It forms a mildew which attacks the leaves and the white, felt-like powder blows in the wind and quickly spreads.

It's a mystery where the disease has come from, but gardeners are urged to dig up and destroy any affected plants before we're busy lizzy-less.

The next crisis concerns bees. It's been a disaster for the British bee over recent years, so much so that there's concern that we won't have any left before long.

They've been dying out and hives are not being replaced.

Not only is this depleting the amount of British honey available, sending prices soaring, it's also raising real problems for next year's crops.

If there are no bees around there will be no pollination.

The next major worry is an attack on our horse chestnut trees.

If you've driven along Warren Road, Worthing, recently at its junction with Links Road, you'll see a line of trees looking decidedly poorly.

They're under attack from the grub of the horse chestnut leaf miner.

The moth grows to just 5mm, but its grubs devour the leaves of the trees, causing them to go brown and fall earlier then usual.

The moth was first spotted in northern Greece in the 1970s and has now spread to southern England.

It's making the trees' conkers smaller, because the trees are starved of the nutrients needed to grow the conkers because of a lack of leaves.

The problem is that with world-wide travel now the norm, any new problem arising anywhere in the world can be so easily spread.

It's the same with bird flu and any other new bug which rears its head and threatens us.
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In the past natural forces have rectified problems, but man's increased tinkering goes well beyond the planet's ability to heal.