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Last year was a disaster for the British butterfly - see here for Butterflies in danger after disastrous 2012.

Professional gardeners and landscapers won't need reminding of the consequences of last year's washout. At least we had vans to sit in and the option to wear some kind of waterproof coverall; that's if we ever needed to leave the house at all.

Wildlife is much more exposed to the vagaries of the British weather and, according to Butterfly Conservation, last year was extremely damaging for butterflies.

How you can help

Dr Tom Brereton, Head of Monitoring at Butterfly Conservation, said: “2012 was a catastrophic year for almost all of our butterflies, halting progress made through our conservation efforts in recent years.

“Butterflies have proved before that given favourable conditions and the availability of suitable habitat they can recover, but with numbers in almost three-quarters of UK species at a historically low ebb any tangible recovery will be more difficult than ever.”

If you are designing and/or planning a project this year then why not think of ways of helping the beleaguered butterfly by introducing the right habitat to help them thrive??