Sleep well little chap

Getting out into the garden during these dark winter months is one of the best things about winter.  It feels like I am winning every moment I get outside.  The weather has to be just right:  not actually raining or snowing.  The ground has to be as ok as I can hope for: not sodden, not too muddy and not frozen.  When the conditions shout: go go go! I do.  I get out there, wrapped up well and ready for what I can actually achieve.   

It is always worth it.  A couple of hours up close and personal with what is going on at ground level never ceases to give me joy and peace.  For those precious moments my brain will stop whirring and I focus on the task in hand.  I am there, I am present, I am gardening.  Each weed removed is a success.  Each weed removed is worth 361 in Spring, or thereabouts.  

and I get to uncover treasure like this little green chappie/chappette.  I covered it up again quickly so that it would be undisturbed in its hibernating process.  I wondered who it is?  I have no idea, a caterpillar obvs, but what sort of butterfly will emerge?  Please don't tell me it is the lesser spotted destroyer of worlds, or the greater spotted destroyer of gardens!  Let me live blissfully thinking it is a dainty, pretty, harmless butterfly/moth that even if it does eat my plants, it is not too much that I will consider it a nuisance.  I am fairly easy going when it comes to sharing the garden with most insects etc.  Except vine weevils, oh and lily beetles, oh and don't get me started slugs.   In the main though I have a live and let live policy.  It makes no odds to me if there are holes in foliage, even the odd munched through bud is not going to cause me much alarm.  I will smooth away (she means squidge) greenflies on roses if they are too prolific, but that is a rare occurance.  Even those I do consider a pest - such as the aforementioned lily beetles and slugs, I will not set out to kill them as the first line of defence.  I will sometimes use slug pellets in the greenhouse when seedlings are trying to survive.  I will also, when really pushed by lily beetles, use an organic spray whilst muttering 'cease and desist' much to the amusement of the cats.  Most often though if the pests are winning the war I let them win the war.  I gave up growing lilies years ago: too many beetles and I worried about their pollen and my cats.  I still get the dread lily beetles on my Crown Frilleria but that seems very dependent on the weather.  A cold Spring seems to hold them back with no input from me being necessarily.  I have also given up growing delphiniums.  The slugs won that war and whilst I love these plants dearly, they just will not succeed in my current garden.  There seems no point in growing things that just do not want to grow in my conditions, or require too much effort to grow in my conditions.  Life is short and time is shorter and there are a lot of plants I can grow more easily: so I do.

Meanwhile the ladybirds snooze in nooks and crannies (and my bathroom).  I loved seeing this group snuggling together against the cold and the rain.  Last year did not seem a prolific year for ladybirds so I am hoping that this year will be better.  Better for the ladybirds and better for the garden.  I am hoping to have more time in the garden this year; I would like more time to focus on it.  Time will tell.

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