The days grow shorter and more autumnal and one morning near the end of August the thermometer looked suspiciously close to a frost. We still manage to get a good two hours out in the garden in the evening. Hedge cutting is the activity taking our time now. I looked out of the window when drawing the down stairs curtains and found myself looking at a young buck having his breakfast off the lawn (it needs mowing).

We have grown a number of wildflowers in our garden border, we didn't plant them but left them as they filled up a space and looked pretty. Being self seeders I suspect that many have been brought in by the birds. They had the added advantage of being the right plant for the type of soil (very sandy) and don't appear to be threatened by slugs; and the insects like them which is all to the good.

Self heal usually has small bright purple flowers but about ten years ago a pink variety had self seeded and shown up in the border. It was doing no harm where it was so we left it there; years on, it has reverted to Common Purple. Common Mallow has grown for the second year in a row, it grows to about two feet and puts on a spectacular show that lasts for a number of weeks. We always have some foxgloves in the garden, white as well  as purple, but these usually appear near the corner of the house; the bumble bees love them. Red Campions have made a patch of the garden all their own and put up a welcome splash of bright colour. We also have the usual wild flowers, nettles (good for the caterpillars) dandylions, bindweed, which despite it's invasive properties has pleasant white trumpet flowers, and yellow evening primrose, which, logically, opens in the evening; it is good for moths.

Hawksweed, which have a yellow dandylion like flower usually spread all over the lawn if we don't mow it. Common small white daisies can also give a pleasant friendly display on a spring morning. There are plenty more wild flowers in and around our patch; after all, the flowers in our borders are just wild ones that have been domesticated.

We have noticed a lack of bees this year, other friends have remarked that they haven't seen many ladybirds. This is bad for the gardeners as bees pollinate the blossom and flowers and the ladybirds eat the aphids.  I suspect the very cold snap that we had in late April/early May is to blame as previously there had been a warmer spell of weather that had given a false sense impending warmer days. I have also not seen a single wasp this year which again is bad news as they do eat many flies.

Butterflies on the other hand have had a good year, many of them don't emerge till later on in the spring and so escape the late frosts. There is also an abundance of grass hoppers which blend in very well with the longer grass but if you try to get close they put in a gigantic hop as you get near, which means that you can follow and watch only. They live for about five months on a diet of grass and die when the weather gets colder but they leave eggs in the soil which survive the winter and these hatch into nymphs in the spring.

Diana and Richard Terry