In defence of neglect

After Flymo pretty much demolished the majority of my seedlings earlier on the year, my enthusiasm for the garden waned somewhat. I lost interest in the daily maintenance required to keep the beds free of dandelions, grass pathways free of nettles etc and the continued (mostly) good weather has given everything a massive boost. I’ve got nettles about 5ft tall, basking in the full day of sun the garden ‘dog leg’ gets.

It’s even harder to drum up the energy required to deal with them now our nettle bed is playing host to hundreds of tiny (and some not so tiny!) black and yellow spindly caterpillars…

peacock butterfly caterpillar

peacock butterfly caterpillar

Especially when they turn into something this beautiful:

Photograph © Steven Cheshire - www.britishbutterflies.co.uk or Photograph © Debbie Cheshire - www.britishbutterflies.co.uk

Photograph © Steven Cheshire / Debbie Cheshire – www.britishbutterflies.co.uk

And so I remain committed to a little garden neglect this year. There’s always 2014 for vegetables.

3 Comments

  1. Well you could used nettle to mae tea or soup or add it in bread roll dough. :D Although those look bit too big already. Young nettle is better.

  2. I must admit that I too have given up the will to keep on weeding after the sunny-wet-sunny spells have made everything grow at ten times the speed! Lovely photos x

  3. my giant sunflower has just flowered… but for reasons known only to it, has decided to “face” into the corner so you can’t see it properly. stupid plant (possibly it’s protesting about all the dandelions/other weeds it’s sharing the flowerbed with!)