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to make the bee hotel, without bamboo, sunflower and teasel stems. I think the combination of branches, twigs and chopped trunk will make a varied insect habitat – one which I hope will be used by leafcutter bees to breed in as well as providing ladybirds

and fed them on cubes of luncheon meat or the occasional tiny slug. Eventually they would get tipped into the garden ponds, two ceramic butler sinks sunk into the soil, and they lived there for several years.As far as I know the newts still breed in those

of aphids in the United States and Europe. It was free to breed and spread over the continents and eventually all it needed to do was hop over the Channel to the UK. So it did.First spotted in Essex, the harlequin is now virtually everywhere, except for more

boost local insect populations by not using bug sprays and being less tidy in autumn (providing insects with somewhere to shelter over winter will ensure they survive to breed in spring). Planting native trees and shrubs will also provide food

startled in Dorset was probably a slow worm or grass snake (pictured above). These benign species often turn up in gardens, mostly in the south of England, and very rarely in the north. They bask in rockeries, feed in ponds and breed in compost heaps

(by weight) of the UK avian population; two UK sea ducks – the velvet scoter and long-tailed duck - are now threatened with global extinction.Not all is doom and gloom. In the chart of breeding bird trends, many familiar garden species are actually

entrance hole can make a fantastic substitute for many species. And birds won’t just breed in it – a well-placed box can also provide winter refuge for small species such as wrens. More than 60 species are known to use nest boxes, including blue tits, great

? If I grow buckthorn, maybe the brimstone butterfly will come in to breed. Or perhaps a patch of red clover will attract rare bumblebees.To avoid getting carried away, I’m narrowing the list down. Here are my Top 10 plants for a dream garden:Big cushions

'.I dug my mum her first pond 10 years ago, and although several frogs are often found sheltering in the water, and it's home to a gregarious family of smooth newts, we've never seen evidence of any breeding.The pond (now known as the 'deep pond') is too

slightly irritated when I read one of the kids' story books, in which someone discovers a frog or toad in the garden and their subsequent quest to find a suitable aquatic home for its release. Amphibians only go into water to breed in spring. Most