Whenever you read an old gardening book (written decades ago) you realise that gardeners then were much more in tune with nature than we are today. Many of you, for instance, will have lacewings trying to hibernate in your house. I used to take these creatures for granted until I read a Victorian gardening book about a walled garden.

The garden boy (who usually got all the rotten jobs) was sent out to look for lacewing larvae, or ‘lions’ as they were called in the book. He had to collect as many as he could find and bring them into the greenhouse to tackle the aphids and other pests on the vines.

Lacewing ‘lions’ are like ridged maggots and they are as long as a small caterpillar with hairy faces. I had never seen a lacewing larva when I read the book some ten years ago and my quest that summer was to find one. I did just that, but I’ve only managed to glimpse a few since — always in July. They are very voracious and consume aphids before your very eyes. Whenever I show my slides to gardeners they gasp at this aphid-munching monster.

Buglife (01733 201 210/www.buglife.org.uk) are a very informative group and they have lots of information on their website about insect life, including lacewings. There are 76 British species and 75 are lacewings and these are normally associated with trees and shrubs. One species is called the antlion. These dig cone-shaped pits in loose sandy soil and they feed on the ants that fall in. Entomologists are fascinated by bizarre facts and most start when young. According to Buglife, lacewings and antlions only do one poo in their entire life because the larvae and adults do not have bottoms. The poo is left behind in the pupal skin when the adult hatches out. These are so large and distinctive they can be used to identify the species.

The magazine Amateur Gardening used to have an editor called C. H. Middleton. He was the author of a wartime book called Digging for Victory (still available) and he was a well-loved radio broadcaster. In fact he was the Alan Titchmarsh of his day. In one of his books he talks about leaving bright-yellow cotton wool (should you find any) as these are the cocoons of Britain’s most important cabbage white caterpillar predator — Cotesia glomerata. Mr Middleton was an amazingly wise gardener. You may have one of his books on your shelf if you were gardening in the 1950s.

My gardening guru of the 1960s was Shewell Cooper (1900-1982) who wrote at least 30 books, including a gardening encyclopedia. Shewell Cooper was famous for pioneering no-dig gardening in Britain. He founded the Good Gardeners Association and was a founding member of the Soil Association. His garden, at Arkley Manor near Barnet, attracted 10,000 visitors a year and he travelled the world explaining organic gardening. Recently I came across his son Ramsay while in conversation with a modern exponent of no-dig gardening — Charles Dowding. Ramsay still practises no-dig gardening and he has a demonstration plot at Capel Manor College in Enfield. The main picture shows them both.

Modern gardeners could do with more practical wisdom instead of the celebrity-led television that seems to impart little. If only one could resurrect Mr Middleton and Mr Shewell Cooper.