Our march on Parliament with

Today I’m marching with The People’s Walk for Wildlife. Billed as a celebration of life, it’s also a call to arms to stop the decline of many species, with a group of us – headed by Chris Packham – marching on Westminster with a manifesto for change.

As a country, we’re haemorrhaging our wildlife. Some species are already extinct while others, such as the hedgehog, soprano pipistrelle bat and several species of moth, are well on their way to extinction, having suffered declines of nearly 100 per cent in less than 50 years. Bees and butterflies are vanishing from previously abundant areas, skies are emptying of birds, bats and – crucially – their insect food. Time is running out to save them. The causes of these declines include:

The widespread use of pesticides and herbicides;

The grubbing out of hedgerows; Deforestation (including the deforestation of our cities’ street trees);

Excessive tidiness (both in our gardens and in our public spaces); and Loss of green spaces in urban areas. A group of 17 “ministers” has written this manifesto, with each of us calling for change within a specific field of expertise. Read the document and you’ll find a minister for natural culture and education, a minister for wildlife crime, a minister for trees and another for pesticides. As minister for urban spaces, my job is concerned with the loss of green spaces in urban areas, specifically the loss of gardens to paving, decking and fake turf, as well as “garden grabbing” and home extensions. You’ll find the grim statistics in the manifesto.

As gardeners we have the potential to stall and even reverse some of the declines. We can cut holes in our fences to allow hedgehogs to pass through, plant nectar-rich flowers for pollinators and grow caterpillar foodplants for butterflies and moths (and the birds, bats, hedgehogs and frogs that eat them). We can dig a pond, let areas of grass grow long and put up bird boxes.

I did this in my garden and in my book, The Bumblebee Flies Anyway: A Year of Gardening and (Wild)Life (Bloomsbury, £16.99), I document its transformation from decked, barren “courtyard” into thriving wildlife oasis. I watched the birds, butterflies, bees and moths return, and dragonflies and damselflies lay eggs in a pond that wasn’t there just two months previously. I know, first-hand, how quickly we can turn this around.

But, as much as I can dream of a nation of gardeners teaming up to