This week has been a rather tough week for various reasons, that, in all honesty, I don’t want to bore anyone with as life is too short to dwell on things that you find dull, insulting and a drain your energy, which is what this week has been full of! This does mean that I have to find ways to keep myself positive and working towards a solution to my situation.
Nature is always uplifting to me, whether that is in the garden or in the wilderness parts of the landscape. I really don’t get out into wilderness anywhere near enough, so I have to take what I can get in the garden, or when pottering around my local area. This is a time thing at the moment, which I hope to improve in the next few months. While plants are my thing, I love finding insects around me as I go, like these ladybirds and random winged insect.
While not wild, my cute little fluff-bomb here can be a little feral sometimes-after all, she is a little rescue cat that we got when she was still a kitten. Now sat next to me and fast asleep as I write, I love having her around-even if she does go for my feet sometimes!
This shield bug is a welcome addition to the garden, as they like eating insects that we see as pests. Plus, they are rather interesting to look at.
Kookaburras are an iconic Australian bird species and are my personal favourite. They are a bit like my cat-they do their thing and don’t rally care if you like it or not!
Another Australian bird is the sulphur-crested cockatoo. These birds sound like dinosaurs with their screeching, but they are fun to watch!
Some people are under the impression that wildlife and gardening are not compatible-they have no place with each other. Of course, animals can destroy your plants, but that is not all animals (which does include birds and insects, etc, just for the easy catch-all term). Birds can eat slugs and other little critters, just like ladybirds can eat your aphids and scale insects. It is all about balance.
The older I get, the more I see that it is important to encourage more of the benefits of having the help of the natural processes in your garden-from predatory insects eating your pest insects to using compost for improving your soil structure and filling your garden beds with plants to help reduce weeds and also to keep the soil moisture up through reduced evaporation.
I know that in the work I do, I have to ensure the client is happy, but there is a real lack of knowledge about the natural world and horticulture, and how they can be of wider benefit that I get so frustrated. It’s also seen as a financial cost that is a burden-their often very limited knowledge means that they don’t see if we follow the best practice ways of doing things instead of constantly throwing chemicals (whose use CAN be justified in certain instances, but mostly not) at the landscape and other such practices, then it will save them money and their gardens will look better!
That’s why I love seeing ladybirds, etc around as they help me in my work. Over the next few weeks, I’m going to start talking more about many of the ways in which we can use nature to help us in the garden to have a happier, healthier garden.