A haven for wildlife

This is one of the essential attributes of my dream garden, and I'm happy to say that in the height of summer, we have achieved it. (Not counting our two wild felines that prowl the garden fearlessly (except during fireworks, which, admittedly, happen more in late autumn and winter)).

A little wasp in the white African daisy (osteospermum):



A ladybird, wasp and hoverfly on a bronze fennel flower. Yes, I have wanted the colours in the garden to be just pinks and purples, but this plant is mostly purple; also, the yellow flowerheads are very attractive to pollinating insects, so I just have to live with the colour clash! ;)




Ladybirds - adult and larva:




Finally, one of the stalking cats in the bottom right corner. The trellis has now been covered with honey-scented sweet peas and purple morning glories.

Three bumblebees and one honey bee...

... buzz into a bar. I mean, lavender! That was the largest number of (beneficial) insects I've seen on one plant yet. Sadly, they didn't all want to model for the photo...


If we're looking for the non=-beneficial insects, then they are to be found on the sweet peas. The plants are covered in greenfly, and when I first noticed that I started removing the little buggers (there's something deeply satisfying in sliding a finger-breadth of them off a stem, then squeezing!). However, there was a ladybird there, busily eating her way through the aphids, and I realised that for a fully organic garden I need to provide some pests for the predators to enjoy. So now the sweet peas (which, BTW, smell really nice) have greenfly *and* baby ladybirds (AKA garden crocodiles, as they look like ugly, tiny reptiles with big jaws before they turn into the familiar cute, red bug).

Courgettes are being productive, and we're still harvesting them regularly. Here's a pic of stuffed veggies (the aubergines were from a shop) a la Provancale (just meat, herbs and spices, chopped veg flesh and an egg to bind the filling together) that proved very popular on Facebook! :)

The Ides of May

We've got some lovely sun today, which is not bad seeing that it's mid-May! I took the opportunity to snap some more pics ;)



On the left you see a pot of Lily of the Valley, sold to me for £1 by a kind old man in the neigbourhood, who has 5 greenhouses, he tells me, and sells trays of seedlings in his front garden. I will plant them in the ground one of these days, but at the moment it's easier to enjoy their beautiful scent closer to nose-level!

Next is the box with kohlrabi and radishes, then the herbs, and finally the salad leaves. At the moment there's nothing much to harvest, except parsley and sweet marjoram. Actually, the other day I added some marjoram leaves to a plain tomato salad, and they lifted the taste into something altogether more cordon bleu.

The variegated iris is getting ready to flower:


And the Mexican orange blossom, purple ajuga and heuchera are already blooming:




Finally, we saw a few young ladybirds scattered around the garden, so here's one that went well with my hair ;)