Brutality among the Broccoli

As mentioned previously, despite the mesh cages I created around my broccoli plants, the butterflies still managed to lay their eggs on the leaves. Last week I found they were covered in very fat caterpillars, munching their way through the foliage at an alarming pace! Enough was enough, so I decided to pull out what little remained of the plants. I noticed about half a dozen wasps circling one of the containers – they reminded me of sharks preparing to attack – and sure enough, they went in for the kill. I was really quite shocked to see how viciously they dispatched several caterpillars – it was a sight not for the faint hearted. I’m afraid I didn’t intervene though, not because I accept this is all part of the circle of life, but because I didn’t want to get stung (call me a wimp if you like).

I’ve never witnessed such a thing before, so of course I had to Google. Apparently the wasps we commonly see in our gardens do hunt and kill caterpillars, carrying them back to their nests to feed to their developing larvae.  Also some wasps lay eggs inside caterpillars. Sorry, this bit is gross – the wasp larvae then hatch and feed on the caterpillar from the inside out, consuming its body’s nutrients. I worried half the night that I had put caterpillars in my garden bin that were in fact feeding potential swarms of wasps. I kept the lid firmly shut awaiting bin collection day. In the meantime I started to fret about the bin men, but reassured myself with the knowledge that wasp eggs take at least 5 days to hatch, and they don’t develop into full blown wasps for 4 to 7 weeks – so there was no chance they would swarm out and attack the men as they went about their work – phew!

To be honest I won’t bother growing broccoli again next year. For the small amount I managed to harvest from my containers, it wasn’t worth the effort. I think I’ll concentrate on dwarf beans, courgettes and tomatoes and I might have a dabble with cucumbers. I’ve just potted up some strawberry runners and I’m keeping a close eye on my sweet dumpling squash plants, which are a first for me this year. I’ve grown them in ridiculously small containers, because I didn’t have anything bigger to hand, but excitingly I have 3 gourds – they’re supposed to grow to the size of a croquet ball and one of them is very nearly there – I’m told they’re delicious.

So, what else have I been up to in the garden? Well, with all the hot weather we’ve been having I was getting a bit tired of tramping up and down the garden steps with watering cans. I decided to rig up an irrigation system that relies on gravity. The kit arrived from eBay. It contained a bag that resembles something you’d see on a hospital drip stand, yards of tubing and little taps to be inserted at intervals along it. After a bit of trial and error, I got it all set up with the aid of a magnifying glass and a bit of initiative – the accompanying instructions were minimal and very faint. As soon as I poured water into the bag, it leaked out where the tubing was joined to it. GR came to the rescue though, winding copious quantities of electrical insulating tape around the joint. Granted, it’s not the greatest look, but it does save quite a lot of journeys! Talking of GR, he’s trimmed the viburnum hedge at the front again – it looks just as ‘good’ as last time – if you missed that story, or you want a refresh, click here!

My herbaceous border is looking a bit subdued now, but the orange rudbeckias and purple aster ‘Mönch’ are now making an appearance and the sedums are colouring up nicely. A couple of my clematis are still throwing out the odd flower and the Japanese anemones are looking stunning. I was ready to pull out my sweet peas a week or so ago, but look what happened in the meantime! The geraniums (or are they pelargoniums?) are flowering away, I’ve treated myself to an alstroemeria ‘Spitfire’ and my potted roses are covered in buds again, so my terrace is going to be full of colour over the next few weeks.

I’ve really loved our long hot summer, but we do desperately need rain, and in biblical proportions over the North Yorkshire Moors – the fire fighters, farmers and all those helping to take control of the blaze must be exhausted – I hope they get some respite soon.