It's great having a pet

Especially one who you don't have to feed, and who doesn't get upset when you go away on holiday. This little fella lives in our garden and I always look forward to catching a glimpse of him.

Two times toad

There's a toad in my back garden. He's been there for ages. But this evening I found a larger female toad in my front garden as well. She was a bit too near to the road for my liking, but it's up to her to lead her own life I suppose. (do toads have autonomy?)

As a result of my amphibious friends - I like to think of them as friends - I should have no slugs, but sadly this isn't the case. I found a medium-sized slimy specimen slowly making its way across my pot of mint this evening. Wearing a rubber glove I scooped it up and put it where I'd seen the back garden toad half an hour previously. Hope he appreciates it.

Here are some lovely BBC pages about the Common Toad (bufo bufo).

n.b. just read back on my first ever blog post, almost exactly a year ago. It was about snails. Plus ca change...

Hello toad

Feared I had somehow accidentally killed my resident toad, but last night's deluge must have encouraged the slugs and snails out to tempt him. We stared at each other fondly through my french windows, although, to be honest, I'm not entirely sure my warm feelings were reciprocated, but what can you do.

Gourmet gastropods

Gastropod sounds like a boutique gourmet lunch spot, which is how snails seem to view my young sunflower. Grr.

Nick gave me the hardy-looking seedling last week to add to my urban, mainly paved, garden. Being a complete novice, my garden contained a grand total of four plants:

1. a new honeysuckle (courtesy of Homebase)

2. ivy

3. those purple-flowing plants that grow out of walls

4. some kind of laurel-type plant left by the previous inhabitant of my tiny flat.

So I was delighted to get a newcomer.

I lovingly transferred the sunflower seedling to a bigger pot, added compost, watered, and set it in the sunniest part of my basement garden to watch it grow. I even considered measuring it every day, but had to have a word with myself at that point.

Last night was beautifully balmy - summer has definitely arrived in NW6. Stepping out of my backdoor in the twilight I just about avoided skidding on a large brown slug. Looking down I saw my garden's resident toad crossly creeping back to his log, hungry no doubt. My clodding great feet had just interrupted his slug patrol. Damn.

I spent the next 5 minutes picking up the slimy buggers and throwing them in to the neighbour's garden, holding back the urge to run away. Slugs make me feel wierd. By the way, before you go thinking how antisocial I am, the neighbour is an office and their garden is entirely paved with no plants whatsoever.

After ridding the paving stones of as many slimy friends as I could find, I looked up at my sunflower, calmy resting on its ledge.

Hang on.

Even in the gloom I could see a dark patch under its crown of bright green new foliage....

As I pulled the snail off, rudely interrupting its meal, it gave a crunching sort of slurp, and left behind a delightful trail of slime. Yuk.

I've now put coffee grinds in the sunflower's pot, which hopefully will poison the snails/slugs and not the flower. Any other suggestions?