insect populations by not using bug sprays and being less tidy in autumn (providing insects with somewhere to shelter over winter will ensure they survive to breed in spring). Planting native trees and shrubs will also provide food