Giving garden wildlife a spring in their step

Find out which early species to watch for, how to make your patch more butterfly-friendly and where to record your sightings for science

Karen Youngs is on the lookout for nature’s collectibles during a sunny spring walk

Red kites, great spotted woodpeckers and pink-footed geese are only a few of the birds doing brilliantly in the British Isles right now. Mark Cocker celebrates their success stories and looks at what might be learnt from them

Nadia Shaikh goes synaesthetic for the start of spring, almost tasting the orange tang of an early butterfly

Position logs randomly around garden borders rather than in neat piles to recreate the way they fall naturally from trees in the wild. You could artfully arrange them around spring-flowering plants or