There is never a shortage of visitors to the garden behind John and Jenny Van de Pette’s 400-year-old thatched cottage in Hampshire. From swans and ducks to otters and water voles, it is a rare day indeed when a walk around the two-and-a-half acre plot doesn’t result in a wild encounter. This daily dose of nature is a just reward for the couple’s years of hard work reclaiming their garden from the brambles and nettles that had taken hold before their arrival; not to mention the World War IIaged lorry parked on the vegetable patch that required the attention of an angle grinder before it could be persuaded to leave its resting place.
From the very start, John and Jenny could see that their outside space was rich in watery habitats, whether this was the Pillhill Brook that runs past their home and under the nearby bridge, from which their
