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by squirrels. I went to great lengths to build a butterfly-proof shelter around them to prevent attack from the caterpillars of cabbage white butterfly. Fortunately, this was a great success. But towards the end of the season the squirrels moved in

, it was a Leyland cypress, Cupressocyparis leylandii, a tree so almost totally sterile for wildlife that a plastic Christmas tree would probably house more biological diversity. Secondly, it was so close to a building that any previous advantage of shelter

, before we start building our display.My herb display at Chelsea this year will contain a very unique sundial, featuring a sculpture of a hare. I went with Joanna Migdal, the sundial creator, and Jeremy James, the hare sculptor, to the foundry where both

, the sparrowhawks move in too. We've moved the bird feeders and stopped using those that seem to leave the small birds exposed to predators. But what's the answer? It looks as if we're going to have to build a sort of Eden Project-esque mini-dome of chicken wire

stony - lots of chunks, lumps and even the odd boulder of beautiful golden Bath stone; so much that I could build a little rockery in a corner of the plot!The beauty of raised beds is that they don't really take too much work to prepare - no double

the European wasps, accidentally transported to the southern hemisphere many years ago, are confused by the lack of clear seasons. Instead of stopping for winter, they continue colony-building for two, three or perhaps even more years, creating huge nests

When I was a contractor fossicking around London laying slabs, building walls and digging holes we usually had a radio. Most of the time this played Radio 4 as it is the perfect way to distract the mind from occasionally very tedious and rather