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We have a rambler rose just outside the back door, 'Félicité et Perpétue'. No matter how hard I cut it back, it still fights vigorously with the wooden slats of the featheredge fence, tries to smother the garden table and viciously rakes at my

and sleeker beast; it must have been a black variety of the much larger and squatter 'brown' Rattus norvegicus. It was sitting beside the stream, which bubbles down through the ornamental gardens, grooming itself in the drizzle when I trotted past

, between the Thames Barrier and City Airport lies a whole series of derelict plots being redeveloped with offices and blocks of flats. Around them is the usual bunch of rather dull municipal-looking gardens, all pretty bleak with acres of pyracantha

predators in the garden and they attack all manner of real pests including caterpillars, aphids and flies. They feed the chewed remains to their grubs back at the nest. The last five years have been really bad for wasps; either the hibernating queens have

Despite the weather's attempts at snow over the Easter weekend, everything is now on the move in my garden. The rhubarb and peony are vying with each other to produce the longest and reddest shoots. A wren seems to be taking special interest

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

zigzagging about in the gloom.A stream of small and medium-sized moths are attracted to the kitchen lights. A few come indoors to bat gently against the lights, but most seem to pass or settle on the nearby herbage. I wonder if my amphibious friend is taking

of males will relentlessly pursue a lone female trying to go about her business of nectar and pollen gathering.The females make small tunnel nests in loose mortar, so old garden walls are better than new. I've no idea where they can be nesting round here

't worked out a use for them in the garden. Perhaps this engraving of a snail dragging a cart (pictured, left) will enthuse someone to put snails to work, instead of just letting them devour plants in the herbaceous border. In case you can't read the small

A bit of garden clearance in the rain is always therapeutic. Working off a good lunch and feeling the drip of water down my neck, I feel my endeavours are all the more noble. Actually all I'm doing is ripping the vine out of the apple tree it's been