Garden happenings, 2024.

It seemed like it was all happening in our garden last year. Here are a few of the highlights.

Probably the most exciting event was seeing a leaf cutter bee using the bee hotel. I was, quite honestly, beside myself with excitement.  This happened 3 weeks after I’d moved the bee hotel from one side of the fence post to another – crucially, the south-facing side.  I saw a bee make several trips across the garden to cut discs from the rose leaves, before taking them to the tubes. Watching this was fascinating.  Despite careful observation, I couldn’t tell how many bees were using the hotel, but who cares?! Just wonderful.

A close second was the proliferation of self-heal, one of my favourite flowers but one that hasn’t done well in the garden before.  A plant with panache, don’t you think?

Then there was the bagworm. I’d seen the case of one a week or so before it featured on Springwatch, but had no idea what I was looking at.  Once I knew, I went looking for more, and found one at the moment it was emerging!

Another thing I saw on Springwatch was a wolf spider carrying her babies on her back. Then hey presto! One scuttled out from the gap in our paving slabs. I have to admit that the look of this makes me shudder for reasons I can’t explain, but it’s a garden wildlife experience I’m glad I had. My photo is blurred, so I’ve added another I found online.

I was also in the right place at the right time to witness some mating activity, like these hoverflies and slugs – though it felt a little intrusive taking photos.

Not sure what was going on with these two brocade moth caterpillars. Maybe a stand-off over who had feeding rights on the purple toadflax?

Garden spiders have to eat too…

Also in summer, this chrysalis caught my eye. I hoped to see the butterfly emerge, but missed it. Maybe next year?

So much activity, and I haven’t even mentioned the birds – the return of Greenfinches after a few months’ absence, Great Tits seen taking wool for their nest, a Starling having a thorough wash after I’d hung the bird bath in a better position. More on birds in my next post, but to end this one, it’s over to one of my favourite critters, the woodlouse. They shed their exoskeleton as they grow, and, for me,  finding one is like finding treasure.