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Last year I wrote about autumn tidying and the effect this can have on wildlife. I left my garden untouched over winter, leaving hibernating creatures snuggled under a duvet of fallen leaves and rotting stems. None of my plants died or were ravaged

off and I went out to have a look. Nothing. All very curious until I went out again on Tuesday and had a look around. There, sheltering against the recesses of the bars and grills are several small garden snails and amongst them are some garden spiders

snails, or perhaps a dew-encrusted millipede huddled down into the thatch. What I saw, was a succulent plump emerald gem - the chrysalis of a speckled wood butterfly.It took me some while to recognize exactly which butterfly species it belonged to

pleased by the discovery of slugs, snails and leaf miners. One commenter suggested I take a closer look at leaf miners, which he described as "fascinating".Leaf miners literally 'mine' leaves, tunnelling through them and eating them from the inside, before

is there for a gardener than the reward of having wildlife use the habitat created for them? Two pairs of blackbirds regularly dart about my lawn feeding, chasing and protecting their territory. I'm not sure where their boundaries lie or whether they're happy

tiny) garden.The garden isn't perfect and I've a long way to go, but I've documented my success by the variety of garden visitors I've gained since the transformation: blue tits and great tits, bumblebees, butterflies, moths, slugs, snails and leaf

In the October issue of Gardeners’ World magazine, I ask Richard Jones and James Alexander-Sinclair for their views on autumn tidying in relation to the harm it can cause overwintering wildlife. As their recent blogs demonstrate, they don't see eye

to dismantling and removing it, only to find around 15 frogs buried in the compost, asleep. I quickly covered them back up and left them alone again.Frogs residing in grow bags is nothing knew. I spoke to frog expert Jules Howard, who said grow bags make

and more sky than I can take in even with both eyes. There is just too much wildlife to look at in detail, so here is a mélange from the first week of our stay.Saturday 7th August 2010 Everything is much greener than England so they've obviously had more