Something has been neatly cutting half-moons from my Dogwoods. I suspect it is the imaginatively named Leaf-cutter Bee!

am delighted they’re in my garden so I’ve decided to build them a bug hotel. It’s too late for them to build their nests in it this year but other insects will use it to hibernate .

First I repaired a “bug hotel” that was badly smashed up in the storms a couple of years ago. That was fairly straight forward: and I’m sure the bees and ladybirds will appreciate the effort I went to with the exterior quickdry satin paint in fetching “sandstone”. It’s now hanging on the south facing garage wall.

Down the side of the compost heap is a growing stockpile of pallets which come with all the building supplies we’ve had delivered. Most of them are used to repair the compost heaps but there were a few little ones which lent themselves perfectly to a bigger Bug HMO (house of multiple occupancy).

I started cutting them up, hammering in fresh nails and then looking round the garden for suitable “debris” to fill them with. It’s not full yet but so far I have used the tops and stalks of the sweetcorn, the twigs I cut back on the Artemisia and some very old bamboo canes I found in the shed. I also put in the seed heads from the globe artichokes which already had a couple of ladybirds in situ!

I positioned it at the top of the garden, near the hedge and in full sun. It was toasty warm up there even thought it’s the 1st October.

At this time of year every sunbeam is hunted down and then soaked up…