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At certain times of the year, as I look out over my back garden, I see a huge heron perched on the chimney stacks of the next street. It's an infrequent, but fairly regular visitor and I often wonder what is attracting it. Our garden pond, up and running now that I've replaced th...

that wildlife would find it soon enough. And they have.Peering into the now clear water, after the initial algal bloom and water-flea dance auditions, I can see some squat mud-coloured gargoyles resting menacingly just below the water line. They are dragonfly

, but the water was frantically bubbling with life. Several water skaters were skating in the bright sunlight, and not one, but five newts, were cavorting in the pondweed. There was at least one male, with his high raggedy tail crest, and he seemed to be doing

, and for which I do not need to download the wrong sort of software: the pond.Early this summer it sprung a leak and the water dropped 30 centimetres leaving an unsightly fringe of stained black plastic liner. I've been meaning to get round to it for months. Now

Our tomatoes have not done very well this year, a combination of slow start and inadequate watering whilst we were away on holiday. But further down the street someone has done much better. They've obviously had a glut because a cardboard box

One of our cats sat motionless on the edge of the pond today, head drooped down almost touching the water as if he were asleep. But the occasional tic gave him away: he was watching newts. The bright sunshine lit up a corner of our triangular pond

A bit of garden clearance in the rain is always therapeutic. Working off a good lunch and feeling the drip of water down my neck, I feel my endeavours are all the more noble. Actually all I'm doing is ripping the vine out of the apple tree it's been

sides, as in ambidextrous) and bios (life), meaning that these wonderful creatures are equally happy on both sides of the water/land divide.Very shortly, pond or no, gardens are more likely to see frogs and toads than ever, because now is the start

with water.We're not quite all the way there. The pond is full of water and has already taken on a deep green bloom as the algae and microbes start to establish an ecological balance, but the pond surround needs to be planted up and after the soil has settled

in when the old one sprung a leak. Our pond is raised, three railway sleepers high off the ground, so these two females and a male had managed to scramble up and climb in. There's not much else going on in the water yet - no boatmen or beetles or skaters