Returning home each evening, I look for aliens. I suspect that not many carry out a similar task. Growing up, as the eldest, I was delegated responsibility for grass cutting and supervised gardening duties. This succeeded in putting me off gardening for a long time. My first home had a small rear garden which looked its best when it was covered over in plywood for the barbecue held when I was leaving. I mellowed with our current house and did learn to appreciate plants, gardening and even nice looking grass. I even became an attendee at the likes of Fota Plant Fair and would have visited gardens and gardening forums. This gardening bug was there for a few years but after experiences of the new dog digging up plants as chewing toys, creating holes in the grass as a good place to try to bury things, and generally thinking plants are good for walking over, I have mellowed into acceptance that ‘so long as it looks o.k., then fine’. But I do like lilies. Unfortunately the red lily beetle does also. So before entering the front door, I can be spotted looking at the underside of the leaves on the lilies for the aliens and ending their existence. Often, I can be spotted with a paper towel cleaning off their excrement in which they hide their eggs. Not quite as exciting as the science fiction movies…… |