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gardens are even more wild and overgrown. Since my main interest is in insects, these are obviously going to feature pretty heavily here, but we also get our fair share of birds and beasts through too. A few days ago I noticed that the lilies growing in a

Following my find of a dead swift in the flower bed, there have been a lot of blog comments on cats, and how welcome or unwelcome they are in the garden. So I just had to share the following, because I found it so comical. It is taken from a

2007 will be remembered as a very good year for wasps. But before people start complaining about their vicious stings and bad tempers, I must point out that wasps are actually our friends. After birds and spiders, they are the most important insect

there, chattering loudly in the apple tree, was old black and white, cocking its head first one way, then the other.I was really chuffed. Not about having the bird in the garden, but about the boy correctly identifying it. I congratulated him on his

with sunbathing beasts: shieldbugs, spiders, ladybirds, bees, and two cats nestled in at the bottom. The newts have returned to the pond too; four of them were swimming about in there. These are the regular denizens of my garden, but two unusual visitors were a

The snow was great fun, but it made wildlife watching in my garden a bit pointless. I am rather biased on this, because as far as I'm concerned, wildlife really means insects. OK, there are a few birds and the odd squirrel out there

In the latest issue of Gardeners' World magazine, I go head-to-head with James Alexander-Sinclair by suggesting that gardeners are doing more harm than good by too much autumn tidying. I just know that all this anti-gardening talk is going to get me

returned.I'm no bird expert, but these harbingers of summer lift my heart when, as now, they scream their victorious celebration of return across the heavens. They made one low sweep together, a passing salute, then divided and wheeled off to the horizon. I

off. The densest is our tree of Oven's wattle, Acacia pravissima, now a huge impenetrable cushion of yellow flowers dominating the end of the garden. Part of the HFW scheme is a series of garden surveys and I've had more luck with April birds than

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