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, even using compost. Then there's plant sap - euphorbia is particularly dangerous, as it can cause temporary blindness.I'm lucky I only stubbed my toe, even if it did look a lot worse. But what about you? Have you ever come a cropper in the garden?

at the nearest car boot sale. I was devastated at the time, but quickly accepted it as an inevitable part of allotment life.Garden theft isn't just perpetrated by lone opportunists. Gardening is big business, and so is 'organised' garden crime. Rare plants

Butterflies have a starring role in the July 2011 issue of Gardeners' World magazine. There's a cut-out-and-keep ID guide, a feature on plants for butterflies and another on gardening for all three stages of their lifecycle. This wealth of content

concern ourselves with the slugs that eat our plants. But look inside your compost bin and you might find their yellow cousins, Limax flavus. Yellow slugs are a gardener’s friend, as they feed almost exclusively on decaying matter. I have only once seen

the plant stems moist and prolong the life of the wreath, as well as give it more of a bulky appearance. You can also buy, or make, beautiful willow wreath bases, which last for years and can simply be brought out in autumn and dressed accordingly. I aspire

in this way, since the pressures of climate change force them to return to growing (more resilient) native plants using traditional methods. The Incas inspired me, too, despite the fact that I'll never have a mountain to carve a garden out of, or a waterfall

shallow to sustain a tree and it only gets sunshine for two hours a day. But if you have better conditions, now's a great time to plant bare-root apple trees. Many varieties will fruit within a couple of years, won't need much attention (unless you train

behind plant pots and at the back of the borders. She's much more inquisitive than the male, who is only interested in apples, turning leaves, pecking at soil and frightening birds. We've called them Sid and Nancy.So I will be taking part in this year

, caterpillars and chrysalises don't end up on the compost heap. Now autumn is on its way, many of us will be thinking of tidying our gardens, composting spent perennials and making leaf mulch.Remember that caterpillars overwinter in leaf piles and plant debris