I don’t know about it being the Chinese Year of the Dragon, but it’s certainly been the year of the slug for gardeners! We’re all out there with our deterrent, wool pellets, beer traps, grit, egg shells, copper strips, but they just keep coming! I found a nightly round with a torch is the most efficient way of catching and dispatching them.

Some like me throw them across the stream or into the field, where they might well determinedly make their way back. Or others of stronger character or greater frustration are able to chop them up which action has to be commended for giving the frog and toads a ready meal with no adverse materials involved.

So many tales of woe, not such a panacea for mental health this year. Out we go to see how our seedlings/plants are getting on, only to find they’ve gone! Eaten, munched by those slimy pests of which we are also asked not to totally annihilate to keep the food chain intact. To top it all the dear dog dug up my potatoes again. Where I thought was a good place to empty the old soil from my flowers tubs, was apparently the ideal place to bury a bone.

Down in the orchard, same time, same place as last year a large oil beetle was spotted amongst the celandines where it likes to feed. Always a surprise to see such a large insect. Ditto the Maybugs or cockchafer beetles which I found amongst my flower pots.

Butterfly numbers also seemed to dwindle during a mostly wet and cool May. The year started well with Brimstone, Orange-tip and Small blue, since then I haven’t seen many but the occasional Speckled Wood. There was concern also for the bees. They seemed a bit confused by the weather. When unable to bring in nectar and pollen they have turned to feeding on their store of honey and the hives are crowded with less workers out foraging. In general, they’ve been like us - not so keen to be out and about in lower than usual temperatures!

Some flowers benefited from the wet spring though and the orchids in some places were more numerous than ever. A friend also had a dozen or more bee orchids appear. Roses also seemed to have done quite well and a batch of elderflower champagne made so “a silver lining to every cloud” as the old saying goes!

H.W