There are two gardens to the left of my garden and one to the right. The three adjoining gardens are extremely neat and tidy - whilst mine is a 'jungle' (I prefer to think of it as a 'nature reserve'.

One year the lady who owned the extreme left hand garden spotted a rat - and promptly went 'apeshit'! Soon news of this rodent intrusion was all over the neighbourhood. In the fullness of time fingers were pointing at me because jungles and nature = vermin ... don't they?

To cut a long story short it eventually transpired that the lady in the adjoining left hand garden had all sorts of elaborate bird feeders hanging from every tree and bush. These were being raided by grey squirrels who, being messy eaters, were spilling bird food on to the ground below the feeders - and it was this spilled food that was attracting the rats. I spotted this from my kitchen window and all I had to do was to tell the lady with the garden to the right of mine ...and soon I was left to cultivate(or not) my jungle in peace.