Search - Articles

It’s all looking rather still and damp in the garden now. Autumn, it seems, has come at last. Over the Guy Fawkes weekend, there were reports on iSpot and Flickr of red admirals and hoverflies visiting the sun-lit ivy, but, in my garden at least, most of the ivy flowers are over ...

interest.The addition of the bird feeders adds wildlife value to the pot display. Choose bright red feeders, to match the colour of the tulips and skimmia berries, or opt for a different, contrasting colour. Keep feeders topped up in winter to ensure birds

and carex for an autumn pot displayEnjoy the long flowering season of Verbena bonariensisTrain a late-flowering clematis up a wallEncourage wildlife to visit your garden by growing flowers for year-round colour

Hardy tulipsIf you find tulips difficult to grow, you may find species tulips easier. These are quite unlike their large-flowered cousins, which can frustrate gardeners by dazzling in their first year, then all but disappearing the next.Species tulips are as reliable as daffodils...

hedge thoroughly before trimming it to ensure there are no birds nesting within. It is an offence under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 to damage or destroy the nest of any wild bird while it is in use or being built.Conifer hedgeElectric or petrol

I got up out of my sick bed to post this, I hope you know. Our brief dusting of snow may have gone, but it was too grim and grey to go exploring in the garden after hibernating ladybirds or flat-backed millipedes. Instead, I ventured upstairs and peered at the surrounding trees a...

While the growling frogs in my mum's shallow pond have gone quiet (“and who can blame them, the pond completely froze over last week”, observed my mother), a pair of robins has been busy in the garden of my mother-in-law. Despite the bad weather, the birds have been gathering gra...

My running's not going very well. I've done something to the heel of my right foot and it was pouring with rain on Sunday morning, so my heart really wasn't in it. But I went anyway, even if it was only for half an hour. Peckham Rye Park is my regular training route. There's alwa...

A catastrophic and fatal error closed down the laptop on Friday and left me unable to post a blog entry last week. This followed an equally frustrating Christmas ipod incident.So I'm venting my anger by working on something that does not have a plug, and for which I do not need t...

If you have been struck by the sad plight of the battery hen recently and wish to do something about it then remember one important fact: chickens are rubbish gardeners. Forget the fanciful notion you had of having fluffy feathered folk strutting around your garden grazing on aph...