themagnoliatreeblog

I like to think I accommodate all needs in the garden to some degree. Slugs and snails have a will of their own and it’s a constant battle with them. Should a plant survive their onslaught of gluttony, it will help to feed the good guys of the garden, the little pollinators.

The bees are super happy, they have many flowering plants to dine on and I grow Phacelia Tanacetifolia (fiddleneck) especially for them, as well as sharing other flowers such as nasturtium which are also edible for humans.

I had some violas which survived the winter but looked as if they had gone through the wars and had become straggly. On closer inspection, they were being devastated by greenfly. I put some soapy water in a bucket and dunked the plants in it but it hadn’t got rid of all the greenfly and I intended dunking them again, but time went on and it rained and the bucket filled with water. Finally the plants gave up and succumbed to their watery grave.

Miniature pond life is always fascinating and compelling to watch. I noticed some strange little creatures with long tails, I hadn’t seen them before. I now know them to be hoverfly larvae. They are known by several names including the very unattractive rat-tailed maggot. The tail is not a tail but a breathing tube which enables it to carry on eating below the surface whilst still breathing on the surface. Eventually they will mature into the delightful little hoverfly. Although as hoverflies, many people mistake them for bees or wasps, this little fellow doesn’t bite or sting, it just goes about it’s business knowing that by mimicking bees and wasps, predators are more likely to leave it alone.

The good thing is that hoverflies like aphids and have a voracious appetite for them. Don’t swat them away if they hover near you, they are just checking you out, they will know the difference.

Why not visit my other blog Grannysattic