The summer seems to be running backwards this year. After a scorcher of an April and a pleasant May, June was a bit dull and July is now getting its wellies on. Still, at least one member of the forest garden staff is well pleased with the weather.

A pond is well worth making in almost any garden. Mine is tiny – no more than a metre across – but is still stuffed with frogs. I counted 6 pairs of them during the spawning season and they practically turned the whole pond into one wobbly mass of spawn. A few months later, I constantly have to be careful where I put my feet due to the little penny-sized froglets hopping all over the place. As well as the sheer delight of it, this makes for an unpaid army on full time slug patrol – just as well with all the rain.

The ground all around the pond is shaped to run into it and I have an overflow from the water butt that collects rain off my shed roof that runs down into it too. This means that I hardly ever have to add water, a great improvement on my previous attempt which required regular topping up. If you do have to add mains water to a pond, put it in an open container for a day or more first for the chlorine or other treatment chemicals to come out of it.