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The danger of frozen water pipes is on my mind during this freezing weather, but I'm also concerned that garden birds are suffering, too.Water in my bird bath quickly turns into a solid sheet of ice on cold nights, and hasn't been thawing out during

Last winter, when I went to great trouble to feed the birds in my garden, my offerings were largely ignored. This winter, I'm trying again, leaving seeds, chopped apples and suet pellets for ground-feeding birds such as robins, blackbirds

… and then the bee arrived again clasping an out-sized circle of green leaf. Yes, we've got leaf cutter bees in our garden furniture. So you see, there really is another good reason for not quite finding the time to use wood-treatment on garden furniture! I've never

Man cannot live by bread alone, and neither can birds! When it comes to garden bird care, food is not the only thing I consider on these cold winter mornings.Waking up to a thick layer of frost to scrape off the car windscreen before I could leave

My 2010 garden tally of butterfly species is now up to six. We've had single visits from large white, comma, peacock and small tortoiseshell. They obviously didn't find much of interest in my garden, so dipped down, bustled about one circuit

It's been a very good year for codling moths in our garden. I can't say I've seen many of the moths themselves, but it's obvious there are plenty of them. Each time I cut into one of the windfall apples I am met with a crumbling mouldy brown mass

I’ve just come back from visiting my parents, who live in Newhaven, on the Sussex coast, between Brighton and Eastbourne; there were lots of gulls in their garden. As they live only about a mile from the pebble beaches of Seaford Bay, this is hardly

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

Walking back from the Horniman Museum last week took me past a large oaktree growing just inside a front garden. The tree looks like an old pollardand must pre-date the early 20th century houses hereabouts. What caught myattention were all

It's two years now since the ring-necked parakeets started screeching over the garden. The tallest trees around here are the Lombardy poplars a few doors down. I don't think they are nesting in them though, they don't look old enough to have