#garden helpers

[balkanradfem]

Rating of Garden Critters!

Bee: 12/10, beloved, beautiful, miracle bug, would die for her, all flowers in my garden are for her

Ladybug: 10/10 I love her, she trusts me and walks on my hand, has little dots I can count and eats plant lice for breakfast lunch and dinner!

Ants: 2/10, they keep starting lice farms on my plants :/ go farm your lice elsewhere. Fun to watch though.

Spider: 10/10 charming, threatening, excellent vibes, does not respect my walkways, ultimately so useful for the garden I will never bring them down

Frog: 10/10 I don't know what she's up to but I love looking at her!

Mouse: 3/10 she gets 3 because she's so adorable but. She will dig out seeds and eat them. Go live in the fields please.

Snake: 10/10 absolutely love the long noodle, will resolve the mice issue, incredibly useful critter + points for powerful presence

Mushroom: 10/10 not a critter technically but she will make my soil healthy and I hope my plants can communicate underground too? If there's mushrooms?

Worm: 10/10 must have in the garden, please thrive in my soil, please live in my compost pile

Wasp: 6/10 threatening aura but I do believe she just wants to pollinate some plants and I respect her. There's place for her in my garden.

Bird: 8/10 I love her, I'm unsure whether she eats my worms but I hope she also eats bugs that eat my plants. Please don't eat my strawberries.

Plant lice: 0/10. No. Get off my swiss chard.

Butterfly: 4/10 Please stop laying eggs on my broccoli. You're so beautiful I love you and I want you to have as many babies as possible. But I am hungry. I am too weak to support your reproductive process.

Potato bugs: -2/10. No. Only bug I've enacted violence upon.

Any other bug that I do not recognize: 7/10, welcome to my compost pile! We have grass, we have peels, we have rotten fruit. Please eat it. Also if you're a cool neon color or really big I will follow you around for a while infinitely entertained by your existence.

Hedgehog: 10/10 I know she's just lost in there but please stay you're so adorable.

Slugs: -99999999/10. They know what they did.

[natureisthegreatestartist]

[thesingingbullfrog]

Trichopoda Fly (female) - another parasitoid that helps your garden. These flies parasitize several species of true bugs like stink bugs and squash bugs.

[natureisthegreatestartist]

If you think there’s nothing special about the leaf at the bottom of this photo, think again. This leaf is curled because it is slowly being pulled into the ground by earthworms so they can feed on it. That, in turn, improves the soil. Remarkable, right?

[viatafrumoasa-lifebeautiful]

Mamas around the world give up a lot to raise their kids. Very early one morning this spring I waltzed out the front door with luggage on my way to take a kiddo to the airport. Heading back into the house for one last bag, and a quick last sweep, I was thrilled to find this gorgeous mama spider carrying her precious cargo of hundreds (ok, probably closer to a thousand!) babies! Now, I don't want these little guys in my house, but I have NO problem letting them chow down on bugs around the outside of the house, or in the garden!

[lilplanthuman]

Can you spot the tiny garden friend? 🐞

[tenpolegardener]

Plenty of help in the garden..... comes in all shapes and sizes.

[natureisthegreatestartist]

What’s this? A lacewing, a lovely, beneficial insect you’ll want in your garden.