What a great post Ivy! I join into your sighs! In all of this "everything has to look nice and orderly" mankind as forgotten nature :-) The tip with putting the ladybugs into the refridgerator is perfect! We had a case of aphids in the willow-tippi in kindergarden this spring and since I am responsible for all of the gardening there, my response was "we are not spraying anything, we just call the lady bugs to lay their eggs :-) It worked perfectly well and now the willow is prospering just fine... And I will have to make sure to arrange the next layer of the tippi structure, haha :-)

In those over 20 years of gardening organically I have learned that less is more all the time. And that it is worth to listen to nature before our human trained brain stepps into action - and to interact instead of battling :-) Perfect post of yours and I adore your macro-photos!!!

Have a wunderfull weekend and Cheers from the Seven Mountains in Germany