There is plenty of insect life on our plot - beneficial and otherwise. This was brought home to me yesterday when harvesting kale tops. Scattered whitefly arose from the kale like a cloud of flying dandruff and fluttered to rest on the soil and on the kale itself. I pulled out all the yellow and brown decaying leaves and dumped them in the wildlife hedge. The kale has a white downy deposit on the underside, but once washed is good to eat.
Meanwhile the bees are still out and about. Their choice of plants has diminished as almost all our sunflowers are now seed heads, but they are still on the white deadnettle, or popping in and out of the trumpets of the penstemons by our shed.
Daddy long-legs (craneflies) have stopped trying to come into our flat but the ladybirds are now ready to hibernate over the winter. They are resting in close-packed colonies of up to half a dozen above the curtain rails on the inside of our windowframes.
About two weeks ago I spotted a very lethargic grasshopper. Could this be a record?
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