A messy garden is a glorious garden. We need to stop tidying, titivating and paving them over | Emma Beddington

I’ve just watched another of my neighbours rip up everything green and growing around their home. It’s enough to make David Attenborough weep It’s noisy outside. I forget over winter how loud the garden gets when the imperatives of shagging, fighting for territory, then raising babies become urgent – the sparrows are kicking off, the tits are fighting a turf war and competing wood pigeons are cooing to seduce Susan, the escaped wedding dove who lives on our roof. When I sat in the sun yesterd...

By Emma Beddington