Just a note in favour of ants. They are really good at spreading Hepatica nobilis, and I suspect they move around quite a lot of other seeds. Woodpeckers also like them. In a wild garden they fill a good function, but perhaps not for everyone. We have a big ant-heap in our woodland and I can't say I've thought of it as a problem, but I don't like them when they try and invade the house even I have my limits! The nicest thing to happen in our garden this year is that we got Melampyrum nemorosum (Wood Cow-wheat) going, perhaps the ants will move those aroud too. On the bulb side, Scilla non-scripta is spreading well, Iris germanica have finally started flowering well, it's taken them several years. Cypripedium calceolus had a poor year, I might have to move them On the other hand Cypripedium reginae did well. We have wild Platanthera chlorantha (Butterfly orchid) that moved in a few years ago, and they started really well, but then a drought period got most of them. The Lily beetles (Lillioceris lilii) have quietly chewed their way around our lilies without making a big nuissance, the slugs have been bad, like the roe deer, but nothing terrible happened. On the whole a good year. /Neil (rambling from Swedens west coast).