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

Under some concrete rubble in a wasteland in La Paz, towards the tip of the arid peninsula of Baja California, was the site of one of the most memorable and peculiar herpetological encounters of my li

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

Our new columnist on the joys of untidy gardening in April and how she stops slugs in their tracks

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

The common toad has always enjoyed a special place in our national imagination, but its numbers have been declining alarmingly in recent decades. What can be done? Sarah Langford investigates