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, pinks and yellowy greens.The nondescript green or brown caterpillar feeds on a huge range of native and cultivated plants, but it's usually very secretive and never a pest. It was sitting in its distinctive pose: head down body slightly raised with its

and small shrubs, and the birds were sitting on one of the tough child-resistant plants.They were oblivious to the excited line of boys and girls trotting past to class, but continued to explore the branches only a couple of metres from the children

emerges next year. And now, in an unconcealed attempt to get comments on this blog, I'm appealing for garden-based Christmas cracker jokes. I only know one:Q. What is Sherlock Holmes's favourite plant in his Baker Street garden? A. It's a lemon tree my

We've had to cut down most of the Clematis montana. It had already done some damage to the featheredge and was threatening to bring down the entire fence. Oh well. It was a fast grower when we first planted it and has provided us with a huge drift

in the garden. As with that other garden favourite, the robin, wrens are voracious hunters of insects, and with their inquisitive searching into every available cranny, they will get in there now to clear out the caterpillars, aphids and plant bugs before

, using railway sleepers, three high (about 50 cm), to make a raised water body. Triangular in shape, 2 metres long, with a deep corner dug down a further 50 cm and a shallow corner for marginal plants. Three species of damselfly, two species of dragonfly

't grow cabbages so I'm not too worried. The caterpillars sometimes make a mess of the nasturtiums, but the plants are so vigorous by now that not even a mass attack could do much damage. I had a quick look and sure enough several leaves have clusters

of Box Hill, in Surrey.Although box, Buxus sempervirens, is widely planted in gardens, Box Hill is one of the few places in Britain (along with Boxted in Kent) where it is thought to be a true native. Gonocerus had been found there, on and off, for about

I don't really do birds. I'm usually too busy peering down at insects on flowers or running across leaves. Or I'm on hands and knees, bum in the air, turning stones over looking for ground beetles or grubbing at plant roots for weevils

, because I think these creatures are rather beautiful. The normally grey rough woodlouse (Porcellio scaber) sometimes takes on a lovely rose tone; if it were a plant it would be given its own special cultivar name. And I'm always thrilled to find a