Moths, caterpillars and a lack of bees
A visit from an organic garden club and some observations from my walled garden
It’s been a busy week in the garden. The visit by a local organic garden club sent me into a frenzy of tidying, planting and trying to finish those jobs that have been looking at me all year. Many were ticked off the list (phew!!), but I shouldn’t have worried, the weather was warm and sunny, and everybody seemed to enjoy themselves.
It’s lovely to have like minded gardeners visit – the weeds don’t matter and we enthused over the potential of dandelions!! We discussed crop rotations vs continuous cropping, polyculture, my experiments with recycled aggregates, water harvesting, floral diversity, growing perennial veg and much more – the hours simply slipped by. I hope some of the gardeners will return next month to wander our fields and enjoy the meadows and butterflies at their best.
Some observations
Looking back over my records, early June is usually good for butterfly spotting. So, it was really worrying to walk around our fields on a relatively sunny day and not to spot a single butterfly. Members of the garden group mentioned this too, and the general lack of pollinators. It’s a real turnaround from April when my notes record 4 species of butterfly in a single field, including plenty of orange tips. The last month of cold, wet weather has really changed things.
But there’s one butterfly that has been on the wing in fair few numbers and that’s the small white! Having managed to protect my young brassicas from the slugs, they are now being decimated by its green larvae!! Urgh! So the nets will have to go on again.
Beekeepers are worried too. David, who keeps bees in our orchard, tells me that he is still feeding them! Other beekeepers report that they have lost more colonies than usual. It doesn’t bode well.
Have you noticed a similar dip in butterfly and bee numbers?
Verbascum
This week, I spied mullein moth caterpillars on my verbascums, ripping their leaves to pieces. I love my verbascums, so I wasn’t that pleased to see the distinctive caterpillars in quite such large numbers.
I read an IG post by Jo McKerr (@ jo__pratensisgardens) about her verbascums. Jo has a wonderful garden in Wellow, just south of Bath, where she has created a ‘modern wildlife garden’ from what she describes as a post industrial brownfield site in the countryside. I love this garden, especially the drought tolerant gravel garden created on what was a derelict farmyard. It’s filled with plants, such as self seeded verbascum, verbena, grasses and lady’s mantle.
In her post, she commented that there were no mullein moth caterpillars on her verbascums. She explained that she has 7th generation verbascums growing in the garden and wondered whether, over this time, the plant had adapted to its environment. She carries out some ‘natural selection’ by weeding out those plants that get too moth eaten, so may be she has developed a landrace of verbascums that are better able to protect themselves from the moth? I am tempted to do the same, but with so few verbascums this year, I am loathe to pull out the worst affected ones - tough decision!!
The mullein moth caterpillars are white with yellow and black markings, providing excellent camouflage against the grey furry leaves and yellow flowers of the verbascum. These caterpillars can spend as long as five years in a cocoon in the ground before emerging to feed on verbascum, as well as buddleia and figwort.
So what eats them? Their bright warning colours suggest that they are distasteful and birds avoid them, but they are parasitised by the ichneumon wasp. Usually, I have plenty of these parasitic wasps, but haven’t spotted many this year, so may be this has allowed a large population of caterpillars to go unpredated? Any ideas?
In the potager
Finally, I have managed to plant out some veg crops - in went the chick peas, some very leggy soybeans, along with heritage peas, beans and chard. My Soissons beans were devoured by the army of gastropods, so I am waiting for the next sowing to reach a safe size to plant out, along with more peas and beets. The leeks are almost ready and I am going to have risk putting out the brassicas.
Meanwhile, salad crops are getting away in the greenhouse - loads of lettuce, mini white cucumbers, courgettes while my microtomatoes are on the verge of ripening!!
Happy gardening!
Sally
Diary of talks and webinars
Talk 15th June Kim is speaking at the BBC Gardeners World Live Show
Talk 2 July Sally is giving a talk to Calne Garden Club
Talk 4 July Both Sally and Kim are speaking at RHS Hampton Court. Sally’s slot is 4pm on the Thursday on the How To stage
Talk 23 July Sally is giving a talk to Wedmore Garden Club
Talk 13 September Talk by Sally at Yeo Valley Gardens, Organic September Celebrations, nr Bristol
Sally and Kim give talks on a wide range of topics. Please get in touch if you would like to arrange a talk or webinar.
Great article Sally