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in their wake. There's a tiny lavender (grown from a cutting) and a hebe (a gift - not my favourite plant but loved by bees), which will grow in time. My callicarpa died. Planting large(ish) shrubs will be my first job of 2011.I'm hoping some of this year

blues, and speckled woods.The hoverflies have appeared in earnest, and bumbles, wasps and solitary bees are everywhere. There is an audible hum, usually only heard in June. They are all squabbling over the raspberry flowers. Pond-skaters are frolicking

to squeeze gardening in before work, and I'll go hungry when I get home in the evening to spend the last hours of sunlight with the plants, frogs and bees.But that's enough of me. I asked around the office and, not surprisingly, the answers were all similar

on your fat balls.(If you hear swifts screaming above you in the evening, the RSPB would love to hear about it.)Gardeners aren't traditionally fans of insects, except pretty ones, like butterflies and bees. They're not made welcome in areas of intensively

marigolds, cosmos and agastache.Planted in one of the tree pits was some monarda, (commonly known as bee balm or bergamot). My partner hadn't seen these flowers before and the name was on the tip of my tongue. I smelled them to jog my memory and, instead

flower and patches of bare wall, I think about the ivy growing on the canal down the road. It's just coming into flower now, and is buzzing with the last of this year's hoverflies, bees and butterflies. Ivy would be a great choice for my garden - it

when I see it. Its bark is decorated with a thick crust of lichen, and lots of birds, especially thrushes, eat its fruit. It’s beautiful. Not only would my crab apple provide fruit for birds in winter, but its spring flowers would attract bees

, wild pear and buckthorn should cater for a wide range of species. A patch of long grass may encourage some species to breed, while a more relaxed attitude to 'pests' will go a long way to boosting caterpillar numbers in your garden.Moths, like bees

of lavender, covered with fat bumblebees and the odd butterfly.Honeysuckle, which I’ll train to grow up my house so, when I open the windows in summer, I can smell its sweet fragrance.A large patch of viper’s bugloss, one of the best plants for bees.I’ve never

of gardening is excellent. To this day, bumble and solitary bees nest in the nooks and crannies of the dry stone walls. Countless other insects and spiders also inhabit the rocks, and at lower altitudes, lizards take advantage of the warm, dry spaces concealed