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It comes as no surprise to me that slugs and snails have been voted the most-hated garden pests in the Gardeners' World Awards. Surely no garden in the country can be immune from their devastating activities, unless it's a garden covered in concrete

The caterpillars of the oak processionary moth are a real pest, but I couldn't contemplate killing them. I find myself in this situation regularly. So many so-called pests are creatures I'm quite happy to live alongside and I do so without a second

I'm an animal lover. I love them all - be they wild, domesticated, farm animals, even pests. My vote always seems to go with those naturally decked in fur or feathers, scales or indeed exoskeletons. It's not always easy; I try to eat a fair

Hi, I noticed while gardening today that all my rhododendron bushes are covered in black stuff on the leaves.  It looks like it would wash off, or maybe mould or polution (!) even though we don't live in a heavily poluted area!!!  I have a feeling that it is some sort of disease,...

harsh sun. Organic gardeners usually refer to companion plants as those deterring pests in some way. Tagetes planted alongside tomatoes and crops is a good example, where the strong pungent scent of the tagetes foliage helps mask the scent of the crop

Every year the RHS publishes a list of popular pests: popular in that they are the ones about whom the RHS entomologists have had the most enquiries. Top of the charts this year are slugs and snails (everybody's bête noir) followed by the harlequin

'd venture, briefly and very amateurishly, into Pippa's territory to see what pests are doing their best to blight my garden. I'm not brilliant at such things, and quake inside when people bear down on me, clutching festering leaves in polythene bags. A very

and the leaves of the plants. With my perverse interest in pests and pathogens, I find blight quite interesting. And this year has been especially interesting, as both the crop and the disease thrived. Next year, Suttons Seeds is launching a new tomato called

of satisfaction. I'm always keen to attract wildlife, and I'm pleased that this time it worked. Old nesting material can harbour diseases, pests and parasites, which can carry over from one season to the next if it's not removed. So I need to get the ladder out

Hi All! I have a back wall and fence with ivy and wild aspargus vine and as I understand it the Ivy gives off a fluid in it's roots that stops other plants growing near it. Most of it is holding up some dead Elms along with the wild asparagus vine which is seriously invasive it's...