Wildlife watch: Common frog

Some say that hardware is the jewelry of the kitchen, and that certainly appears to be the case based on the kitchen hardware trend predictions for 2024.

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January is an interesting time to look for birds in the garden, as days are short and the availability of natural food is limited. This brings more birds into gardens, for whom a reliable source of supplementary food can be a lifeline.

This month, why not use your 2-for-1 Gardens entry card to spot some of the most exciting wildlife the UK has to offer in late winter. Wrap up warm, grab your2-for-1 Gardens card, maybe even some binoculars and head out to one of these gardens for a full day out.

Wildlife-friendly gardening is a simple yet impactful way to bring nature closer to home. This isn’t just about having a pretty garden; it’s about helping the environment right on your doorstep. Whether you have a big garden or just a small space, you can make a difference.

For many of us, this scenario may sound familiar: You move into a new house and everything is perfect—except that huge rhodie out front that is threatening to swallow the porch. Or, maybe you purchased a gorgeous lilac several years ago and now it is enveloping half the front walkway. I like to call the culprits in these cases the “beasts” of the garden: perfectly wonderful shrubs that tend to get out of hand. Perhaps you planted them at the start of your gardening career; or maybe you simply inherited a property with 1 (or 6) of these beasts already in place. Sometimes, you don’t want to get rid of the shrub completely, but after many decades of being ignored, you need to get things in check. Luckily for overwhelmed gardeners, there are specific ways to get these imposing monsters under control once and for all. True, there are far more beasts of the garden out there than are mentioned here—but you may be able to deal with them in a fashion similar to our three examples.

13 Common Orchid Problems and How to Solve Them

These common yellow bugs on plants may look cute, but they can cause serious damage if you do not get rid of them on time. However, some of these are beneficial, and we have called them out!

Our largest tit, the great tit has a black head with white cheeks and a green-yellow breast and belly with a black strip running down the centre. In males the strip is a symbol of status and indicates whether or not he will be a good father – the broader the strip, the better the male.

Also known as the wood mouse, the field mouse is a small, sandy brown mammal with big ears, big eyes and a long tail. Britain’s most widespread rodent, it’s common in woodland and grassland and also frequents gardens, even in very urban areas. It eats seeds (including bird seed), plants, caterpillars, earthworms, fruit, fungi and other foods such as cat biscuits, which you might leave out for hedgehogs. It caches food to store for leaner times, although these caches are often ‘forgotten’ – you may find piles of seed husks in a corner of your shed or beneath some membrane you have laid down to suppress weeds. If the seeds are large enough – for example if you find a pile of plum stones as I often do on my allotment, you may spot teeth marks on those that have been eaten. Different rodents leave different types of teeth mark on seed husks, so with some careful investigation you should be able to identify the field mouse as your hoarder.

A regular visitor to our gardens, especially in urban areas, red foxes are orange-red in colour with a white throat, belly and chin, and a white-tipped tail known as a brush. Exceptional scavengers, they eat a huge variety of food, from carrion to earthworms and even berries, which is how they have become so successful at living among us. However, they’re known for taking pet rabbits and chickens and their eggs, as well as for raiding bins. This, along with digging holes, nesting under sheds and flattening plants and toppling garden ornaments when playing, can cause conflict with the people they live among.

The red admiral is a large butterfly with black and red wings with white spots along the tips of its forewings and blue markings at the base of its hindwings. A migrant butterfly travelling here from North Africa and continental Europe to breed in spring before the next generation returns in autumn, some red admirals now hibernate in the UK, and they emerge on mild days to feed on winter flowers. As such, they can be found feeding on garden flowers all year round.