Search - Articles

Birds not only use water to drink, but they also bathe in it, helping them fluff up their feathers to insulate themselves against the cold. Experts have also found that clean birds are more streamlined, so can escape from predators quickly. Our bird

right away.3. Insulate outside tapNot only must I turn off the stopcock to my garden tap to isolate the water supply (mine is almost hidden behind pipework under the kitchen sink), but I must wrap insulation material round the brass tap itself. Again, I

Two years, I felt the need to grow a local, native plant in my garden. I gathered rosehips from a field rose at the edge of a nearby canal, soaked them in water and sowed the seed in coarse compost.The pots sat in a corner of my patio, doing nothing

straight rows) and vinyl gardening gloves, are best kept in reach of a veg patch. Invest in a small garden store to lock them away.Keep tools handySet up water butts to recycle water running off roofs. Use seeper hose or trickle irrigation kits, combined

certainly in trouble and will need help. Pick the hedgehog up using an old towel or a pair of thick gardening gloves. Keep it warm by placing it on a hot water bottle wrapped in a towel, in a high-sided box lined with newspaper, and then place another towel

by flooding. It’s hard to imagine anything worse happening to your home.Putting up with a wet garden could appear rather trivial in the context of major weather events, but the past few years have highlighted how variable and extreme our weather has become

in the south-west. As well as feeding my young family out of our back garden, I squeeze in as many flowers as I can manage. This year I’m itching to sow the mouth-watering selection of flowers, veg, herbs and salads on offer through the Seed Club. The moment

, so the birds can feast in peace, I’m keeping the cats in for the couple of hours before dusk…Don't forget, by the way, that this weekend (26-27 January 2013) you can record sightings of garden birds in the annual RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch.

As if you needed me to tell you, 2012 was wet! Official figures from the Met Office have now confirmed what we gardeners probably already knew, that 2012 was the wettest ever in England, and the second wettest across the whole of the UK by only a

I hope you had a good Christmas and a break from your normal routine - maybe a little extra sleep and a lot of extra time in the garden or greenhouse. I’m enjoying the post-Christmas peace and quiet, and the chance to spot some winter birdlife