Acrobatic snails

This morning Ive been watching a wonderfully strange acrobatic display by a snail in my garden. Balancing on the edge of a hosta leaf, the snail was stretched upright for hours, twisting itself slowly from one side to the other. Its tentacles extending and contracting continually as if to search for something always out of its grasp.

Perched on the edge of the leaf it looked more like a diver about to jump from the high board, but the snail was actually attached to the hosta's woody stem by a thread of slimy mucus.

How and why it got itself into this position I have no idea but I shall do some investigation and report back in next months post.

What makes this display more remarkable is how it has been able to remain attached and in this position in the wind. It has been quite a blustery morning and the snail has been blown and buffeted about, sometimes losing its footing on the leaf edge but somehow still clinging on to its thread.

Ive witnessed strange snail and slug behaviour in the garden before but never anything quite as remarkable and beautiful as this. When I first started gardening slugs and snails were an absolute enemy and I battled continually to save my seedlings and juicy hosta leaves from their jaws.

Over the last couple of years Ive become a lot more relaxed with the slugs and snails in the garden and only use pellets sparingly to protect and allow seedlings to get established. After that, I'm happy to let nature take its course and the wildlife to munch away.

The sedum has started to bloom in the last couple of weeks and as the tiny pink petals emerge lots of bees have been attracted into the garden. On warmer days the flowers are a mass of buzzing sounds with so many types of bees busily working their way around each cluster of flowers.
Sadly my bees, the ones nesting in a cavity of my house, have gone. So its fantastic to see so many other bees coming back into the garden.

Ive been volunteering at my local community garden this summer. Its only a small plot of land between houses in the middle of St Mellons but around 10 or 12 people regularly volunteer, with the men doing the heavy lifting work and the women planting, weeding, harvesting (and giving the men their instructions).

Sadly for me I could only attend for a few weeks as I'm usually working when its open. But in that short time Ive met some wonderful people, learnt how to take cuttings from lavender and come home with handfuls of vegetables, from runner beans, yellow tomatoes and sweetcorn.

The tomato plant I have was a gift from the community garden when we first met at the local fete. Ive been watching for days as one the four fruits has begun to ripen. It wont be a huge harvest but I'm sure they will taste incredible once I do get to pick them.

Day lilies final fanfare

The last few day lilies are in bloom today and by the end of the week they will all be gone. Their glorious trumpets will fall silent for another year. I've loved sitting in the garden as the evening draws in and the bats skit and scat around. In the darkness the orange/yellow lilies continue to glow when everything else fades into the gloom.

The last day lily of the year

Its been a good show this year with the first of the lilies to flower in early July. This is the time of year when everything starts to change with the autumn moving closer. While the poppies and hostas have also finished, the heuchera continue to attract bees to their tiny flowers and the sedum will soon burst into colour.

Over the last couple of weeks I've not seen any bee activity from the nest in my bathroom wall. I'm not sure when they would naturally leave the nest but it seems a bit early in the year. I suspect that they have struggled with the location. On only slightly windy days I've watched as each bee would make numerous attempts to get to the hole in the wall and perhaps that has exhausted them.

Bees at home in the Garden of Shaz

This spring has brought a new visitor to the garden; bees. Earlier in the year I often noticed one or two bees flying around the kitchen door. I didn't think anything of it until a few weeks ago when the bees became more frequent. It was only then that I realised that the bees had made a home in a hole in the wall of my house. 

The bees are tree bumble bees and having done a little research and spoken to a bee keeper friend they shouldn't pose any problem and will leave the nest in the autumn to establish a new colony. 

Tree Bumble Bees

Once they are gone I shall seal the hole but I don't want to banish them completely. I'll put a bee box at the bottom of the garden and hope that a new colony finds it a nice home.

The frogs have not been so visible this year though. After two years of tadpoles being laid in the bird bath, there were none this spring. Its not all bad though as there are frogs in the garden still, living under the shed and the bits of wood left around the garden.