Meanwhile, what's been happening in the garden?

Time for a break from holiday photos and a catch up with the garden.

These photos are from July, August and September, and I'll post them in date order. Back in July I saw this young Praying Mantis (Mantis religiosa) walking along the wall of the house. It was only about 4cm long.

I've seen some new to the garden butterflies this summer, the first of which I was really pleased to see - the Lulworth Skipper (Thymelicus acteon)! They used to love my lavender at the last house too.

I'm not sure what this butterfly is below, possibly a Common Blue. I only saw its underside.

True Bugs. Left is a Fire Bug (Pyrrhocoris apterus), known in France as a Gendarme. Middle top and bottom is a Red Shield Bug (Carpocoris mediterraneus), presumably not in its final instar which will be red, and right is a seed bug called Spilostethus pandurus.

The geraniums looked great for a couple of months until the naughty Geranium Bronze butterflies had their wicked way with them, but by then the Bidens which was also in many of the pots took over. Bidens is the orangey flowering plant in the foreground - and they are still looking like this now in November, although the flowers have turned a darker orange. What a great plant! There is also a Lantana amongst these plants - all the Lantanas survived the winter and have been flowering around the pool all summer and some still have flowers on even now.

August and the tomatoes and chillies were doing well.

I made four new tomato plants from the side shoots which had grown whilst we were away in June; it's a great way to get free plants so long as you can propagate this way early enough to get a crop.

I was so happy to see flowers on my Lagerstroemia shrub as it's the first time it has bloomed since we moved here. I love these shrubs so much I even bought a new one as I'd given up on this one! Guess what? They both had flowers on this year! I'm not sure why the leaves were this colour, they do seem to be more of a copper colour but I think the intensity is due to the dry conditions. The ones I see when driving around all have green leaves though.

Now onto September: Me and my shadow. 😀 I didn't want to crop the picture! This is the first summer for the Nectar Bar and it's done remarkably well given the dry conditions. We did start watering after a while as some plants were not doing well, even so, it's fairly impossible to water enough, and with our water restrictions we couldn't use the hose after about July/August. You can see how dry the grass was!

We had a decent rainfall at the end of September which has greened things up a lot, but since then only small amounts of rain, so most of the trees and shrubs this autumn are just a dull yellowy brown. October (whilst we were away!) was also a warm month, so there haven't been any frosts yet, which I think also help with autumn leaf colour. 

This end was quite full and floral compared to the other end. I had no idea the Gaura would be so big, and the Sage 'Hot Lips' (foreground) has flowered its face off from about June to now. The other sages haven't got as established and are much smaller.

It felt quite autumnal when the berries formed on the Pyracantha hedge!

These garlic chives in a pot will be divided up and moved to my Nectar Bar next spring. The ones in my herb bed have self seeded and the new plants are already flowering! Insects love them, the flowers look great, and the leaves are of course, garlic flavoured chives! Win win. 👍

Another new to the garden butterfly has been the Brown Argus (Aricia agestis). I first spotted a pair mating when I didn't have a camera with me, but luckily I saw them again. I'm not sure if this is a male or female, as they both have sex brands (the dark mark on upper forewing).

The third butterfly I saw was a Long-tailed Blue (Lampides boeticus). I saw one in my garden in Brittany so it's not a lifer, but still special. I saw one in the garden again since we came back from holiday, at the beginning of November, but I didn't have a camera either time!

Then there is this one, who for the life of me I cannot ID! It's old and worn, with the outer white edges of the wings worn away, but mostly it's the white markings at the bottom of the upper hindwings which puzzle me. It also has the extra markings on the underside of the forewing which not many Blues have. It's possible it is an Adonis Blue?? Hmmmm. 😕

A final photo of a 5-spot Burnet moth (Zygaena trifolii).

You can see that the most popular nectar plants for butterflies and moths are Lavender, Perovskia (aka Russian Sage), and Sedum. I'm looking forward to this Sedum growing bigger in the future. Given that I have spring bulbs planted, and there are still plants flowering, it looks like I should get about eight to nine months of nectar for the insects! 👍😀

P.S. Whilst we are on an insect post, do you remember this caterpillar I came across back in April, which was crossing the road? I've since discovered that it's the larva of the Glanville Fritillary butterfly!

Finally - phew, it is SO much easier blogging on my desktop, compared to my ipad!!! 😀