Itsy Bitsy & Our Garden Friends

After last week’s downpour, I was a little heartbroken for the Man-child that his friend Itsy Bitsy had vanished. The only evidence of her existence was her shredded, abandoned web. Several days later, I was outside the fence and spied a new writing spider, and we determined that she was Itsty Bitsy’s younger cousin, Little Bitsy.

Litty Bitsy

This evening (garden walk!) I was picking at the tomato vines and nearly jumped to see Itsy Bitsy had returned and was right at my eye level. Hello! Where have you been? I ran back inside yelling excitedly for Man-child, who was just as excited to see she had returned. Her new home is right next to the plastic owl, and I can only assume she’s cleverly chosen a spot safe from birds.

Itsy Bitsy. She’s not so small, is she?

The other surprise was that this bi-color dahlia that I adopted from a clearance rack had opened up a blossom.

Before this year, I had not given much thought to planting flowers, but after the bees left early last summer once the clover blossoms had been mowed over, I realized that I wasn’t doing enough to entice them to my gardens. I’ve always been very timid around bees, which I attribute to getting stung on the buttocks as a small child while potty training. While I knew I needed bees for pollination, last year I tried to make up for their absence using a vibrating tooth brush on the tomatoes and pipe cleaners on the squash.

Now that the bees are being pampered, they are doing all that work for me. The funny thing is, they don’t mind me now that they have plenty work to do, whereas in the past they’d curiously buzz around my head and legs causing all sorts of spastic moves for the neighbors to enjoy.

I’ve also attempted to enhance the diversity in the garden by planting a variety of flowers and intermingling tomatoes with herbs, peppers, and french marigolds. Every time I deadhead a flower, I sprinkle the seeds all over the garden. I have small marigolds popping up all over. There’s been no shortage of pollinators, dragonflies and all sorts of other winged insects that I haven’t identified. You grow it, and they will come! As much as I enjoy the garden, I can’t help but grin to think of how many other critters out there are reaping the benefits even more so than myself. I only hope that doe stays away for the rest of the season!