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, butterflies and hoverflies. Its strong scent can also deter aphids. Plant with carrots and leeks to confuse pests.LavenderWormwood, Artemisia absinthium, is a strongly scented herb that can deter aphids and flea beetles from attacking neighbouring plants. Its

as well as attracting large numbers of bees and hoverflies. You are very lucky! I've not received the first seed catalogue but expected to within the next week. I'll just have to hope the mailman doesn't keep them all to himself.

them outside the bin and that was when they arrived. When I moved house I brought my compost heap with me, and one rainy evening I watched two fat, yellow slugs slither down the wall to move into their new home.A couple of weeks ago I watched a hoverfly

candied stems to decorate cakes. Early flowering and rich in nectar, angelica is a vital food source for early bees and hoverflies. Birds also eat its seeds in autumn.AngelicaCarum carvi is a hardy biennial with feathery bright green leaves. It produces

year - just watch how the hoverflies love the flowers

problem in the way that wasps might be.   You'd get lovely perfume and butterflies too. I once planted a border along the path in my back garden with lavender. It attracted many bees and also hoverflies. I went to the line with a basket of washing one day

discovered that they are in fact flies and are parasitic on solitary bees and wasps and beetles. fortunately they don't sting. Has anyone else seen these? Hoverflies? http://syrphidae.3644.co.uk/ Bee flies 'bombyliidae' often seen around primroses in early

and hoverfly and their larvae. The larvae can eat up to 300 aphids before becoming an adult, so ensuring you have plenty of these in your garden will keep aphid populations in check. You can attract ladybirds, lacewings and hoverflies into your garden

, not much helped by examination of dictionaries or spell-checkers. Originally there were hover-flies, snipe-flies, house-flies and blow-flies, which were all flies, and dragonflies and butterflies which were not. Now the hoverfly people use one word along

No, it’s not quite time for hibernation yet. Just a bit of sun in the garden and all kinds of intriguing insects are out again. I thought maybe I’d seen the last of this year’s hoverflies, but a drowsy marmalade fly, Episyrphus balteatus