Friends or Foes?

Anyone who'd like to attract any kind of pollinators would opt for having a carnation in their garden. They're very easy to grow and they're self sowing. You can just throw the seeds on a spot, wait for it to germinate and do nothing, it rains enough here .. no, more than enough so you won't even have to water it and no matter how hard the winter seems, it'll just rise and sprout out like a phoenix.

They're one of the seeds I got for free and since they just looked like these, I just threw them on one spot, curiously watched them sprout and wondered what sort of flower would they give me.

It wasn't a short wait because I threw them pretty late so it took them to wait till the next year for the right time to bloom. When they did, they exploded in tones of pink and red.

I would catch bumblebees, hover flies and a few butterflies on them but mostly hover flies. I planted plenty around the strawberry green house just to lure the pollinators in. They've never failed me year after year. I saw a whole bed of them explode with flowers in June and I fell in love with how pretty the bunch of flowers looked like together.

My OC struck so last year, I sorted them according to flower colors and trust me, it wasn't an easy job but thanks for the boxes. I intended to also plant them in rows but then according to the petal designs and color. I patiently collected and sorted those seeds with the plan to do just that. Guess what, I've changed my mind and have sown them in a mix.

Did I just waste my own effort of collecting the seeds and sorting them last year ? Not really, I think its going to be more fun in a mix than in a mono mode (we'll see in June .. they're not in bloom yet ..).

It's like... you wish it would be just whales or dolphins that would cast upvotes to your posts and you'd just have to deal with those more often? You'd earn more that way and you'd just hang out with the rich list, you won't have to worry about returning ups to the minnows and sleep well even when they cast you 100% of their precious upvotes cause the rich list would take care of you.

I don't know why but I sort of had that thought when I was sowing those seeds and thought .. I like it , yes I did because It looks easy, I'd only be dealing with a few and some are already doing that .. but .. what a small world that would be, too. I'd probably get bored specially when there's nothing new. It would be like eating rice with just soy sauce and oil because each person has the same posting style .. you'll get tired of it. I'm not called a social butterfly for nothing .. I easily tire seeing things that are the same more so reading them. How about you?

It would look more organized though... which am a fan of. Comfortable, easy and surely a lot easier to reap your seed year after year and would also be a lot easier sorting them in their boxes. So, should I regret sowing them in different sorts?

Truth is, those seeds stick on the box and on your fingers, too so you'd probably still find one or two of a bunch of flower with a different petal color and design when they bloom. As you know, I also love that of which is out of the box .. different and those that would have escaped my OC while sowing would just stand out. I won't be able to help but notice them more.

No, I can't undo it anymore ... unfortunately not so I'd have to just enjoy what's to come. Here, of course... I can always undo it. I just don't want to .. wait, I thought this is a gardening post you asked? It is .. just that .. those thoughts ...

Anyway, every spring I noticed that part of its sprouts get all chewed up. No signs of a cute crawling chewing champions but nothing escapes a very curious cat. I found all of them hanging out under the bottom leaves and some on the stem but almost close to the ground.

At first, I thought they were just hiding from the birds, till I placed them on the table all curled up. They popped open and started crawling as if they were in a hurry to get off it. One peed and another one pooped.

I realized, it must be the sunlight.

Today, is specially sunny and really warm I felt my face a bit scorched from staying in the greenhouse checking out on the strawberry blooms.

I picked them up carefully and put them back under the leaves.

They slowed back down there so it must be the sun.

I suppose these would be moths. Unless a butterfly is born this way, "vampire - ish", afraid of the daylight. There were at least 5 of them but I couldn't keep one from crawling so I let it be.

Am not really worried whether these are friends or foes, they're allowed to chew on as much leaves as they want as long as they don't chew on my fruiting trees' leaves. The green aphids are already doing just that on my plum trees. I guess I spoke too early writing about their suppliers' absence.

Am not worried though .., it's more of I'm curious .. what these guys are going to be like? No, I don't intend to find out the way I did with Yellow, it's warm now ..

I'll let nature take its course for them. I just hope these guys don't turn out to be foes once they've morphed.