Far from being mere pests, snails are at the heart of a healthy garden ecosystem. Discover the many ways they contribute and how you can work with – not against – them for a thriving plot

Position logs randomly around garden borders rather than in neat piles to recreate the way they fall naturally from trees in the wild. You could artfully arrange them around spring-flowering plants or

Professor Buczacki is a borticultural expert, weiter and former chair of Gardeners Question Time

Handsome, chunky and often brightly marked, shieldbugs emerge in spring, quietly shaping the life of hedgerow and garden

Whether mutually beneficial or a parasitic nuisance, Nature’s symbiotic relationships are as multifarious as they are marvellous, says John Lewis-Stempel

Adrian Thomas outlines the simplest and most effective ways to help accommodate these important guests