Ben Fogle's country travels: animal antics in my garden With the first rays of spring sunshine, I have decided to renovate my little garden. Until recently my gardening skills were on a par with my cooking expertise - non-existent. But as the years have etched themselves on to my sun-damaged skin, I have found myself drawn to the garden like a wasp to orange juice. The more I travel, the greater the impulse to make a nest, and I find our patch of green an oasis of calm and continuity in a frenetic, nomadic life. It is taking shape nicely and I am the proud new guardian of several beautiful birches and some ancient olive trees. Urban gardens offer little portholes into another world. It never ceases to amaze me what turns up in ours, from hedgehogs to the flocks of parakeets that gorge on our apple tree. Several years ago I made my own addition to the neighbourhood wildlife when a South American tarantula that had stowed away in my rucksack escaped into the garden. A frantic search, with several zookeepers in tow, failed to track it down. I assured my wife, Marina, that it was unlikely to survive the British climate, but my heart still sinks each time I find a giant web in the garden. My favourite story, however, happened several years ago when I spotted a "Missing Tortoise" poster on my street. I was astonished when I found the tortoise hiding under old leaf litter in our flower beds. I rang the number, only to discover that the "missing" tortoise had already been recovered and that the one I had found had in fact been missing for 12 years, ferried between the gardens of west London in the jaws of urban foxes. But for these little urban oases, it is inconceivable that a tortoise could remain undiscovered in Notting Hill Gate for more than a decade. Urban foxes remain an emotive subject. They enchant many, but they can cause real damage to gardens - and worse. My late dog, Inca, was once attacked by a starving fox, and while I don't believe they ever attack people or large dogs on purpose, I do believe we need to address the urban-fox issue. I passed three dead dog foxes in west London last week alone, all hit by cars. I need an effective fox deterrent for my garden. Given that we already have tortoises, tarantulas and parakeets, there is only one answer: lion dung. I have been assured that it will deter the largest of dog foxes, and will be asking the kind keepers at Longleat Safari Park for a lorryload.