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was rather amused to find me wearing a very large woolly jumper, two chunky scarves and a hot water bottle strapped around my middle (I've been suffering from an extremely sore lower back, as well as from the cold, and this really does help to relieve

wildlife, they can be made into great plant food and are a surprisingly versatile ingredient in the kitchen.The nettle we're used to in the UK is Urtica dioica, a perennial plant full of iron, calcium, magnesium and nitrogen, which makes it incredibly

photosynthesising, gases can build up and kill the frogs.To prevent winterkill you need to create a hole in the ice so noxious gasses can leave the water. I shouldn't need to do so this year, as two feral pigeons have taken to having a daily bath in my pond. I

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

it will not need to return to the water until March 2011 at the earliest. In the meantime it will come out each night from about March to October and prowl about hunting bugs, slugs and any other small creeping things it can get its jaws around.I always get

of hot water on the surface, allowing the base of the pan to melt a hole. Then leave a plastic ball in the hole overnight, and remove it the following morning when the pond surface has refrozen. This enables noxious gases to leave the pond. ARC also warns

Winter wildlifeMost garden wildlife hibernates over winter, as food is in short supply and freezing temperatures make life difficult. Learn how to help wild creatures through the cold winter months, below.In winter, wild animals and insects hunker

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

that breeds in the smelly stagnant water you find in flooded rot holes in large trees where branches have fallen off. It also likes nutrient-rich ditches, (especially near farm manure heaps), stinking sulphurous woodland pools full of rotting fallen leaves

, but the combination of dry day (getting me out), clear water and the slanting rays of the sun, have all conspired to make this an exciting event.There is something much more primordial about a newt than, say, a frog or a toad. Perhaps it’s the dragging crocodilian