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After last week's excitement about the ladybird party on the BBC allotment, I was delighted to learn that the UK Ladybird Survey had a stand at this year’s Gardeners' World Live.There’s always a few wildlife charities at the show and each year I

morning when I find it skulking around the plant pots.I like cats, despite the havoc they wreak on wildlife. I don’t blame them for their murderous tendencies, and – touch wood – I’ve never experienced any using my garden as a litter tray. But I do worry

There are so few plants that do well in my small, shady garden, but those that do thrive deserve a medal. This week, honesty is taking centre stage, with its tall spires of brilliant white flowers, towering above more subtle spring blooms.I love

of ants scaled this giant, slicing through branches with their machines.I was quite upset but, ever the optimist, I used the opportunity to collect some local, native logs to make a nice wildlife habitat in my mum’s garden. I was sure she wouldn’t mind

Last year I wrote about autumn tidying and the effect this can have on wildlife. I left my garden untouched over winter, leaving hibernating creatures snuggled under a duvet of fallen leaves and rotting stems. None of my plants died or were ravaged

in the waste below.It's remarkable how much life a compost bin can attract. Books will tell you that a compost heap is one of the best garden features to attract wildlife but, somehow, this 'life' inside the bin can go unnoticed.We gardeners normally only

this invasion to be extremely unfair.So what to do? Pesticides applied every spring and autumn will kill the larvae. But I worry that the active ingredient (thiacloprid - a nicotinoid compound related to imidacloprid) also kills bees and other wildlife (you can

skips for more wood and was experimenting with designs for robins, wrens and starlings. In the wild, birds nest in a variety of situations such as holes in trees and hedgerows, which tend not to be that abundant in gardens. A snug box with an appropriate

is habitat loss in urban areas, caused by the paving of front gardens and the building over of back gardens. Changes in farming practices, such as the widespread use of pesticides, are also cited.There are quite a few moths in my garden. I love seeing them

I recently had the pleasure of meeting Europe’s smallest bird. I would have expected such an occasion to take place in a pine forest or a large rural garden, but this chance encounter occurred on a scrubby piece of park just behind the Hackney Road