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from memory I’d have to say that frogs outnumber toads 10 to one.Whenever I speak to anyone about frogs or toads, they are always slightly amazed that their pond-free garden should contain them. But, of course, amphibians only need a pond during

they are transformed by the arrival of tonnes of imported topsoil and a bewildering rainbow of garden plants, for Gardeners' World Live.Whilst I was there I was asked to research and create a container of plants to attract wildlife, and despite the rain, it looked

The fabulous fine weather of Sunday saw me in the garden trimming back a rose bush that was reaching threateningly across the path at head height. Suddenly something other than a branch of thorns caught my eye - a dark flitting creature an inch long

I'm on my way through the old city of Strasbourg, and gardens here are vanishingly small. The occasional secret courtyard houses a giant ginkgo or has its walls swathed in lobelia and Virginia creeper. The breakfast patio at the Hotel du Dragon has

-ties, but only in discrete burgundy or navy blue, with extremely subtle spot patterns. I am rather nosy and have a tendency to stare. Oh, and I like insects. So when the cry is uttered from the end of the garden: “Weird red bug”, there is only one response, I

questions online about me and my garden I can now download factsheets containing advice on how to attract and benefit wildlife.Out in my garden there is already a good deal going on. I've noticed the green shieldbugs in my garden are all purple. Saturday

season for me to name whatever was brought my way.It was the Nunhead Cemetery Open Day (it's more like a fete really) and for the umpteenth year we ran the now famous Bug Hunt. It's very easy: the kids collect a plastic container, look for bugs

.Although we've had frogs and toads in the garden for years, they've never bred successfully, and we've never had tadpoles in our small pond. I'm hoping the newts will have better luck. Since I re-made the pond after its leak last year, we've not had much else

Saturday afternoon and the doorbell rings. It's the neighbours. They haven't come round to complain about me noisily chasing nearly four-year-old up and down the lawn; they have a prize to show. I immediately recognize the plastic container as one