We've had the perfect growing weather here recently - lots of rain and warm temperatures and everything in the garden and surrounding countryside is green and growing. In my little patch I've been planting some new fruit and herb plants. I've given up on growing veggies for now as they were lots of work for a rather meagre harvest - mostly thanks to cabbage white butterflies, aphids and a host of other chompers who set about nibbling my homegrown produce. Not that I really mind, planting herbs keeps things simple for me and I like to see creatures in my garden - chives, borage, thyme and lavender are perfect plants for attracting bees and other wildlife.
I would much rather have a little corner of this Earth that is busy and brimming with life, unlike some of my neighbours it seems - two of them have recently had their 'gardens' worked on and carpeted with plastic fake grass - they are now sterile, dead squares surrounded by stark fences. And our immediate next door neighbour has just chopped down every tree and bush in their garden in favour of grass, including a really big and beautiful lilac that was a springtime magnet to so many butterflies and bees emerging from annual hibernation.
So, in an attempt to compensate the local wildlife, I'm happily letting things go a bit more wild in our garden and it lifts my spirits to see some of these tiny creatures that I'm sharing my garden with - lots of different bee species are happily buzzing from one chive head to another; many ladybird larvae are starting to cocoon up and transform into their adult form, and tiny yellow orb-weaver spiderlings that hatched on a hellebore are flinging out their silken strands, leaving their 300 or so siblings and heading out on their own.
Of course I'm very lucky to have larger visitors to my garden too. The fox is still calling in regularly and I've got some lovely pictures of her which I'll share soon.
Hope you find some tiny delights in your own corner of our beautiful Earth - if you have time to, please share what plants or creatures you are co-inhabiting with. 'Til next time x
