I have tried a new sort of courgette this year, black forest, which the catalogue says can be trained up a trellis.  It was slow to get going, but now its thick stem is heading for the sky at an alarming rate.  It must like the rain!  Thankfully it is also producing a steady stream of fruits which so far I have managed to catch before they get to the marrow stage.

This summer has been good for butterflies in our garden.  There have been plenty of them and they have kept off the brassicas.  Some have enjoyed the rare glimpses of sun by basking on the beans, like this comma butterfly earlier today.

The future doesn't look good though for many butterfly species.  The decline in the plants upon which butterfly larvae depend, as pointed out in a recent Countryside Survey report in Wales, will have a knock on effect on the butterfly population.  Enjoy them while you can.

I have just taken a quick tour around the garden in search of honey bees.  There were lots of bumblebees enjoying the lavender and verbena bonariensis, possibly helped by our bumblebee nesters, but I couldn't find a single honey bee.  Maybe one reason is the neonicotinoid pesticides which are still permitted despite being known to kill honey bees.  The Soil Assocition has started a petition calling on Hilary Benn to have neonicotinoid pesticides banned  This is important so please sign and forward to your friends.

Its difficult not to be alarmed by the rate at which our insect population is being depleted.  Habitats are disappearing, desease is rife and now we read about the invasion of Asian harlequin ladybirds that seems akin to the introduction of grey squirrels 50 years ago.  They are varacious predators, stronger and meaner than the natives.

So what can we do?  Vigilante action might backfire unless your identification skills are 100%.  Probably a better option is to make sure you have parts of your garden that are ladybird friendly.  Different species have different preferences, but conifers, leaf litter and a ladybird nesting box is a good place to start.