Dodging bees, mosquitoes and beetles…but never the butterflies

Bees are such wonderful things and so important to the production of food. I captured this photo of them in our backyard drinking from the water trough on a very hot summers day. It is so important to put water out for them to drink in summer, a shallow bowl will do to quench their thirst and that of a bird or two.

Gardening has become my respite from the everyday grind it is good for the soul they say, and its TRUE! Every morning and evening I walk around our modest garden, I potter around, a bit of weeding, checking on all the plants and observing any changes. Picking what vegetables are ready for the table that I can include in the evening meal. As wonderful as Gardens with all its flowers, trees and vegetables there comes plenty of insects. I have always been curious about nature but somewhat jumpy about insects, that is until I took up gardening.

For me gardening was not love at first sight, because of the insects! My first year in Canberra tackling the garden did not start well. I was stung by a bee, almost eaten alive by mosquitoes lurking in the dark corners of the garden. I lost my crop of broccoli to cabbage moth larvae and tomatoes were eaten by worms and the year after, the rats ate all our broad beans, there was nothing fun about gardening at all! I persevered learning along the way from reading lots of books, expert advice and keen gardening colleagues tips and soon I was on my way to enjoying it and yielding a steady supply of edibles.

Nothing beats that wonderful feeling of accomplishment when you pick a bowl of tomatoes that you have grown yourself or crushing the garlic you cultivated from one single clove or picking at the sweetest strawberries you will ever taste. The pleasure from picking a bunch of flowers as a centrepiece for your dining table and making relish, jam or pickles with your excess produce. My first gifting of tomato relish jars left me feeling quite chuffed that I could say I made that. My absolute personal treat every year is picking the first juicy fig right off the tree in the backyard. YES!! I beat the possum this year!

Guarding or guilty. Winnie the Lab and her sidekick Zac managed to eat all the strawberries under the fig tree this year.

No Chemicals are used at all in our garden so we try any natural methods available. This can be time consuming as it does require you to inspect your crop, remove caterpillars or worms from broccoli leaves or tomatoes. The time spent monitoring our crop it’s quite relaxing for me and it is when I noticed so many insects are actually doing the job for us. I learnt quickly that nature is just as hungry as we are. Lady bugs galore eating the aphids, soldier beetles patrolling for small meals. Bees buzzing around pollinating my crops of from broccoli to cherries. Spiders weaving their webs in between plants catching the moths hopefully before they lay their larvae. We work in situ but sometimes soapy water sprayed on the broccoli or cabbage leaves can be a deterrent for the nasties. But this year I have discovered a family of sparrows visiting my garden regularly for those worms and caterpillars. They are not native bird species to Australia but I am not objecting when they are serving a purpose in my garden. I suspect we have a lizard lurking somewhere as we have had little to no problem with snails. I am ok with that.

When I get deep into gardening it is almost like a part of the family, you nurture and care for your plants. You watch them grow from seed, becoming ever impatient for the first sprout to appear. Making sure they are watered and fed, you worry when the weather changes from searing heat to frosty mornings, during summer waking up at sunrise to water or staying out late into the cool evenings. In winter you run out in 2 degrees after the evening weather report to make sure you have covered your sensitive plants to protect from the incoming -7 degree frosty morning ahead. You shelter them to protect them from predators who surface at night to take them away.

Gardening is not for everyone you need to invest a lot of time for a productive garden and in return to you will get a thing of beauty, a retreat and fresh food. Ours is forever a work in progress and I am still learning so much.

Nature is just marvellous and balanced so long as we dont interfere with it, sometimes giving a helping hand but we must learn when to walk away. So at my home we all live quite happily together even with my new admiration for insects there are still some I prefer to observe at a distance. But never for butterflies.