Lovely ladybirds

Being super-beyond-organic isn’t always easy, and the course of true love never did run smooth… but how about this for a brilliant solution to the greenfly problem in the Vinery at Bodorgan? In a few weeks’ time, these love-struck ladybirds will produce millions of larvae, and they get jolly hungry, let me tell you. And their number one food? Greenfly! So our enterprising Head Gardener, Joe Anderson, has been encouraging ladybirds into the glasshouse, with excellent results, by the look of these energetic ladybirds shown here on the top left hand side of this chilli plant. Steamy stuff. Much looking forward to seeing the results of this love-attack - those pesky greenfly have been getting too familiar with our monster lemon verbena plant and working their way steadily along the peach trees, so this looks like it might be the way forward. Where others spray toxins, we spread the love, which I like.

Meanwhile in the garden, heavy rain has by no means stopped play, as there is always so much to be done behind the scenes. Our brilliant Joe is also an expert fixer upper, and so there has been plenty of tinkering with the machinery going on. In gaps in the weather, he and his crew have also managed to plant over a thousand chamomile plants - a THOUSAND! - howzat? Pretty jolly amazing, I say.

AND, in among all the above, Joe put together a GORGEOUS box of vegetables and herbs for our first pop up restaurant day at The Retreat, New Forest, which the brilliant chef, Gilly, of Wylde Green Kitchen, turned into a scrumptious plant-based lunch for around fifty hungry yoginis. More of this one later…