Calling all Earwigs!
Insect friends, fruits from houseplants and more Rootbound Clippings
I hesitate as I make my way to the corner of the basement. I hold my breath as I open the box. I very, very carefully lift the top layers of papers but – no matter how careful I am – I see one. An earwig. This sequence takes place every few months when I realize I need something from one of those dreaded boxes in the basement. And every time that earwig will make me cringe and send shivers down my spine. So I was shocked to see this product when we were in Belgium last week:
Every paper-filled cardboard box in our home is an earwig condominium so I don’t think I have a need for an “earwig pot” but according to the description on the side of the box, we should feel lucky to have them around:
Earwigs are beneficial insects in the garden and make an important contribution to organic gardening. The nocturnal animals are true omnivores, feeding on small insects and plant waste. Aphids, mites and their eggs belong to their favourite dishes.
I’m still not rushing to buy an earwig pot but I’ll keep letting them live in our basement. And I just learned from Wikipedia that there are about 2,000 species of earwigs which – honestly – gives me the willies. I just don’t like insects with the word “ear” in their name. Maybe if I referred to them by their scientific name, Dermaptera, I’d find them more lovable?
One More Human!
Brooke and I took a trip to Europe this month to visit friends and family. And it wasn’t just the two of us – there’s a third one now! We had a kid! Here’s me and a Aviv (he’s in that stroller) on a snowy evening in Helsinki:
Brooke wrote and drew about this new development on her substack, Never Not Nervous:
You can read the whole comic here:
And if you’re new around here, this is an installment of Rootbound Clippings, where I share some brief planty thoughts along with related articles and links.
Eat Your Houseplants
Like many of you, I have a monstera plant at home. Someone gifted it to us a few years ago and it’s made itself at home in the dimmest corner of our sunroom. A few years ago I learned that the plant’s latin name, Monstera deliciosa, refers to the “delicious” fruit grown by the plant. Mine – and I’m assuming yours too – has never grown fruit.
According to a recent post by
, that’s because the plant would need to grow over a dozen feet tall before it started fruiting. So what does the fruit taste like? You can read Jack’s review here:
Designed to Fail in the Garden
I love planting seeds and replanting seedlings. I love digging out a pond and pruning shrubs. And I think I’m decent at all those things. But I don’t think I’m a great garden designer. This post from
’s new Substack, , made me feel a lot better about that. Kate’s an expert at gardening for wildlife. She’s written books about it and regularly appears on the BBC’s Gardeners World. Kate also doesn’t feel confident about her garden designing skills. In the post she writes:It’s a work in progress, as all gardens are, and I’m still tinkering away, trying to achieve the perfect border, trying to hide the huge shed at the end of the garden, trying to find the dreamy balance of plants that work in baked clay in full sun in summer, and sodden clay in full shade in autumn and winter.
Kate’s friend, Planty Jane, came to the rescue with some helpful design advice and Kate writes all about in this inspiring and informative post:
And if you need some design advice yourself (raising my hand) then this resource from Jared Barnes might come in handy. It had me nodding from the first few sentences:
Planting design can be overwhelming for people. Where do you start? How do you combine plants together?
Jared walks through the various vegetation layers that naturally occur in wild landscapes and then explains how you can recreate them in your garden. Jared, who’s an expert at this kind of thing, breaks it down in such a helpful way. It’s already given me a few ideas for next planting season. You can find that here.
Have you come across any helpful gardening stories recently? Or have you just grown yoru first monstera fruit? Or do you love earwigs? I’d love to hear about all of it.
And one more thing: Despite the recent chilly temperatures in Pittsburgh, my garden phlox is still phlowering!
Hope your garden is still doing some interesting things!
I was just in Madeira and the Monstera plant fruit is sold in the markets -- marketed as Pineapple-Banana. I even saw one in the wild while on a hike. Several people at my hostel were trying to figure out if they could get away with smuggling one back home. I tried it. It just tasted kind of okay to me... just not a flavor convo I'm use to. .........oh I'm with you with earwigs -- I also am afraid of them. I blame Star Trek II, with that icky ear scene. I asked my mom who was a public health nurse at the time if bugs could crawl into your years, to which she said, well yes. I plugged my ears with cotton at bedtime for awhile. I also went on a long bike camping trip through Oregon and Washington and there were always an earwig in the tent or on my drying bike clothes. ugh!
Mazel tov on the arrival of your baby!
I had a best friend in 3rd grade whose mother wouldn’t allow her to have any pets so she found an earwig in her garden, put it in a little box, gave it a name (I don’t remember what), and called it her pet. She kept it in her desk at school and I thought it was a creepy, horrible pet but pretended to like it because she was my best friend and I didn’t want to hurt her feelings.