BLOG: The importance of a little mess.

One of the most important friends a gardener has is the one that you never see working. In fact, most of the time you rarely see them at all!

I'm talking about the tiny insects that live in the dark corners, in leaf piles and even underground.  

Worms, woodlice and the thousands of other beetles and bugs that live in your garden are your friends. These are the guys that eat the discarded, remove the dead bodies and generally clear up the mess. They do all that by eating it and pooping out what even smaller creatures, microbes, will break down into what we call soil, earth.  

Those friends of yours that you never see are literally feeding your garden for you.

Respect your friends.
Love your friends.  
Thank your friends.

Plant flowers and shrubs to cover all seasons if you can; bugs need them as food all year round. Don't keep your garden too clean and neat; insects need decaying matter to eat and to hide from predators. Solitary bees need mud to pack their nests when they lay eggs.  

And above all... insects of all types need places to live and lay eggs.

So what I'm saying is, please let leaves gather under shrubs, don't be so fussy about clearing up every stem and twig, make sure there are plenty of places for our tiny friends to live.

#Ecology #Habitat #Insects #Nature #TheEnvironment