All in a flutter

Our feathered friends need your help through the cold season. Birds need high-energy, high-fat foods, such as sunflower seeds and nuts, to maintain their fat reserves to survive the frosty nights. Choose seed mixtures with plenty of naked oats, sunflower seeds, and peanut granules, and keep it contained, dry and safe from squirrels or other pests in the Peckish Storage Tin, £19.99, Westland Garden Health.

on the BOOKSHELF

Any fans of Arts and Crafts should reach for Judith B. Tankard’s book Gardens of the Arts & Crafts Movement (£34.99, Timber Press). It is, she explains, impossible to understand a house of the era without its garden, and assisted by beautiful illustrations and photographs she highlights the contributions of such iconic figures as Morris and Gertrude Jekyll in this romantic, naturalistic and architectural approach to garden design.

From this month you can start preparing vegetable seed beds, and may even get round to sowing some veg under cover, so scribble the names of your fledgling crops on this handy set of six slate plant tags, £12 from Garden Trading.

WIPE your Feet leave any mud and debris at the door with this machine washable mat from the Historic royal Palaces collection. £49.95, turtle Mat company.

Heaven scentIf the chilly weather and damp aromas of winter are getting you down, give yourself an olfactory reminder of warmer days with the Walled Garden vine tomato candle, filled with the scent of the plump fruits ripening on sun-warmed vines. £20 from true Grace.