The whole of how things work together is something that is coming to me late in life. I mean of course its been something that has always been understood but not quite appreciated in the way it should be.

This last year we gave our first real start into gardening and for the toils and costs we honestly got very little but it holds something more to it when you go out to the yard to pick a meal.

One of the biggest issues was aphids, just decimated many plants. After purchasing ladybeetles a growing population began to settle things out. The hope is that next year their progeny will be in numbers great enough and acclimated to do their job here to let us see some success in areas where it was sparse this year.

As far as bees go, well we had no shortage there in fact at times they were overwhelming at water sources. One of my daughters overweight lazy cats would lay in the grass near where they were accumulating and with as little effort as possible lift a paw and take a bee out of the air trapping it for a second then release it to fly away. Was quite surprised that after doing this several dozen time he still had not been stung, I guess we have gentle bees.