Gardening with wildlife in mind
Even small gardens are full of wild animals. True, the animals concerned are mostly very small – beetles, spiders, ladybirds and hundreds of other mini-beasts without English names – but they are all important. Each is part of a very complex food web. In other words, they eat other things or are eaten by them. Most obviously, invertebrates provide food for many birds. Even seed-eating birds like house sparrows feed their young on grubs and insect larvae.

Feathered Friends
February can have the coldest weather of the year but it’s also when your garden
– and all the wildlife in it – starts to come back to life after its winter break. It’s a good month to spend some time checking out which birds come to your garden and what they find to eat there.

Delightful Dahlias
The Dahlia must be one of the great institutions of the British garden and rightly so. Few other plants can possibly reward us with such colour and diversity throughout the late summer, let alone bucketfuls of bloom for the house. They still remain as summer’s favourite bulb and now is the time to pick up some of the exciting tubers now available.

Potatoes
The potato is arguably the most important vegetable in our lives and a recent survey revealed it to be the most desirable crop that gardeners want to grow at home. Its enormous versatility in the kitchen makes it a staple part of most people’s diet and few of us fail to find it on our plate several times a week. Potatoes are a valuable source of protein, fibre and vitamin C (particularly new potatoes) and there’s little to rival the taste of fresh new potatoes dug straight from your garden.