Elephant in the room

Wildlife gardening is hugely beneficial, both for biodiversity and for gardeners. By providing food, shelter and nest sites for a wide range of species, you get the opportunity to engage with the natu

Whether winter-faded ferns, the spindly harvestman or the tyrannical stare of an irate chicken, through-lines from the prehistoric to our modern age are all around us in November, says John Lewis-Stempel

Within just a few weeks, I had nearly been wee’d on by a naked mole-rat, waited for five hours for a few horses to poo and smelt the sulphurous pong of some seafloor sludge collected from the depths o

One of the top experts on pests and diseases, Pippa gardens using organic methods. Matt trained at Kew and has been gardening professionally for more than 30 years. Kirsty is Head of Gardens at Balmor

The SAS (Special Air Service) make routine use of sleep-deprivation exercises in their selection process, and these often feature in later training. Hallucinations during such exercises are very commo

Ivy flowers have gone over and now berries are starting to form. Avoid cutting these back and allow them to develop as a food source for birds. Ivy berries ripen in late winter and are often not eaten