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the garden there are birds eating as much as they possibly can to put on a bit of extra weight for the winter.Seems like a good way to spend the rather dead month of August. Pass the biscuits...

site. It might spend the winter in the compost bin making the whole heap smell of mouse, ready for nest-searching bumblebee queens in spring. I hope so.

after flowering to promote new growth, which you can use over winter.May-OctoberMay-October30 minutesBay, Laurus nobilis x1Flat-leaf parsley, Petroselinum crispum x1French tarragon, Artemisia dracunculus x1Greek sage, Salvia officinalis 'Greek' x2Lemon

After the intense cold of winter, the bright and cheerful flowers of alpines and rock garden plants introduce much-needed colour into our gardens. There is a huge range to choose from and, being used to extreme conditions, they're extremely hardy

these plants flowering perfectly happily halfway up someone's house, but completely flowerless at or near eye-level.In order to keep the flowers where you can enjoy them, it's necessary to prune them back each winter. I do mine at the same time as I prune

,Iris foetidissima (left), wood spurge and various spring bulbs, like snowdrops and winter aconites.Extreme shadeMore on gardening in shadePot up a shade-loving display of begonias and fernsCreate spring pot display for shadeBrighten up a gloomy corner with a pot

the fruiting stems. New shoots will soon emerge, and next year's fruit will be produced on these one-year-old, ripened canes. Autumn varieties fruit on this year's new growth, so cut these back in winter, and they'll generate new wood in spring

of nectar and pollen for bees, butterflies and hoverflies.ValerianIf left to flower, fennel produces attractive yellow blooms that attract hoverflies. Seeds are eaten by birds in autumn and winter.FennelThe wild strawberry, Fragaria vesca, produces white

are inaccessible to insects, or have low amounts of nectar and pollen, sometimes even none at all.Although many insects are inactive in winter, some will still seek nectar late into the autumn, or on a warm spring day. Having a selection of plants flowering

when I see it. Its bark is decorated with a thick crust of lichen, and lots of birds, especially thrushes, eat its fruit. It’s beautiful. Not only would my crab apple provide fruit for birds in winter, but its spring flowers would attract bees