By 15 March this year, my neighbour with his bad knee had already cut his lawn twice. By the end of the year, I bet he will have done it 30 times.

Now I know that for some people a pristine bowling-green lawn is one of their biggest prides in life, but for most in our time-stretched society it is a downright chore.

There's no good scientific reason why a piece of grass needs to be chopped to within a millimetre of its…

In gardening for wildlife, as well as there being the right times to do things and the wrong times, there are some things which I think are worth doing even if you've missed the perfect slot.

So, having been bound up in pond creation for most of the last six months, one job of mine that has slipped past its prescribed timeframe has been putting up my new birdboxes.

Valentine's Day is said to be the prime time, so…

Last week I revealed the results of the first five months of slog last summer and autumn digging my new garden pond. Inspired by the amazing ponds I had seen in the gardens of Sue Camm and Ennis & Richard Chappell (as featured in Nature's Home), I had pledged to be as ambitious as I felt possible.

But could I create a pond that would buzz with wildlife?

By November 2015, the shape was created, with loads of…

It's now six months since I started work on my most ambitious pond ever. I've almost finished tidying the edging so I thought it was nigh time that I revealed progress so far.

Here's the first half of what I believe these days would be called 'a journey'!

1. This was the view from the house before work began. The Handkerchief Tree centre left was cut to a tall stump as it was threatening the house;…