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I'm on my way through the old city of Strasbourg, and gardens here are vanishingly small. The occasional secret courtyard houses a giant ginkgo or has its walls swathed in lobelia and Virginia creeper. The breakfast patio at the Hotel du Dragon has

When we moved into our previous house, in Nunhead, there was some small, but well-established growth of Japanese knotweed in the back garden. It took four years of pulling up stalks and roots to get rid of it … at least I think we got rid of it

My 2010 garden tally of butterfly species is now up to six. We've had single visits from large white, comma, peacock and small tortoiseshell. They obviously didn't find much of interest in my garden, so dipped down, bustled about one circuit

, but the discovery in 2011 that small tortoiseshell numbers had gone down by 68% in 10 years was pretty shocking. It has always been received wisdom that common generalist ‘garden’ species, like the small tort, were protected from some of the frightening declines

in the moist soil is a wireworm. I know these are supposed to be notorious garden and agricultural pests, but like so many insects, I can't really treat them as pests unless they reach pest proportions. A few of last year's potatoes had small holes in them

I got up out of my sick bed to post this, I hope you know. Our brief dusting of snow may have gone, but it was too grim and grey to go exploring in the garden after hibernating ladybirds or flat-backed millipedes. Instead, I ventured upstairs

I was in Peckham Rye Park on Monday and saw a wagtail strutting about by the small stream that runs past. They're not rare birds, but I watched it for some time thinking I had not seen one in ages. Although maybe not really a suburban garden bird

bisection. I could just picture it ... very curious small boy sitting in the garden holding up a pair of scissors saying: "But daddy, you told me ...".

, and are not implicated in the spread of any diseases. For the benefit of gardeners everywhere, these small but handsome insects are active almost all year round. It might be something to do with their furry coats.PS. Dungfly, dung-fly or dung fly? This is a tricky area

-escape balcony, over the block of back gardens, to see if I can spot any life anywhere. And with perfect timing, announced by a series of metallic ‘tsit tsit tsit’ notes, a small gang of titmice comes bobbing over the hedges and lands in next-door’s cherry tree