Pink wildflowers are a fundamental feature of gardens in June. Foxgloves are one of our most spectacular native wildflowers and the garden cultivars can't compare with the wild form. Red campion, Silene diocia, is a similar shade of pink and makes an ideal companion, while ragged robin, Lychnis flos-cuculi, is an even deeper pink with delicately cut petals that will brighten up the damper corners of the garden. The buzz of a bumble-bee foraging inside all of these flowers for the precious nectar is one of the great sounds of early summer.

Butterflies also add to the colour scheme. Speckled wood butterflies, gatekeepers, ringlets and meadow browns are on the wing this month, bringing a touch of sleepy countryside into the city garden. From a distance they may look rather dull, but wait quietly for a close-up view and you'll see how exquisite their subtle wing markings really are.

Hedgehog families are out and about this month, with youngsters fresh out of the nest and keen to learn how to hunt for their own food. If you are lucky enough to have these charming creatures in your neighbourhood, try offering them a mix of cat food and crushed dog biscuits around dusk every evening. With luck, the hedgehog family will then adopt you as a regular soft touch. During a period dry weather, their normal diet of worms and slugs will retreat underground, so your offerings could make all the difference to the survival of the young hedgehogs.

Hoverflies are attracted to single open flowers and flat umbels with easily accessible pollen. Their larvae repay the compliment by devouring aphids.

Hoverflies are some of the most useful creatures in the garden and, if you avoid the use of pesticides and grow the nectar plants they prefer, you could attract numerous different species.

California poppies, <PLANTID=1264>Eschscholzia californica</PLANTID>, and annual convolvulus, <PLANTID=213>Convolvus tricolor</PLANTID>, are very popular with pollinating insects. Grow them among fruit and vegetables to ensure that the hoverfly larvae are concentrated where their appetite for aphids can do the most good.

Keep a record of the number of distinctive hoverflies you see. One garden in Leicester has been closely monitored by its owner for almost 30 years, and has been visited by 93 different types.