Plants and insects

Plants provide a range of habitats that suit different types of life, including creepy crawlies and flying insects, which in turn support creatures higher up the food chain, including hedgehogs, birds and bats.

Like 'em or loathe 'em, insects are essential, with many being vital pollinators, enabling gardeners and farmers alike to produce crops of peas, beans, tomatoes and fruit. In fact, a third of the world's food crops require insect pollinators - without them our plant diet would be much more limited (cabbage, root crops, and cereals). Bulking up seed would also be more difficult.

For this reason, wildlife gardeners choose to minimise their use of pesticides, to avoid killing essential insects along with the pests. Although garden chemicals are rigorously tested for their effect on humans and other creatures, and are supposedly safe, it is harder to test for cumulative and synergistic effects from the use of many different types of chemical in combination with weather patterns and other factors. So the precautionary principle is best.

Biological pest control

In fact some pests are actually good guys for part of their life, which is why timing is so important. For example, in the spring, wasps eat greenfly and other aphids, keeping down these sap-suckers, and it is only in late summer when they are searching for sugar that they become a nuisance to us when we're trying to enjoy a picnic. Kill them early on in their lives and you remove one of nature's pest controllers.

Some pests lurking in the garden can be controlled with natural predators, as can many in greenhouses. Biological pest controls are sold by specialist suppliers. Once pests are spotted, you can release these creatures to devour the pests, keeping your crops and your diet as organic as possible.