wild poppy | Christine Lucas

I noticed in the garden this week a Scarlet Lily Beetle, apparently it is a pest that feeds on lilies and fritillaries. The picture below was taken on a fuchsia but they only lay their eggs on lilies and fritillaries. I have lily bulbs growing (well hoping they grow) so will keep a check on any larvae activity!

Scarlet Lily Beetle

On Saturday, as the weather was nice I got out into the garden with my sheers and chopped the dying flowers from the Cat Mint and also decided to give the Wallflower a much needed trim! The bees won’t be thankful to me but they at least have the Siberian Bell-flowers to feed on!

I also chopped the leaves of the lilies that were infested. I managed to work around the larvae that cover themselves in their own excrement (nice!).

Some of my plants have not looked so good this summer (as last year). The Coriander I bought in spring is looking really limp and withered. This year I have put the annual herb in a pot but think I shall have to put next years plant in the ground! It grew so much better last year and the hover flies loved the tiny flowers it had!

Hover Fly on Coriander Flowers

However this years best grower and filling the void that the Coriander has left is the Fennel. Another herb, but this time a perennial. Last year it was overshadowed by the Coriander but this year it has grown almost three foot! Its brown feathery leaves have flower buds developing. These attract not only Hover Flies, but Lacewings and other insects too, though I have not seen any as yet!

Fennel flowers

Another flower that isn’t looking so fine is my Michaelmas Daisy. It has shot up in height but now has powdery mildew on it’s leaves. I have sprayed the leaves with vinegar in the hope that it will work better than the milk solution I used on my, sadly now demised Phlox. However it does not look so fantastic a day after spraying!! The poor Daisy is not looking too good and now has an infestation of Gastropods!

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During the week I have been saddened to have missed most of my wild poppies flower. They only seem to last less than a day! However, Thursday morning, I spied the red blot of not only one but two poppy’s so I, (still half asleep) clutched at my phone and snapped the below photo! 😀

Wild Poppy

I was also happy to see that my Passion Flower has started to bud, so much so that there are literally hundreds of buds on it (and more growing every day!) I wish it would all bloom at the same time, what a sight that would be! We shall have to be content with just four this time! 😀

Four Passion Flowers!

It’s the last day of 30 Days Wild organised by The Wildlife Trust. I cannot believe that a month has passed so quickly! In the past 30 days I have tried to be more vigilant to the nature that is all around!

Monday:

Not much wildness happened today. However, I noticed that my wild poppy’s had flowered while I was at work and come the evening they had already dropped their leaves. 😦

I also took a snap of this moth resting on our dining room window, though I couldn’t identify it.

Moth

Tuesday:

Phew! What a scorcher of a day! The hottest day of the year so far and tomorrow promises to be equally as hot though with some thunder storms thrown in to keep us on our toes!

I rushed home from work to enjoy the outside space that is my little urban garden. I watched the visiting House Sparrows as they sat on TV aerials. There were not as many bees visiting the Cat Mint. I think its flowers are starting to die, so I need to set pruning it so it grows a second time this summer.

While slowly turning pink I noticed the quiet fluttering of a butterfly as it made its way from garden to garden. It was a Red Admiral, though it did not stop long enough for me to take a picture, so one from a couple of years ago will have to do!

Red Admiral

Yesterday, my mum and I replanted some of the Borage seedlings that had grown madly since planting them the first week of June. However today I noticed that most hadn’t taken to their new pots and looked sadly limp. Oh well I still have lots so hopefully some will flower? Only time will tell!

I now sit writing this post in the garden. The humidity still lingers as the sun begins to set behind the row of houses to my right. A chilled glass of wine is close to hand while Classic FM is on in the background. Artie tries, (but thankfully fails) to stalk Cinnabar Moths while the Cat Mint is now a buzz with bees.

I thought I would utilise the warmth of the ‘heatwave’ and enjoy the last few hours of my 30 days wild! Sitting here quietly I have already seen five squeaking Swallows as they soared high into the blue sky. I think their young have fledged. I only hope that I manage to get some footage of them before they head back on their long journey south.

The evening air is filled with the chattering sound of Goldfinches as they come for their late evening snack before roost and now I have the cackling presence of a Magpie. One is never alone with nature, and living in a city, it is rarely quietly still. The voices of people’s lives going on around me punctuates the nature that I welcome into my garden.

30 days wild has been a challenge in a way for me as I have tried to look beyond the nature that visits my garden. I am still useless when it comes to Bee identification and thank the Facebook page: UK Bees, wasps and Ants for helping ID most of the bees that have frequented my garden. I would have liked to have seen more butterflies and moths but I am happy with the number of birds that have visited the feeders. It may only be small but I do my little bit for the nature in my area. If that is to plant a bee friendly plant or more feeders for the birds then I will do it!

What is certain is that I will continue to enjoy the nature that is in my area, and hopefully learn more about the creatures that call it their home.

With a lone Bumblebee feeding and the sweet song of a Blackbird on the breeze, I finish this post with one final picture. This is the view of the sky as I write.