in bloom
The allotment is alive with flowers in early July.
Borage fights it out with the potato haulm assisted by calendula, cornflowers and foxgloves.
Little dorrit attracts hoverfly to the root bed and young calendula are poised to flower there.
Calendula are in full flower in the legumes and amongst the brassicas & leaves convolvulus tricolor are now in bloom along with marjoram.
In the permanent beds we have left some flowering comfrey uncut to indulge the bees, a lemon verbascum has overcome mullein moth caterpillar ravages and is now in flower among the asparagus. The apples and raspberries host foxgloves.
All of these nectar sources have been aided by some very warm weather. On Sunday there was an irruption of ladybirds. Larvae (pictured), pupae and adults seemed to be everywhere. Hoverflies were very active and the borage in particular was buzzing with bumble bees and honey bees. I even spotted what appeared to be a black honeybee with a white underbelly: distinctly different.
After two wet summers that have been very difficult for insect life, it is good to see (and hear) the difference that warm weather and sympathetic management have made.
4 comments:
All sounds great .. And ladybirds are garden friendly...
D
Insect life on my balcony have been very scarce - I think it's to high up. Nevertheless I've managed to aquire a population of snails with pointy shells I've never seen anywhere else - and of course I've had the occasional pet spider every now and then (my, to they get fat over a summer!). Indoors the environment is more unbalanced - it's more easy to atract harmfull bugs than invite beneficial ones. I'm pondering buying some predators, but my wallet says 'No!' at the moment...
Is that maybe a Harlequin ladybird larva? Saw some the other week and they looked like that.
You're right about it being a harlequin. They've spread across form the south east of England and are a real worry.
Unfortunately, there's not much you can do about them!
Rob
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