New Zealand's Backyard Beasts | Ned Barraud Katie Daisy Cut your plants down in

Cut your plants down in mid-winter and cover with mulch and a sprinkling of slug bait and then start a feeding regime again when plants have put on around 10cm of growth

Apricot Courtier is another pretty upright grower with a sturdy stem and quite large pointed leaves with blooms are a lovely light bronze and slightly fragrant

Cephalaria gigantea also known as giant yellow scabious is a clump-forming perennial and has big 6cm wide lemon coloured flowers that are as the name suggests

a collage of vintage images including hives

New Zealand's Backyard Beasts | Ned Barraud Katie Daisy Cut your plants down inIn the garden, creeping along branches, hiding under stones or flitting from flower to flower, a whole universe of creatures is waiting to be discovered. Butterflies, moths, beetles, wasps, spiders what have you found in your backyard? Did you know that chorus cicadas live underground for most of their life? That bumblebees have smelly feet? See our book about that here That some species of stick insect are all female? Or that earwigs don't actually