Day 30 · Nature

Dig a small pond

Sink a washing-up bowl or an old sink into a corner of the garden, fill it with rainwater, and wait.

Water is the fastest way to bring a garden to life. Within days of a bowl going into the ground, something arrives: pond skaters, a hoverfly, a blackbird bathing. Within a year, frogs. It does not need to be big. A washing-up bowl sunk to its rim, a ramp of stones so anything that falls in can climb out, rainwater not tap, a native plant or two such as hornwort. Then leave it alone. A pond looks after itself, and gives you somewhere to sit and do nothing.