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) is good nitrogen fixer for heavy soils. Sow from September to November.3. Mustard (Sinapis alba) is a brassica, so should not be followed by other brassicas in your crop rotation, as this can lead to the build up of diseases such as club root. Gardeners

a short flight to the raspberries, comfrey and clover he grows.If you want wildlife nesting in your garden, then build log and leaf piles, start a compost heap, leave a messy area, plant nectar-rich flowers and dig a pond. You could also use an old

I've had a great gardening year. It's hard to imagine my garden now as it was a year ago - a building site, with a huge pile of sand at one end and 200 paving stones and builders' rubble at the other. Then there was an awful lot of mud as we

of bumblebee now have few nesting options in the wild. It's great news for gardeners, as it means we can build on what we already have to make our gardens even better for bees.If you cater for bumblebees in your garden then honeybees and solitary bees

, but inevitable. In London alone we are losing the equivalent of 2.5 Hyde Parks of green space each year, as landlords and homeowners pave over their gardens to build sheds, park their cars and reduce 'maintenance'. Butterflies are precious in their own right

their fence', while the local council kills established plants at their base, leaving dead stems and leaves on buildings.But a study, commissioned by English Heritage, has proved that ivy can actually protect walls. Professor Heather Viles, who conducted

fences or negotiate building sites. They are creatures of a forgotten time, when habitats remained unchanged and wild spaces were ‘wild’.Luckily, gardens can be fantastic reptile habitats. Like many garden creatures, snakes and slow worms favour log piles

is habitat loss in urban areas, caused by the paving of front gardens and the building over of back gardens. Changes in farming practices, such as the widespread use of pesticides, are also cited.There are quite a few moths in my garden. I love seeing them

dedicated to wildlife.At times, I felt I was looking in the mirror at a South American version of myself. Unlike Fabiana, I doubt I will ever be in the position of having to commission the building of a water tower, but I can empathise with her desire

(and still do in parts of Asia and Africa) and some now carry Leptospirosis, which can lead to Weil's disease. Rats thrive in a variety of habitats, including derelict buildings, farmland and city sewers, and scavenge on food waste from refuse bins