To help our orchard neighbours, I’ve sown the gaps with yellow rattle and encouraged our prolific ox-eye daisies and knapweed, all of which both feed and require insects. This whole complex of open ground interspersed with trees and bushes mimics a habitat that is scarce and previously undervalued in Britain. The best indicator of our disdain is its name: scrub. As well as a word for low and stunted trees, scrub referred to a mean, insignificant fellow, a drudge and a skin infection.