About mid-August each year, I find myself wishing I could have a garden 'do-over'.  I wish I could take everything I've learned during the season and well, start over,  I imagine doing it all again, only better.  

It's September now and the wish for a 'do-over' has passed.  I've accepted the season for what it was – wet and cold, definitely tough conditions for tomatoes and other heat-loving plants.  That's just the way it was all across the north.

My modest experiment in vegetable growing continues.  Here are some lessons learned.  Experienced vegetable growers may laugh at these 'lessons'.  Still, we learn from our mistakes, don't we?  

My garden taught me ...

• It's easy to overestimate the number of kale plants one person can eat, share or store.
• Cucumbers don't like competition.  Memo for next year, banish scarlet runner beans from the cucumber supports no matter how charming they look.
• Shallots are classy produce worth growing.  Give them room to be their best.
• Swiss chard can grow happily in a mixed perennial border.
• Surprisingly, a zucchini plant can fail to produce.
• Carrots are tricky.
• In future, plant way more lettuce.
  ​

 The last lesson?​  The often-quoted H. Fred Ale said it best ...

It's a different story when it comes to vegetable gardening.  In this, I am a relative newbie.  I am learning slowly about seeding, planting dates and spacing.  I am starting over, it seems, to build knowledge about a different aspect of gardening.  

This season, I have felt off balance.  The weeks leading into summer were downright cold.  The ground stayed miserably cold even after the risk of frost had passed.  Peas and beans easily rot in such conditions. Looking increasingly sad, tender vegetable starts were left languishing in pots when they should have been in my raised bed. It seemed planting would go on indefinitely or worse, that summer would never arrive.  

Indeed, in some areas of the north, summer seems to have been cancelled. Gardeners I know in the Timmins area are despairing, having faced at least two frosts and the loss of soon-to-be productive plants.  Sadly, it is now too late in the season to replant.  

This is all very distracting for an inexperienced vegetable gardener.  Each rainy day has me wondering what will I harvest this year? 

Still, I've had more than one salad with fresh arugula.  The carrots and beets are coming along.  The beans and kale – which I transplanted as small seedlings as a hedge against foraging chipmunks and crows – are growing ably.  The zucchini have set their first fruits; so have the cucumbers as they climb up their supports.  

Yes,  there is the green exuberance of hostas, ferns and astilbes to enjoy as a consolation.  Whatever the season's outcome, I will gather experience– if not ripe tomatoes!  I will take what my vegetable garden teaches me.  

When another growing season draws near, I feel newly aware of promise and possibility.  Soon I'll be reaching for my spade; just now, though, I've been reaching for advice on cultivation – and on what gardening can mean in our lives.  

In her good reflective article, What gardening can do for us, Toronto-based garden writer Gayla Trail (yougrowgirl.com) declares that "Growing food transforms us into producers – something we desperately need in a passive consumer culture where we have become an audience watching life rather than producers making it. Growing food provides a connection to and an understanding of where our food comes from. It schools us in what food looks like when it comes out of the ground or off of the vine, with all of its shapes, flaws, beauty, and flavor. The work involved in growing our own food provides first-hand knowledge of the labour that goes into growing it and teaches us not to take it or the work that farmers do for granted. It transforms our expectations and turns us into educated consumers who know the value of good, well-grown produce."  

I encourage you to read Gayla's full article.  She also explores the effects of gardening on creativity, on being more aware,  on connecting to the earth, and on connecting to the child within.  These are values I seek in my gardening life too.

I do believe gardening transforms us in many ways, including into healthier people.  When I work in my garden, I feel more connected to the weather, to the shape and structure of plants, and their needs as they bloom and mature.  I come to know once again the good work of coaxing food from the ground, the reward of nurturing flowers into beautiful bloom.

I agree with Gayla when she says, "No matter what goes on in my life and no matter how off-balanced and alienated I may feel, stepping into the garden brings me back to centre, back to myself, and back to that sense of connectedness to nature, the processes of life, and the greater world beyond."

Today, I joined in the most surprisingly well-attended event in Thunder Bay this month.  City residents were invited to join the Thunder Bay Centennial Botanical Conservatory staff as they released a batch of beneficial insects in the Conservatory.  Believe it or not, about 400 people – couples, families, seniors and avid photographers – showed up to 'bear witness'.

A shipment of 9,000 Ladybugs (Coccinellidae septempunctata, also called seven-spot ladybird beetles), as well as Black Lady Beetle (Lindorus lophanthae) and Common Lacewings (Chrysoperla carnea) were released.  Praying mantis egg cases were placed in a viewing chamber and will hatch in the coming sunny days.

Why, you might ask.  

These beneficial insects will travel throughout the Conservatory and the adjoining greenhouses, controlling thrips, mites, scale insects and other pests without the use of chemical pesticides. Perfect, and simple.

Why are ladybugs considered a beneficial insect?
Ladybugs (​C. septempunctata) "has a broad ecological range", according to Wikipedia, "generally living where there are aphids for it to eat. Both the adults and the larvae are voracious predators of aphids, and because of this, C. septempunctata has been repeatedly introduced to North America as a biological control agent to reduce aphid numbers."   This little insect is now well established in North America.

What is the lifecycle of a ladybug?   
Ladybugs undergo what is called a 'true metamorphosis'.  Like butterflies, they begin life as an egg, hatch into a larva, form a pupa and then emerge as an adult insect.  The pupa stage in a ladybug lasts about one week.

What about those spots?
The seven-spot ladybird's colour develops over time.  The red colour deepens over the weeks after the adult emerges form the pupa.  The dark colours are derived from melanins and the lighter ones from carotenes.  The entry in the Invasive  Species Compendium states that, "although some adults vary considerably in colour pattern, C. septempunctata show little variation, although spot number ranges between 0 and 9, and variation in spot strength is said to be 'considerable'." Typically, adults are red with seven black spots.  Those distinctive spots and attractive colours apparently make them unappealing to predators. Ladybugs can secrete a fluid from joints in their legs which gives them a foul taste.

Is there really enough for these beneficial insects to eat in a Conservatory environment?
I would say there is enough.  From a ladybug's perspective, our Conservatory is a big place. According to Buglogical Control Systems, a commercial supplier of beneficial insects, "Ladybugs are capable of consuming up to 50 to 60 aphids per day, but will also eat a variety of other insects and larvae including scales, mealy bugs, leaf hoppers, mites, and various types of soft-bodied insects...  Ladybugs are natural enemies of many insect pests and it has been demonstrated that a single ladybug may consume as many as 5,000 aphids in its lifetime."  The release of ladybugs has been the insect management practice at the Conservatory for several years.  

By the way, ladybugs are usually thirsty when they are released.  That explains why they congregate on moist leaves.  

A cold, wet afternoon in March.  Little beetles finding their way on a big space filled with tropical plants.  Who knew that could spark such interest? ​ Wonderful.