Life in the garden

[charlieart66]

Does having lots of birds flying around and bees buzzing in your garden help he way that it grows? are there some apparent nice animals/bugs that should be avoided?

[Miranda]

Birds and bees certainly help, Charlie. The birds eat a lot of pest insects that would otherwise damage plants and the bees polinate flowers which then produce seed or fruit.

Some birds can be quite naughty, especially in spring. In my garden, I've seen sparrows peck off all the flowers on a primrose and leave them lying on the ground. They also shredded a grass plant for nesting material and left it looking like a green hedgehog. A starling came and took off every new bit of growth from a lavender plant and flew off with them. And, coaltits plant sunflower seeds in places where they don't fit, like round the edges of containers.

Saying that, I'd rather see the birds being naughty than not see any at all. The plants recovered, and we ended up with a few sunflowers in odd places, so it didn't really matter.