\u00a9 Frank Bienewald\/LightRocket via Getty Images<\/i> <\/span>\n<\/div>\n
If you plant barberry (Berberis vulgaris)<\/em>, which is a deciduous shrub with amazing bright-red berries, then in winter you will have food for many birds including thrushes, fieldfares and redwings.<\/p>\n
Cotoneaster frigidus <\/em>(Cotoneaster)<\/h3>\nBuy now<\/strong> from Primrose<\/a> (\u00a384.99<\/a>).<\/li>\n<\/ul>
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\u00a9\u00a0MyLoupe\/Universal Images Group via Getty Images<\/i> <\/span>\n<\/div>\nPut cotoneaster<\/a> (Cotoneaster frigidus<\/em>) in your garden somewhere and its flowers will attract bees<\/a>. It is used as a larval food plant for five different types of moth (and moths, of course, feed bats) and the bright-red winter berries are food for thrushes and waxwings. You could even make a hedge<\/a> from this wonderful plant. Why put up a fence<\/a> when you could have a cotoneaster hedge?<\/p>\n
Crataegus monogyna<\/em> (Hawthorn)<\/h3>\nBuy now<\/strong> from Suttons<\/a> (\u00a33.99<\/a>).<\/li>\n<\/ul>
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\u00a9\u00a0Andrea Innocenti\/REDA&CO\/Universal Images Group via Getty Images<\/i> <\/span>\n<\/div>\nThe common hawthorn<\/a> (Crataegus monogyna<\/em>) is one of the favourites of Proust.\u00a0 For Marcel the sight of a hawthorn in flower in May was so unbearably beautiful that he was sometimes forced to look away. Hawthorn also has an amazing perfume which Proust describes as having the \u2018bitter-sweet fragrance of almonds\u2019. Hawthorn grows slowly in glorious white bushes and can also grow up into trees with wonderful gnarled trunks.<\/p>\n
As well as having all these wonders, the red berries in winter provide food for starlings, finches, crows, blue tits, thrushes and waxwings. And it\u2019s cheap too. I bought four small Hawthorn plants yesterday for \u00a36.95. I hope you\u2019re as excited as I am. I mean really \u2013 for joyfully looking after the planet by planting hawthorn may be something small, but if you\u2019re a hungry thrush in the snow it could be life or death.<\/p>\n
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Hedera helix<\/em> (Ivy)<\/h3>\nBuy now<\/strong> from Crocus<\/a> (\u00a35.99<\/a>).<\/li>\n<\/ul>
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\u00a9 Vittorio Zunino Celotto\/Getty Images<\/i> <\/span>\n<\/div>\nThere are many different kinds of ivy<\/a>. One that is called Hede-ra helix or sometimes European ivy (if you\u2019re that way inclined polit-ically) or English ivy (if you\u2019re more politically inclined that way) or \u2013 if you want to avoid politics altogether \u2013 you can just call it ivy. Hedera helix is the posh name for the common variety that many gar-deners pull down because it can be difficult to eradicate and it crowds out other plants where it is established. However, it has black berries in autumn and winter that are food for wood pigeons, collared doves, waxwings, thrushes, jays, starlings and finches.<\/p>\n
Ilex aquifolium<\/em> (Common holly)<\/h3>\n
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