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The only wildlife I've seen this week has been the rather dead-life brought in by the cats - three and a half mice and a rat not much smaller than our guinea pig. I'm more or less calm that we have mice in the compost bins, but I'm uneasy about

had a ragged ball of spawn, but it quickly disintegrated into an opaque white mess, and no tadpoles ever resulted. We often see frogs of various sizes, under flower pots, behind the compost bins, or hopping about in the more unkempt bits of the flower

. Within three minutes she was back with a squeaking victim. I chucked it back into the compost bin to tell its mates to stay out of the way next year.

, up against the fence and they trample—audibly—inside the compost bins. But they never get into any trouble. I wonder if I'm asking for trouble by wondering what all the fuss is about?It's the time of year when they start coming indoors. Always an odd

in planks that have become perennially damp and infected with fungus or mould. Our raised beds were the perfect habitat.The new beds are now looking very smart, ready to receive this year’s produce. The mouldering timber has been dumped beside the compost

queen buff-tailed bumblebee, was examining the compost heap; I guess she was searching out a suitable hibernation site. Every now and then something else would buzz past: rosemary leaf beetles, green shieldbugs and ladybirds were all very active

, a broken watering can and the rabbit's litter tray (which was very conveniently shaped I have to say). I've kept some of the pondweed in a bucket and spread the rest on a plastic sheet before I get rid of it on the compost heap. Not surprisingly

, then racing them before letting them go behind the compost bin.Snails can be educational too. Putting one on a pane of glass allows you to see the rippling muscles of the foot as the gastropod glides forward. Most people are perplexed to see that the ripples

writhing wireworm to, so I chucked it into the compost heap with the groundsel. Plenty of old roots in there.

great when we'd finished. It was a good work-out too, carrying huge terracotta pots, compost, bricks, stones, logs and plants halfway across Birmingham.It only took half an hour to put everything together, but even before we placed the first log