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It's not just my memory playing tricks on me - when I played in the garden as a child I remember it being full of butterflies. The buddleja was alive with them in summer, but how times have changed.In my own garden I've seen just a handful of small

That warm Saturday (April 26th) brought out the first butterflies of the year: holly blue, small tortoiseshell and speckled wood. They're all common garden species, but I always get a thrill when I see any of them.The female holly blue

We have a tiny patch of long grass in our garden, less than a couple of square metres. It's mostly the exceedingly common Yorkshire fog (Holcus lanatus) and false oat (Arrhenatherum elatius). Nevertheless, it's attracting several butterflies

cabbage white butterfly. These are easily confused with the smaller, bright green (and far less attractive) caterpillars of the small cabbage butterfly. I have those too.It's been a rotten year for butterflies, except the cabbage whites, which seem to have

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

by boiling). They also provide food for the caterpillars of some of our loveliest butterflies, including red admirals, small tortoiseshells, peacocks and the lovely comma . They not only feed butterflies and ladybird larvae, but can also feed us (although

of the cabbage white butterfly caterpillars, cabbage root fly, pigeons, slugs and snails. Maybe it's just as well I've got so many.

as these lovely, helpful insects I've also got a good smattering of the not-so-helpful varieties of wildlife, such as slugs, snails, chafer beetles and assorted aphids.I've also spotted a few cabbage white butterflies hovering around my brassicas. It's hard

, can spread to the rest of the fence, when one of the girls, who was helping by playing on the step ladder, pointed out what she thought was a butterfly flying by. It landed on the decorative painted brickwork over the front door, completely

mainly flies), but in the past I've seen wasps and tortoiseshell butterflies eagerly making the most of this final feed of nectar before hibernating.Fatsia japonica is an exotic looking evergreen shrub with large glossy, lobed leaves. Despite its tropical