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Mole hills - piles of fresh, excavated soil - don't fully convey the extent of one mole's underground tunnel system, which can cover a surprisingly large area. If a young plant isn't developing, it could be due to tunnelling beneath it. Seedlings can also suffer badly when their ...

Hungry, voracious caterpillars can be found in a wide variety of colours and sizes. Some feed on fruits, roots and stems, but the likes of the cabbage white butterfly, hawk moth and winter moth feed on leaves. Although they may at first seem an attractive form of wildlife, large ...

Pea and bean weevils are a nuisance but rarely a major problem on the veg patch. The larvae live in the soil and feed on the root nodules. Then when the adults emerge in June and July, they climb up the plants and eat the edges of the leaves

.rosemary, lavender, sage, Russian sage, thymelate-summer, autumnAdvice on growing herbsTaking rosemary cuttingsDealing with cuckoo spit on herbsPicking herbsAdvice on growing medicinal herbsVideo demonstration of planting herbs in a window boxVideo advice on how

Every garden has its fair share of slugs and the bad news is that they are around for most of the year. They're active mostly after dark, especially when it's damp. In hot dry weather they bury themselves to avoid dehydrating.Holes are chewed in soft, new growth, young stems are ...

Snails, like slugs, cause a great deal of damage to plants. They feed mostly at night, seeking shelter during the day from the drying effects of the sun. However, the snail's shell allows it to move more freely than a slug over dry areas, such as paving. It too, leaves a tell-tal...

The caterpillars of both the small and large cabbage white butterflies are are the two culprits. The first is pale green with a body up to 2.5cm long, the second is bigger at 4cm and is yellow with black markings. The adult butterflies lay eggs

. Space plants out to ensure good air circulation, and water early enough in the day to allow the leaves to dry out before nightfall. Also remove any garden debris that might harbour the fungus.lettucessummer to autumnMore common fungal problems

In mid-spring, 2mm-long, greenish-brown, adult bay suckers emerge from overwintering. They feed on young bay leaves, turning them yellow and making the edges thicken and curl. The females then lay eggs under the curling edges and the new, young grey

The fungus that causes this problem spreads rapidly in the warm, humid conditions of a greenhouse. It usually becomes apparent on the lowest tomato leaves from early or midsummer, which develop yellow blotches on the upper leaf surface. The leaves