Your garden sounds so much like mine. I'm always surrounded by critters of all kinds. Today there's been tons of butterflies and bees, hummingbirds and mockingbirds, and bugs of all kinds. The lady bugs seem to be zipping around very busily. I could live without the ants, though.

When someone drives by and sees me working out there, I might look like a woman working alone in the garden, but I'm never alone out there, and that's one of my favorite things about gardening. Lately I've had a frustrated turtle as a frequent companion. Most years he prowls the rows of potato plants looking for Colorado potato beetles to eat. This year we haven't had any CPBs show up, so we have one frustrated turtle who is missing his favorite meal/snack.

Mine were earthworms today. When I first moved here, and there was only bermuda grass, I could not find any while digging the bermuda out.

Today, I weeded, and found earthworms. Life is good. :)

Moni

I found a fat toad today and over the past couple weeks have seen several small Hylas. I was glad to see them. Maybe that means the garter snake that has lived in the garden for the past 4 years, growing from 10 inches to over 3 feet is gone. I let it stay thinking it would eat mice, moles, gophers and voles. I learned it likes leopard frogs and despite rescuing a couple from it, have noticed a scarcity of them the last 2 years. A skink darted away from me as I turned a forkful of compost out into the wheelbarrow. And there were several hundred pillbugs and a couple roaches in the compost, as well. I could do without those!!