A gardening presenter has revealed an “absolutely brilliant” item that can protect your homegrown vegetables from garden pests.

Nick Bailey, a horticulturist who worked as the head gardener at the Chelsea Physic Garden, yesterday welcomed green-fingered Gardeners’ World viewers into what he hopes will become his “forever garden”.

He explained how he’d transformed “little more than a lawn” surrounded by stone walls into a beautiful garden bursting with flowers and plant life after months of hard work.

Nick’s garden also has a vegetable patch, which he uses to grow brassica (a family that includes cabbage), potatoes, turnips and spinach, but it would appear that he’s no stranger to garden pests.

Nick said: “This mesh has been absolutely brilliant at protecting my brassicas, particularly from cabbage whites, but I’ve just taken it off because I’ve noticed one has somehow managed to get in.”

“And so there’s a little bit of caterpillar damage over there, so I need to be really careful. This veg garden has been a real experiment for me this year, basically because I ended up starting it so late.

“So, the potatoes back here, the first earlies, ended up going in about three months later than they ideally would have done, but I reckon it’s always worth an experiment because they’re just coming into flower now.”

Nick said he expected there to be a potato crop in around two weeks before he moved to a spare bed where he intends to plant a “mass” of winter vegetables.

His veggies of choice include turnips and perpetual spinach, which he explained should “hopefully” keep him “going” through the colder months.

Insect-proof mesh is a useful chemical-free method for stopping some invertebrates from eating your plants, according to the Royal Horticultural Society.

It’s particularly handy for tackling insects such as cabbage white butterflies, carrot flies and flea beetles and can even help protect your plants from the elements.

The mesh is usually made from polythene and offers plant protection without having a major impact on the temperature and may also help reduce harmful soil splash.

However, the RHS urged gardeners to rotate their crops as some pests can still pass through the mesh, with other potential disadvantages including a lack of warmth capture and increased humidity.

You can view a full breakdown on the RHS website here.