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such as compost heaps, long grass and mouse holes.My mum grows a huge range of nectar-rich flowers from March through to November, but her garden's too tidy for bees and butterflies to breed in. Her next door neighbours have a messy garden with some long grass

chippings or compost.Where I live Christmas trees must be left in a brown bin (for food and garden waste), to ensure they will be recycled, otherwise they end up in landfill. I know this because last year I called the council's recycling department and asked

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

of leaves. But their larvae can kill plants by eating their roots.The adults will lay eggs anywhere, but prefer an open soil in which the larvae can move around freely. A light, peat-based compost is ideal for them. I don't use peat, so I consider

feeders, so I half-filled the pot with rich, home-made compost and topped up with peat-free multi-purpose. When the roots reach the bottom half of the pot they'll get an extra boost of nutrients from the compost - hopefully around the same time

Every autumn I have the same dilemma: should I overwinter my chilli plants or not? I probably shouldn't bother, as they quite often die, but I always end up taking them indoors. It seems so wasteful throwing them in the compost bin.Although they

Two years, I felt the need to grow a local, native plant in my garden. I gathered rosehips from a field rose at the edge of a nearby canal, soaked them in water and sowed the seed in coarse compost.The pots sat in a corner of my patio, doing nothing

piles, under sheds and in compost heaps. They breed from early to late-summer, giving birth to up to seven hoglets at a time, and feed on earthworms, beetles, caterpillars, and - happily for gardeners - slugs.I've never seen a hedgehog where I live

rainforest, are for sale in our supermarkets.Of course, many of them end up in good homes. But as they're so often given as gifts in place of cut flowers, do they too end up on the compost heap after they've bloomed?A friend of mine was once a florist, and I

pot of moist compost beneath the flowers to catch the seeds when they fall. You can transplant them when they're bigger.I dutifully placed a pot of compost beneath the plant. But then disaster struck.  Munching away at the flowers and unripe seeds