What to do when nature offers you gold

I'm sat at my desk with a view out into the garden, and every few seconds a golden leaf detaches itself from my Cornus kousa tree and flutters wistfully down to the ground beneath. I love autumn!

It brings to mind a neighbour I once had who liked nothing more than using a large kind of Ghostbuster suction machine to hoover his leaves up.

There's a good reason for doing so on lawns, for they can so shroud the turf beneath that the grass can turn yellow and sickly.

What troubles me, though, is that he would then throw the leaves in with the rubbish. To me, that's akin to burning money, because what nature is doing is offering something wonderful for free. As many of you will know, decomposed leaves form a brilliant 'soil conditioner'.

It is called 'leaf mould'. I've been careful there not to use the word 'compost', because leaf mould isn't stuffed full of nutrients in the way that manure or normal garden compost is. Instead, it is packed with cellulose and lignin, and once it is a year or two old, it can be mixed with soil to improve its structure, used to make perfect peat-free potting compost, or laid as an attractive dark mulch.

So this month's Giving Nature a Home activity is all about creating leaf mould. It really is as simple as raking them up and putting them in a bin bag with a few drainage holes poked in it.

However, to make it even more friendly to wildlife, I've made a simple leaf mould bin, with wire sides, but with enough gap at the bottom for anything that wants to get in for a rootle around or a gentle snooze to do so.

Sure, a few leaves work their way out at the bottom, but I can cope with that. It is important there are no jaggy bits of wire to snag the backs of wildlife going in and out, but it's something that can easily be knocked up in a spare hour.

Once made, Toads, Slow-worms, Hedgehogs and even Field Voles will all grab the opportunity to get inside.

All you have to do is a bit of raking (great for the abdominals) and toss the leaves in.