I seem to be spending an inordinate amount of time on my knees, face first in the soil lately.
Most of it has been spent removing the navelwort ground cover, Omphaloides cappadoicica. But there have been sporadic chore switches to removing old hellebore foliage, ratty fern fronds, bearing down on the early spring crop of weeds and digging dandelions out of my lawn.
I wonder why gardening experts recommend we leave dandelion flowers for the pollinators. The only insect I have seen on dandelion flowers are thrips and they are not always a good insect in the garden. Granted, they do pollinate plants in the Ericaceae (heath) family but they can also do considerable damage to fruit and vegetable crops.
Carrying on 鈥� I have been spotting quite a number of very tiny earthworms whilst chasing after the broken remnants of navelwort roots. And they are tiny! Some are barely 6 mm (0.25 in) long. Trying my best not to damage them but it is a challenge at that size. Good thing they are a translucent pink colour.
Did you know garden earthworms can live up to eight years? Although, a U.K. website claims the common earthworm, Lumbricus terriestris, a worm we also have here in Canada, can live up to 20 years. That is impressive! Mind you, roto-tilling your soil, environmental influences such as heat waves and flooding, as well as birds, large insects, small animals and even snakes will all impact on an earthworm鈥檚 life span.
Warning: if you are an arachnophobe, you may want to skim this next paragraph because I am going to mention the chance encounters I have been having with a few spiders as I dig in my garden.
Personally, I have never been bothered by them, even as a kid. Couldn鈥檛 tell you how many times I had to rescue wolf spiders from the bathtub in our family home because my mom and sister were too squeamish, even John leaves spider removals to me. In fact, I won an award for my science project on spiders in elementary school. Probably because of the large spider web I designed with string and a tree branch.
Did you know spiders have been around for over 400 billion years? Did you also know a single strand of spider silk 40,075 km (24,901 mi) long 鈥� which is the circumference of our planet 鈥� would only weigh 340g (12 oz)? No wonder it is called Mother Nature鈥檚 marvel. Especially when you learn engineers have calculated that a web woven of spider silk that is the thickness of a pencil would be capable of stopping a jumbo jet in midair.
Legend has it that Genghis Khan鈥檚 battle successes were primarily due to the protective clothing his army wore. The clothing was interwoven with spider silk making it strong enough to deflect enemy arrows. I hazard there well may be a modicum of truth to this but I am not brave enough to test the theory. I am just glad the web breaks when I take it on the face.
Surprise discovery. Our 10 year old grandson is an ophidiophobic. He is afraid of snakes, as is our son-in-law. Not me! I encourage them as they are awesome slug hunters and boy, have I ever been finding a lot of baby slugs in the garden. Darn things have been chewing the heck out of our primula floral display this spring. Unfortunately, the garter snakes also have an appetite for our baby goldfish.
Word to the wise: if you cringe at the creepy crawlies you encounter as you work amongst your plants, think about the positive aspects they contribute to the health of your garden.
