Nettles and summer

Fancy nettles being all the rage this year! There is a special on the May issue of Gardener's World, saying that they are not only useful for attracting ladybirds but also to distract caterpillars of several butterflies from your plants, besides being a nutritious food, a compost heap starter and an effective soil test (some of the reflections were already published in a blog post from 2008).

The other night I got the first midge bite of the year, on my head as usual: it's summer!