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In the Garden

Done some harvesting this morning with two of our grandchildren. Zara, the older one loves a raw carrot, Eden wasn’t too keen. The peas were a bit small. But the raspberries were the biggest hit. Zara wasn’t keen on being in the raspberry jungle! But they both enjoyed eating them.
 

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eggyg said:
Done some harvesting this morning with two of our grandchildren. Zara, the older one loves a raw carrot, Eden wasn’t too keen. The peas were a bit small. But the raspberries were the biggest hit. Zara wasn’t keen on being in the raspberry jungle! But they both enjoyed eating them.
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Fabulous photos of your grandchildren in the garden. I wish our garden looked as neat and tidy as yours!
 
silver minion said:
Fabulous photos of your grandchildren in the garden. I wish our garden looked as neat and tidy as yours!
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Don’t look too closely! It’s full of weeds, the bit in the photo is where the raised beds are at the back of the garden, it’s on two levels, the front part is the lawn and flowery bit, totally neglected this time of year, I do my best and pull up any willow herb as I’m passing. Luckily it’s a cottage garden and not suppose to be neat! The lawn is just full of clover at the minute, I like it but Mr Eggy doesn’t, it drives him mad!
 
eggyg said:
Don’t look too closely! It’s full of weeds, the bit in the photo is where the raised beds are at the back of the garden, it’s on two levels, the front part is the lawn and flowery bit, totally neglected this time of year, I do my best and pull up any willow herb as I’m passing. Luckily it’s a cottage garden and not suppose to be neat! The lawn is just full of clover at the minute, I like it but Mr Eggy doesn’t, it drives him mad!
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There's always weeding to do. Tell Mr Eggy that white clover is a good source of nectar and pollen for the bees and other insects.
 
silver minion said:
There's always weeding to do. Tell Mr Eggy that white clover is a good source of nectar and pollen for the bees and other insects.
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He does leave it for as long as possible but he’s chomping at the bit to get it cut again. The clover grows back after about two hours though! Unfortunately, we haven’t seen many bees at all this year, again. We have foxgloves everywhere this year too. It’s very sad.
 
There definitely seems to be a general decline in the number of insects visiting the garden in the last few years. We are seeing mire butterflies at the moment. I prefer to call them flutterbies, it describes them perfectly.
Went to pick our last cherry yesterday as it wasn't quite ripe the day before. Unfortunately the wasps got to it first. We only had a couple as they are new young trees. Hoping for a bigger crop next summer.
 
Masses of insects in my garden. Bees of all varieties including my honey bees but plenty of different bumbles and solitary bees, wasps and hover flies. To be fair my jungle of weeds has been selectively cultivated by my honeybees for nearly 3 decades as has the surrounding countryside. It really is quite amazing how they have changed the landscape by selectively pollinating the trees, shrubs and plants which are most beneficial to them and all the other insects benefit too. Currently blackberries, meadowsweet, hogweed, rosebay willow herb are their target and the Himalayan balsam is just starting. Some people say that honeybees outcompete other bees and pollen/nectar loving insects but the population of everything has boomed here and in fact I see more bumblebees and wasps in the garden than my honeybees, except at the hive entrances of course. I don't usually have too many problems with wasps targeting fruit or my hives either, we mostly just all muddle along together. It is usually weak honeybee colonies which become susceptible to wasps and sometimes poor hive choices/arrangements or management strategies by beekeepers. I have been guilty of that in the past myself, but tried to learn from my mistakes.
 
eggyg said:
He does leave it for as long as possible but he’s chomping at the bit to get it cut again. The clover grows back after about two hours though! Unfortunately, we haven’t seen many bees at all this year, again. We have foxgloves everywhere this year too. It’s very sad.
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They’re all down here. Mum and dad’s garden is teaming with them. Much more than usual.
 
Went to hang my washing out and my five one year old lavender plants had quite a few bees on. It gives me hope. We were just talking about butterflies, we’ve had a handful of cabbage whites and a colourful one it was too quick to identify) almost flew in our house yesterday but realised its mistake. Our Michaelmas daisy will be absolutely covered with them in the autumn though. It’s a wonderful sight.
 
I work in my attic office. There is a velux window on either side of the house/room. Both spend most of their time open at this time of year to "vent" the heat which rises through the house.
The other day, one of those colourful butterflies flew in one window, over my head and computer, then out through the other window.

Sadly, bluebottle flies are not as intelligent. They go in through one window and then fail to use any of their eyes to find an exit. Instead they buzz and hit any surface they can find. Including the window about 1cm above the opening.
 
helli said:
I work in my attic office. There is a velux window on either side of the house/room. Both spend most of their time open at this time of year to "vent" the heat which rises through the house.
The other day, one of those colourful butterflies flew in one window, over my head and computer, then out through the other window.

Sadly, bluebottle flies are not as intelligent. They go in through one window and then fail to use any of their eyes to find an exit. Instead they buzz and hit any surface they can find. Including the window about 1cm above the opening.
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I hate blue bottles, why is there never a shortage of them?
 
eggyg said:
I hate blue bottles, why is there never a shortage of them?
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I find you have to use reverse psychology to outwit them. Try to get them towards the open gap and they’ll evade you every time. So I try to push them away into the corner, and half the time in trying to out manoeuvre me they accidentally fly out of the opening! :rofl::rofl::rofl:
 
ARRGGGHHH!!!😱
Keep your windows and doors shut guys!
The ants have grown wings and are ready to fly in their swarms between now and August.
Pour washing up liquid over thier nests if you can suss them out! Don't want them flying into your kitchens!!
WL
 
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does anyone know what this plant is ? at first we thought it was Cosmos but we already have a lot of that and there are no flowers on this plant and the leaves are different, its also over 3ft high and come from know where we have several al grown in the same area and its growing fast
 

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Might it be a dill @Pam123?

They have feathery leaves on branching stems a bit like that?
 
Pam123 said:
does anyone know what this plant is ? at first we thought it was Cosmos but we already have a lot of that and there are no flowers on this plant and the leaves are different, its also over 3ft high and come from know where we have several al grown in the same area and its growing fast
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Fennel? They have feathery leaves.
 
We had some fennel that appeared from nowhere, and was about 3-4ft high. But if you crush some leaves in your fingers, and smell your hand, that should rule out dill, or fennel, (or not) because it will smell.
Edit.
Ha! @eggyg types faster than I do (marginally!)
 
Well if you happen to be cheek by jowl to a colony of that particular type of ant, yes. However I worked in an office that was obviously built on such an anthill and they gathered annually before they sprouted wings and took flight, right outside our back door so tipped a whole can of Nippon powder on those I saw just before the flight happened. Yes, it did look a mess, I agreed with the one company director (out of 6) who complained that it looked a mess. Didn't notice her thanking me when we never had the buggers flying in through open windows or getting tangled in her hair, though everyone else in the office did!

Nippon - they take back to their nest and kill the entire colony, which is what you want to happen. I don't have any conscience whatsoever against dealing severely (ie fatally) with any nuisance species including those imported nasty grey tree rats with the bushy tails.
 
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