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in May. Would they have checked for nesting birds?As gardeners we're conditioned to work with wildlife. We avoid tidying borders in winter, trimming hedges in nesting season, and are frequently reminded of the benefits of having a pond. But this message

of this Chelsea perfection in my own garden. But then it wouldn't be mine. I like my scruffy, battered, half-eaten plants. I like the fact that there are caterpillars available for the birds to feed their chicks with, though I could do without the pigeons

and food miles. Reducing, reusing and recycling gardening sundries and using sites like Freecycle result in less waste going to landfill. And then there's the peat issue. Peat bogs lock in CO2, preventing it from escaping into the earth's atmosphere, so

I'm not one for manicured lawns. I think lawn weeds are pretty. I'd really like clumps of bird's foot trefoil, dandelions, daisies, creeping buttercup and self-heal growing among the grass in my garden. In fact, I've just planted some clover

I've had a great gardening year. It's hard to imagine my garden now as it was a year ago - a building site, with a huge pile of sand at one end and 200 paving stones and builders' rubble at the other. Then there was an awful lot of mud as we

, that badgers and birds won't dig up looking for grubs, that dogs won't ruin with their scorch marks. And worm casts? What worm casts? Lawn life as we know it replaced by a carpet of convenient, sterile 'turf' -  like paving slabs in disguise.But what is a

that the plants are providing a late source of nectar and pollen for bees, hoverflies and other pollinators. Soon they'll be plenty of seed for the birds.How are your sunflowers coming along? Have they reached the dizzy height of 2m or more? Do let us know

, not like the fat, flavourless cherries currently in the shops. Even with attention from the birds there was still plenty for us.Of course, not every foraging trip or cookery experiment works brilliantly the first time. Once my mum and I gathered rosehips

What a spring we're having. Provisional Met Office reports suggest April was the warmest on record. It was also the 11th driest, based on average rainfall across the UK. Scotland's rainfall has been 110% above normal levels, while the South-East has

taste of what life was like before we built on the land. Green roofs on our sheds and bird tables don't provide such 'wild' habitats, but they do offer an additional source of pollen and nectar, as well as nesting opportunities.There are other advantages