IVY BERRIES

Make room for ivy in your garden – it’s a wonderful plant with vital autumn flower nectar, followed by bunches of black berries that remain right through cold, stark winter days when much of the other berried food has gone. Blackbirds and thrushes particularly covet them.

What to do now: Don’t trim back ivy hedges; if you neaten them they’ll lose their flowers and berries, which will be a great loss to winter bird visitors. Why not plant some now, to grow through an old tree trunk? Keep an eye it doesn’t spread too much, though.