We celebrate and encourage wildlife and diversity at our community garden so we don't use any pesticides, killer chemicals or harmful deterrents. Most crop damage can be controlled with a bit of imagination.

One of the peskiest pests at our community garden are the Muntjacs who come onto the site from the neighbouring common land. They will nibble newly planted crops and love the fresh new growth of courgettes and pumpkins. So, we've built these 'spiders' from our own cut willow to protect the plants as they establish.

The plants will grow through the spiders and will be strong enough to take some nibbling once they get bigger.

The other crop that the Munjac will nibble is sweetcorn. So we surround the sweetcorn plot with high deer fence netting.

Once the sweetcorn cobs develop on the plants, they are a real treat for rats and mice too who can get through the deer fencing. So we use spiral tree guards to slip onto the cobs, which will expand whilst the cobs grow and protect the sweet treats from nibblers.

We use fine mesh netting to protect brassica crops from birds and cabbage white butterflies. We first build a frame from chicken wire and attach the fine mesh.

The tiny Kale plants are safe under the netting until they get bigger then we will place a larger net frame built from pallet wood over them. Any netting must be kept tight so frogs, birds and other wildlife doesn't get entangled.

Our other young, fresh crop plants, such as our runner beans can be surrounded with chicken wire til they get big enough to cope with a bit of nibbling.

So, there's lots of ways to share your growing space with wildlife and still grow fantastic crops.