There is nothing more restful than sitting in the dappled sunshine listening to the bees humming and birds singing.

Even in the smallest garden we can do our bit to encourage wildlife and help protect our insect population, especially the bees which are under threat from widespread use of pesticides and disappearing habitat.  Without them, our food chain would be compromised and the insect hierarchy would be in disarray.

We all love seeing the wide variety of garden birds that we are lucky enough to have in the UK but life is hard for these little birds and any help they can get from us is repaid by their presence in our gardens.

I feed garden birds in a variety of feeders throughout the garden but I never have to use slug pellets or pesticides as I rely on the birds as natural predators to keep the numbers down. Whilst waiting for their turn on the bird feeder, each little blue tit is perching on the nearest shrub having a quick aphid snack!

Keep them interested in your garden and black birds and thrushes will happily munch on any slugs or snails that dare to surface. The natural ecosystem needs to be balanced to work perfectly and sometimes we cannot win the war on pests without some intervention.

Try the organic route first and try to keep your garden buzzing! Here are a few of the visitors I get to my garden: