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IN OUR GARDEN 2023

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Managed to get a picture before the gardener removed what she terms a weed…

Perennial sow-thistle, S. arvensis, and prickly sow-thistle, S. asper, are found in almost identical habitats. The young leaves of all these three sow thistles can be used as salad vegetables (they are fleshier and less bitter than dandelions) once their spines have been trimmed off. Pliny
had Theseus dining on a dish of sow-thistles before going to finish off the Minotaur.

(Flora Britannica, Richard Mabey)




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3 things you never knew about hover flies​

  1. Hover flies just want to lick your sweat. They land on us to drink our sweat. They cannot sting or bite but lick with and probe with their tongue. Hover flies are attracted to us because of the water from sweat and the salt on our skin. These late summer visitors have crashed our late summer activities leaving us swatting at flies. However, before you kill the hover flies know that they provide some great ecosystem services.
  3. Hover flies are prolific pollinators. Hover flies come in second to bees during pollination studies. Although they may not be prolific, they may be more efficient pollinators than bees. Bees collect pollen that is fed to their larvae and they are limited to their home ranges. Hover flies can carry pollen much further than bees. They also visit a greater diversity of flowers than the pickier bees.
  5. Hover fly larvae control aphids in crops and our backyard gardens. The female hover fly will usually lay her eggs on or near aphid colonies and in two to three days the larvae will hatch. The larva, technically a maggot, is muted green to brown, legless, worm-like, and can be found on the undersides of leaves eating aphids, thrips, scale, caterpillars, and mealy bugs. These larvae are great garden warriors and can be put in the same category as ladybugs and lacewing larvae in terms of their effectiveness in demolishing an aphid population. The larvae grasp the prey with their jaws, hold them up in the air, suck out their body contents and toss the exoskeleton aside.
 
The saga of my sunflowers continues. The one which had the flower bitten off by the squirrel was fighting back. It grew 3 flower heads. I got up this morning to find disaster had struck. One flower head bitten off and on the floor and another stem broken - I think the squirrel had tred to bite it but the stem was a bit too thick. Had to cut the stem and have it in water but am not hopeful.
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Not exactly in the garden except he is now somewhere. I walked through our hall door this morning and met a cobweb containing this chap. He must have worked hard all night as that door is the only link between the living room and kitchen so is in constant use. He ran onto an adjacent cupboard and I managed to catch him and put him out.
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pjmburns said:
Not exactly in the garden except he is now somewhere. I walked through our hall door this morning and met a cobweb containing this chap. He must have worked hard all night as that door is the only link between the living room and kitchen so is in constant use. He ran onto an adjacent cupboard and I managed to catch him and put him out.
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you must be psychic jan i was just looking at one of them in the shed door way. they bite but not harmfull its just like a bee sting

i think the squirrel has won now
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pjmburns said:
Not exactly in the garden except he is now somewhere. I walked through our hall door this morning and met a cobweb containing this chap. He must have worked hard all night as that door is the only link between the living room and kitchen so is in constant use. He ran onto an adjacent cupboard and I managed to catch him and put him out.
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I think he is stalking me. Went to peg washing out this morning and across the bin I found
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