This looks like being the first barbeque weekend of the year.  I’m going to try some of this beautiful red orach in a salad with other leaves that need thinning and I’m also going to try to get 10 minutes in a hammock.  When the garden is looking so lovely, I need to keep reminding myself to sit back and enjoy it.  Some chance.

Last year we were well past the last frost by now but this year I’m not so sure.  The forecast is good, but the nights have been cool.  That being said, I have run out of space in my cold frame, so last night I put out beans and sweetcorn.  Fingers crossed.

The weather in May is such a tricky one to call.  You have to be optimistic and plan for the alfresco barbeque, but you also have to have a plan B, which this weekend was to make a wildlife hotel.  Luckily our friends were up for it.

Inspired by a garden at the Chelsea Flower Show last year, and by the RSPB and many others since, we made a tower of pallets and stuffed it with everything we could find which we thought would be beneficial to insects.  Bamboo, masonry, straw, clay, rotting branches and pollinating bee logs.  It may be a bit too shady for sun-loving solitary bees but hopefully it will provide an over wintering haven for ladybirds, lacewings, beetles and other shade loving insects.

I have just completed my 3G compost bins.  My first attempt was 15 years ago when I used a combination of old bedsteads and cupboard doors.  It looked wonderful, but didn’t last more than a couple of years.  I then tried a wooden kit that had boards you could slide into grooves to make a door.  The wood lasted well, but it soon became impossible to slide the boards out of the groves to empty the compost, so for years I leant over and shovelled it out until the bin finally fell apart.  So this spring we planned and built three sturdy bins which I wish we had built years ago.  We did a lot of research beforehand.  We sell a beautiful beehive compost bin which is very well made but not large enough for our needs.  There are lots of fairly large plastic compost bins on the market, but even if you are happy to have an ugly dalek at the end of your garden, none of them have a door that fully opens, so accessing the compost is difficult.  So instead we drew up our own design, ordered the timber and got stuck in.  The eureka moment was when we discovered drop pin bolts, which hold the frame together and make it easy to remove the door. Very satisfying.