Readers’ gardens

Nature’s at its best now – all the nectar-rich plants are attracting butterflies, bees and an assortment of other flying insects. Our wildflower area is alive with hatching burnet moths.

We’ve always had roses in the garden since we moved here 30 years ago, but we had a revamp in a couple of borders last year, which has allowed us to plant a lot more. The front garden, over the years, has been left to its own devices, chiefly to allow it time to grow and create a barrier against the traffic noise.

However, some of the shrubs have become overgrown and have been reduced in size and the space created filled with shrub and ground cover roses. Rose ‘Night Owl’ has been a real success, carrying masses of purple blooms. The other area where we’ve increased our stock of roses is in a border made up mainly of nectar-rich plants such as buddlejas and old-fashioned shrub and rugosa roses. These give a lovely show if they’re kept deadheaded.

A new feature I’ve been working on is a collection of herbs; the area they occupy was created by the demise of a Viburnum tinus, which suffered severe wind damage. I already had a few herbs in pots and with the addition of some new, assorted terracotta pots and some extra varieties of herbs, it has made an attractive feature that follows the line of the path to my little vegetable garden.

We’ve a pond that was ornamental when we moved here, but over the years, with the demise of the fish, it has gradually been taken over by wildlife. Frogs, newts, dragonflies and damselflies all use it for breeding. Birds use it for bathing and hedgehogs have their evening drink there.

When we’d had some substantial rainfall recently, I checked the pond to see that the overflow system was working and on one of the Iris pseudacorus leaves sat a beautiful dragonfly, its wings outstretched and covered in raindrops. On closer inspection we could see we had two nymph casts on the same leaf and another on an unfurled lily pad. We identified them as southern hawkers. Our garden is always rewarding us, with nature playing its part.

Left, my new herb spot all planted up. Right, rose ‘Night Owl’ is a real head turner

All sorts of insects loved these buddleja and roses

This six-spot burnet moth is just one of many wildlife species in the garden A gli ering dragonfly visited the pond

A Norfolk garden, with shady borders, wildlife areas and a large herbaceous bed.