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!

Friend or foe

Having my own garden has led to a lot of new encounters this summer. As a group of brassica plants surprisingly came up from a packet of bird seed mix and the birds unsurprisingly show no interest, I am happy to let the small whites lay their eggs on it. While the sunflowers and nasturtiums created a pileup of buzzing (bumble)bees.

But as it turns out there are also a lot of flying, creeping and digging bugs that harm my plants. I have an ongoing war with slugs who absolutely adore my marigolds and leave them clean shaven. By slug hunting in the mornings and evenings I try and prevent them from doing any more damage. Also the nasturtiums act as natural aphid trap. Luckily some soapy spray seems to prevent them from infesting the rest of the garden.

And even though I see the use of spiders, I am still a woman. They will never be my best friends. But perhaps I can train them to catch those slugs for me.