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tiny) garden.The garden isn't perfect and I've a long way to go, but I've documented my success by the variety of garden visitors I've gained since the transformation: blue tits and great tits, bumblebees, butterflies, moths, slugs, snails and leaf

appeared in my garden soon after I converted it from a paved courtyard last year. It's not large enough and doesn't get enough sun to sustain breeding butterflies (most of which require large swathes of nettles in full sun to lay eggs), so I can munch away

't often seen together. The Gardeners' World TV crew was camped outside it for a large portion of the day, so look out for it on tonight's programme (13 May, 2011).Talking of diversity, the warm spring has ensured that the plant marquee has a much greater

size, and are perhaps even more artificial than any distinctions between moth and butterfly.One of my favourites is the twenty-plume moth, Alucita hexadactyla (pictured above). Although in a different family from the other plumes, it has the same

ready for the council to come and collect. On some of the leaves were ladybird pupae, while spiders spun new webs in the wreckage. There may also have been chrysalises of the holly blue butterfly, whose caterpillars feed on ivy in summer. They

plants will attract a wide range of pollinating insects.Pinch out the growing tips of the plants to encourage bushy growth, then hang the finished basket in a sunny, sheltered site where you can enjoy its scent.May - JuneJune - September20 minutes

Friday, Saturday and Sunday just past were fabulous, and as the sun burned down it was a thrill to see so many insects still about. A very late speckled wood butterfly was fluttering about the allotment, along with a last few large whites. A huge

there - the trees are blossoming like there's no tomorrow. My children and I gave my wife a small orchard for her birthday in 2000. It always looks gorgeous at this time of year, and gets better every season as the trees mature.We planted young, whippy trees - a

host of fabulous cultivars of B. davidii. Among my favourites are B. davidii 'Royal Red' and B. davidii 'White Cloud'. They'll all grow to the height of about 4m and will attract clouds of butterflies.

Dulwich). All ichneumons are parasitic, laying their eggs in a wide range of insects, but especially moth and butterfly caterpillars. The venom injected at the same time contains an immunosuppressant, preventing the immune system of the host insect from