Aphid Army: Assemble 💪🏻

In praise of Ladybirds

“The sight of aphids to ladybirds is like curry to a pisshead.”

Hello and thanks for joining me in this venture. I figured The Midlife Garden Project was worthy of a Substack all of its own. If you already follow me on Off the Rails (I’m guessing that’s most of you) you’ll be familiar with my attempts to transform my boxy and boring garden into something amazing, or at least, a little less boring and boxy. You’ll also be familiar with my attempts at spiritualising the entire endeavour, because no tool has nurtured my faith over the past two and half years, as much as my hoe. Amen.

This is a place where I can write about two of my favourite things, gardening and God, without boring the pants off all the people who subscribed to Off the Rails hoping for actual spiritual insight and topical reflections on faith. Also, it’s a place where I can write with freedom, not feeling anxious about engagement or the dreaded numbers. I’ve only promoted this Substack to paid subscribers to Off the Rails, in the hope I’d get an elite bunch of lovely people over here. It’s a decision that’s worked so far! Welcome. 🤗

So! An update is in order. This is kind of how the main flowerbed looks right now. As you can see, it’s a riot of colour…if the riot is the Peasant’s Revolt. Much red. Very bloody.

I’m a big devotee of the red theory, which says that a pop of red has more impact than lots of red, and can lift a neutral or monochrome palette. The geraniums are obviously very red, but the salvias at the back are actually a burnt orange. Those bulbs that are coming up? I don’t know what they are. I just chucked a load of generic summer bulbs in the ground back in April. It’s a surprise!

I took this photo on the day I planted out the euphorbias (until I saw them in the nursery, I genuinely thought euphorbia was something you achieved grade eight on) and the blue daisies, which were in pots still, about to be planted. My colour scheme is fiery to symbolise the refiner’s fire of perimenopause and midlife. The sprays of white reference some of the confusion and fogginess. The blue daisies are so there’s something blue, because this is a joyful space but it’s a truthful one too. Sometimes you feel a bit blue, right?

Blue marguerite

I was very stressed about the garden when I was away in Italy, particularly the fate of my precious dahlias. I knew that rain was forecast for the whole time we were away, and I feared that the slugs and snails would make huge capital out of this. Thankfully, my mum and dad kept an eye on things, and surprisingly there was little damage. Not every dahlia escaped unscathed, but it could have been a lot worse. This is how they look currently, close to flowering. Come on dahlias! You’re doing so well.

I was also quite anxious about the hostas, which as any gardener knows, are like catnip to slugs and snails. Miraculously, they are intact, with zero mollusc damage at present. But I remain vigilant, keeping up my morning and evening patrol, armed with my plant pot which I use to deport them to the front garden.

I think not, my slimy friend.

The hostas have rewarded my efforts by flowering! I didn’t even know that hostas did that.

In early 2024 I planted a couple of new roses. I had a plan to transform that part of my garden into a little piece of Puglia, by painting my shed white and blue. I wanted something to climb up it, so I purchased a bare root climber called Compassion. Here she is on the day she was planted:

Here she is now!

Isn’t she just lovely? All of my roses are inevitably under constant attack from aphids, and apparently the best - and organic - way to cope with this is to attract predators to your garden who will deal with them for you. Enter The Ladybird. In an effort to attract them I grew calendula beneath the rose, apparently ladybirds love it. I do too! I’ve never grown calendula before but it’s a real winner, so easy to grow, low maintenance, big colourful impact, and it smells divine too. If you’re also choosing to keep aphids at bay without using sprays and pesticides, my advice is to be patient. The roses are now full of ladybirds, who can eat vast quantities of aphids every day. They also lay their eggs near to aphid colonies, so their young have a ready supply too. Until they showed up though month, I was having to manually swipe down my roses to clear them of greenfly every morning. Now? The ladybirds are doing it for me. It’s great.

She be small but mighty

And finally: The latest edition to my rose family, a rambler called Paul Noel (also a bare root) has actually flowered. I’m training him up an old ladder. It’s early days for Paul, but he looks gorgeous so far.

Hopefully, the next time I write I will have lots of glorious photos of the dahlias, God willing. Thanks for reading.

Best wishes,