Of course things aren’t always joyful in the garden. There's a rabbit who has appeared recently and he's systematically eating my plants, not whole plants of course, bits of them, a munch here, a munch there - munch, munch, munch - as if attending a finger buffet. Very cute he is too sitting there munching away. All bunny like and cuddly.

I spotted him through the kitchen window the other morning. He sat in the flower bed grinning inanely at me through a mouthful of Oriental Poppy, so I banged on the window in a most vigorous way. We can't be having this sort of behaviour in the garden, now can we?

He looked across at me, spat out the Oriental Poppy, then moved on to my prized Lupin (Russell Mixed), unfazed by the violent hammering on the kitchen window. He bit off the stem too - chewed the flowers to a pulp. Now I was fond of that Lupin, a fine upstanding perennial it was, and one that had given me many weeks of bright colours on dreary summer days. What a way to go? Having survived slug attacks, strong winds and occasional battering from the dogs, only to be scoffed by a 'ruddy' rabbit. I was enraged, hopping mad in fact, and so - in a 'hopping mad' sort of way - I continued with my frenzied banging on the glass.

He cocked his head to one side, however, unconcerned, more amused than anything else, quite clearly a rabbit without a care in the world. Then I let the dogs out. This should have done the trick, only it didn't, for the dogs were clearly in no mood to tangle with a visiting rabbit and ran off to bark at the dog next door! Useless, completely useless. So I rushed outside myself, charged straight at him in fact, 'no messing', at which point he took off sedately hopping in the direction of the shed to disappear into a hole dug under the corner. Now I was very tempted to find a great big rock to cover that hole but I felt sorry for the poor rabbit – I mean we are in a drought and well the poor things need to eat but I thought he would have got the message with me giving chase but it wasn't the end of it either, oh no, because he returns on a regular basis to haunt me and to taunt me.

Now - as you know - there's very little that a rabbit won't eat from your garden, for despite the fact that many leaflets and books have been written about the culinary preferences of rabbits (and rabbits for that matter) - what they will and will not eat - and some by eminent specialists in the field, they'll actually taste everything. It's simple really. Until you've tasted something, you don't know whether you like it or whether you don't, and each individual rabbit will have its own particular favourites (much like you or I) which is a factor often over-looked by the pest control experts. Terry doesn’t like cauliflower cheese, but I do. I enjoy 'dollops' of tomato sauce, but Terry doesn't. This holds true for a rabbit when it comes to plants. They don't like Buddleias, I discovered, and they don't like potato leaves either, but if enough rabbits take a single bite before making that decision then your plants and your vegetables are in deep trouble.

My rabbit (and thank goodness there's only one at the moment) has eaten Parsley (that was a surprise), Fennel (even more of a surprise), Mints, Lupins, Geums, Cerastiums, Pinks….. in fact the list is endless. But he hasn't touched the Fuchsias or the Hostas yet. Why not? Saving them for later, I suspect, by which time I shall hopefully plug up all the holes in the garden fence so that his friends don’t pay us a visit. My only dread is that such a laid-back rabbit without a care multiplies over time into more of the same. Now I must check through the window and see what he's up to.