All gardeners are obsessed by the weather and the Sunday Gardener is no exception. Tonight for the first time this year the evening was warm and still.

 

Time to search out, pick and dispatch a few slugs. Up until now the cold and very dry weather has kept them at bay but the warmth tonight made them active, slugging around.

 

The  dry spell means it's a good idea to water newly planted veggies, bedding plants and any new additions to the garden. It's unusual for it to be so dry but its worth the time and trouble to help young plants get established.

 

The bats were active tonight too. The most common Bat in the UK is the Pipistrelle which feeds on the wing catching and eating vast quantities of small, flying insects such as mayflies, lacewings, small moths, midges, caddis flies and mosquitoes. A single pipistrelle may consume up to 3000 insects in a night,  so a real garden friend.  Not everyone would want to entice a bat colony into the garden, but rather the bats choose you and once you have them, they are a protected species, and  so cannot be disturbed. The large colony which inhabit the Sunday Garden are welcome friends and a sure sign of warmer days and nights.