Covering plants is the simplest way to do this and gardeners use anything from sheets, blankets, plastic, frost fleece and cardboard boxes to large round garbage cans!

Bees and small reptiles like bluetongue lizards and skinks will be grateful if you are able to put some water out for them.

Collect the water from your shower before it runs hot and before you start soaping up, and put it in a shallow tray where these little creatures can easily get at it. For bees, add some pebbles or marbles in the tray so they have something to rest on while they drink.

Some other garden visitors are not so welcome. Kangaroos are moving closer to town and have been seen even in closely populated streets. If 'roos are regular visitors to your garden you can protect your plants with guards made of rolls of netting - cut 90cm or 120 cm high netting into 1.5 - 2m lengths and make into tubes about 60 cm in diameter which will give the plant enough space to grow on for 12 months or so.

Some plants are not attractive to kangaroos, particularly those that have very tough leaves, such as callistemon and grevillea, although they will munch on the soft new tips. Roos also seem to leave Eremophila, Westringia and Eritstemon and Pronstanthera alone.

Noise deterrents, such as tin cans, along the borders of your garden can help and motion detecting lights can discourage night-time feeding. A high fence is probably the best way to protect your vegie garden though.

The next meeting of the Armidale Garden Club is on Thursday October 24, at 7:30pm in the Uniting Church Youth Club Hall.