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The mullein moth caterpillars in my garden are still small, but they're guaranteed to increase in size by the day. These little critters - welcomed by wildlife enthusiasts and hated by gardeners - munch their way through verbascum, figwort

're the size of a small postage stamp, or a sprawling country estate. Like many gardeners in January, I'm thinking about the things I'd like to change. These plans are known around here as mummy's 'New Year revolutions' — because like most resolutions, they get

to kill. But I've started to feel some very untoward thoughts about a certain visitor to our garden. The sparrowhawk is a huge creature, with beautiful regal plumage. But rather like the excessively good-looking human, it has a less attractive side. I

. But it was the gardens and floral displays that put a smile on my family's faces. I always thought that gardening and floral displays were pretty well an English obsession, but comparing what we saw along the roads and lanes, and indeed in people's front gardens, I

Like many gardeners at this time of year, I can normally be found in the garden with my head in a bag of compost. I'm not hiding from the taxman, or even two noisy kids - I'm just trying to get some seeds sown. Sowing seeds is a task that should

' and 'Lane Roberts', the smaller, lesser-known cultivars are just as worthy of admiration. Acers are a good option for those with small gardens, as they can be grown in pots.I'll certainly be tempted to add more autumn trees to the collection I have growing

-fruiting winter cherry, a mini skimmia and some beautiful silver-leafed cinneraria. A trip to the garden centre added to the loot with winter flowering pansies, some small variegated ivies and a job lot of spring bulbs.I don’t really like winter cherries, worse

, and the children are always impressed by how both male and female parents feed their young. Sparrows may be small, brown and not particularly exciting to look at, but I love them. They melt my heart, they really do. I know some gardeners are driven crazy

am sad to see the back of summer (what summer?!!). But there is something else I am pleased about, in a perverse, time-saving sort of a way.Snails - not the small ones or the medium sized ones, just the large vegetable and ornamental plant

by leek moth. More and more gardeners have been asking about this small but potentially devastating pest at recordings of Gardeners’ Question Time, and at talks I have given.The caterpillars of the moth cause horrible, discoloured patches on the leek