A year ago here in Britain we had reports in at least two of our national papers, but also in London’s own daily newspaper of people showing signs of swollen limbs and infected wounds after sitting out in their little piece of garden paradise, chatting with friends around the fountain. They were being bitten they thought by a flying insect. Now Britain has got to be one of the least likely places in the world where you'll find monster mutant bugs, least of all in the capital. So for us this was serious business. Was it some new species of foreign insect breezing in on freak wind conditions or knocked off course by some distant volcanic activity. Not a bit of it! Turns out it had been in our backyard all the time. It’s just that until summer 2010 it had really only been found in a part of the countryside in Dorset at a village called Blandford on the river Stour. So it's called the Blandford fly or Black fly because it's black.

This critter was turning up way out of place and some people were even asking whether it was what had bitten them as far away as the West coast of Scotland. The question was why it had travelled from its lush green favourite spot in the countryside to our air- freshed environmentally unfriendly capital city. The answer suggested: the summer weather conditions AND the increasing popularity of garden water features! Apparently they're so like the fly’s home that they can’t tell the difference. So it seems we've only got ourselves to blame. We set off with the best of intentions to green up our cities by kick starting the environment in our gardens and land ourselves with puffed up bitten legs.

What are we supposed to do? Dig up our waterfalls and ponds; take our fountains to the nearest car boot sale. Maybe look for some garden water feature recycling scheme? Pave the whole garden and get some decking in place. I’m asking - how do you stop this fly! It's not pleasant at all being bitten by one of these things. Last year though, as far as I can remember, the weather was fairly similar to this year and we’ve still got our gardens with their water features. Yet I've not seen a word in the media about the Blandford fly biting people this summer. When you come to think of it how have the poor people of Blandford been coping all these years.

So maybe the best option is don't give up on your plans for a garden water feature and don't get rid of one, unless it's to get another. Get in touch with somebody in Blandford for their advice first! They’ll probably offer you some of the local award winning ale and the likelihood is that they've got garden water features too.

For my money the chances of making a good day out for the Blandford fly are something I'm willing to take given the mass of environmentally friendly improvements and numerous other benefits that I can bring to my life and garden when I've got a garden water feature up and running.