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are full of pictures of me gardening, or sometimes just my hands pruning, sowing, picking and nurturing.My local photographer Tim Sandall has been a faithful friend for many years, joining me to take pictures month in and month out, regardless

) have a voracious appetite for aphids.The other leaf-munching pests are slugs. I'm now on night patrol. Night is the easiest and best time to go out with rubber gloves and torch, picking off as many as I can find. They are then disposed of. Not, I hasten

to a warm, sunny patio. Colder autumn weather will finish off plants grown outside, but last year I was still picking fruits grown under glass in December.Of course, when it comes to chillies you must decide how much heat you can take. 'Anaheim

, at most their feeding results in a little bit of shoot distortion, so leave them alone, or if you really can't bear them, remove them by hand-picking or jetting them off with a hose.

you can pick the best as they come into bloom, and check the exact colour of their flowers, too. The other annoying thing I find when buying seeds is that often you can only find packets of mixed colours not single colours. If it's a single colour I

adaptation to the disappearance of greenery in autumn and the fact that these bugs sun themselves on brown tree trunks to warm up when they re-emerge in spring.I can't resist picking up these bumbling creatures, they're lovely. Their clockwork gait is almost

.Unfortunately, the foxes that frequented the many out-of-the-way wildlife havens along the tracks could not read the danger signs and it was not uncommon to come across the remains of one picked clean beside the rails. At one time we had a good half dozen fox skulls around

's alarm was a female. These lack the huge antler jaws of the male but still are impressive beasts. And the small jaws are just as likely to give a nip if she's picked up less than cautiously. I've heard an anecdotal report that female stag beetles are more

, which has gloriously felted leaves and pale yellow flowers with jam-coloured centres. This species doesn't seem to suffer as much as some others, but I always keep an eye out and pick the caterpillars off whenever I see them. I found one on the kitchen

feeding frenzy day and night, unhindered by daytime sunshine, if you can remember what that looks like.But help is at hand. When I pop out to pick my salads each evening I usually disturb a frog or two among the leaves, finding their supper just as I