War and Peace

The creatures we share the garden with bring their own wide range of different vibes.

Earlier this Summer, the bumblebees went mad about the hollyhocks. They drank nectar until they started dazedly buzzing around in circles. The two in the picture at least seem to share one flower peacefully.

Not long after that, the patrolling of the garden by big nose diving dragonflies started. They are extremely territorial and although we do not have any water in our garden, it apparently needs to be defended heavily. They are fiendish and not afraid to attack something as big as us.

And October brought on loads of spiders. The Rudbeckia forms it own little micro-environment with a bunch of spiders hanging between the flowers. One of them managed to catch a solitary bee and wrapped it up for later.

This Comma came to say goodbye as a last sign of Summer, the coming week the weather will turn. Rain and cold will come to replace the lovely warm afternoons we have had the past weeks.

In preparation the undergardener cleaned the birdfeeder and filled it up with peanuts.
Bring on the cold!

Hoarding

Up to now I wouldn’t classify myself as particularly greedy, but things change. Having a garden brought out a monster hoarder in me. Earlier this summer I was collecting all the big seed heads that my nasturtiums produced (and there were hundreds of them). At the same time I became anxious that mice might eat my supply of seeds in the shed, so I bought a nice sturdy plastic box with a lid. And there the thinking process stopped. I put all the seeds that I had collected in a paper bag in the box and left them there until the next gardening session.

Turns out it is probably a good thing that I am not in charge of a national seed bank, because putting green seeds in a container results in a mouldy mess. Lesson learnt and some of my seeds lost, I started all over. Luckily we still have some nice dry and sunny weather, helping the seeds on my windowsill to dry out before I can stow them away for the winter.

The past weeks our sunflowers have been attracting a lot of attention. From dusk till dawn they are visited by huge amounts of bumblebees. And they don’t just come for a snack. They are tiny little hoarders in their own right and a lot better at it than I will ever be. Look at them all covered in yellow pollen, slowly but surely working their way into the centre of the flower. And they don’t waste any time, while they are buzzing in the sunflower queue, any other flowers around will do in the meanwhile.

What am I waiting for, it is still light outside. Perhaps I should go and collect some more of those nasturtium seeds…….