Lots and Lots of Ladybugs

In the movie "Under the Tuscan Sun" one character has a metaphor for chasing after love.

“When I was a little girl, I used to run around in the fields all day, trying unsuccessfully to catch ladybugs,” Katherine says. “I’d get tired and lay down for a nap. When I awoke, I’d find the ladybugs walking all over me.”

Later, the character she told the story to thinks she has found love and tells her "Ladybugs, Katherine. Lots and lots of ladybugs."

Well, if you want to get covered in ladybugs (real, not metaphorical) then just come over to my garden.

I have been meaning to get my garden in shape and plant the vegetables and herbs I bought for this season. But every time I go to do it, the wind howls and the dirt flies in my face. So this week I cleaned out the garden and got rid of weeds and the mint that wants to take over (I'm going to be pulling mint forever, which is why this year it's going in a pot!) The sage is flowering and huge so I cut it back (and brought the flowers in the house) and the parsley, thyme and chives were growing madly so I cut them back too. I dug up the roots of the dead plants and watered so that I could turn the soil and mix in some organic material so that things will have some decent soil. There are all sorts of bugs in my garden, some weird little bugs and earthworms (good for the soil so they can stay) and I found these strange black and red bugs. When I went again the strange red and black bugs had become lady bugs. I looked them up on the Internet and indeed they are ladybug pupa and larvae. I must have a hundred ladybugs in my little patch.

Now I know that people buy ladybugs to put in their gardens to help control aphids so the ladybugs in my garden have an open invitation to stay. I just don't know where they all came from. I didn't see any in my garden last year, but this year there are so many. Last year I had praying mantis' and I hope they come back too. Every time I see the ladybugs I think of the rhyme we used to say. "Ladybug, ladybug, fly away home. Your house is on fire and your children will burn." I think this is a weird one, but apparently it was sung to warn the ladybugs when farmers burned their crops at the end of the season. I doubt the ladybugs understood. And apparently ladybugs are called ladybirds in the UK.

My garden will have the aforementioned herbs plus three kinds of basil, cilantro, tarragon, three kinds of tomatoes, dill, peppermint, spearmint and pineapple sage. I'm also going to plant strawberries but they always die on me so I don't know why I plant them but I'm going to try again.

Happy spring, Loyal Readers. And I wish you lots and lots of ladybugs.