blockhill - forest garden experience & education

North Canterbury

Bee swarm

Bee swarm

It started with a few bees buzzing around the corner of the house and quickly turned into several thousand.
Hoping to prevent their entry into the roof cavity I blocked up the small hole they had discovered and tried to forget about it. They wouldn't give up.
November 19, 2010
  bees  swarm  insects 
Monarch butterflies enjoying blossoms in the forest garden

Monarch butterflies enjoying blossoms in the forest garden

Details   We've had plenty of nice, sunny warm weather and the monarch and red admiral butterflies are getting into the stone fruit blossom, brassica flowers and tagasaste nectar.
Date   September 11, 2018
Tags     2018  insects  blossom 
Baby praying mantis

Baby praying mantis

A recently hatched young praying mantis. These guys hunt and eat other insects which is generally a beneficial trait.
  insect 
Beneficial insects

Beneficial insects

Insects play an import role in the health of our gardens and the wider ecosystem. By creating a conducive environment we can encourage the tiny helpers to hang around. Insects prey on others, pollinate plants, are food for birds and generally add to the richness, complexity and diversity of a healthy ecosystem.
  insects 
Dung beetles

Dung beetles

Aphodius fimetarius is a species of scarab beetles native and common to Europe.

I first noticed them in kunekune pig manure in 2018. Reportedly first seen on Banks Peninsula in 2004.
Adult bugs are up to 8mm long and emerge to fly to new sites after spending their juvenile phase inside the manure.
December 08, 2020
Predatory insects

Predatory insects

Since arriving at this location in 2009 and allowing it to revert to a more natural way while introducing lots of new biodiversity, we have noticed a continual increase in the numbers and types of insects and other small creatures. There is a whole world of barely noticed activity where spiders and flies, ladybugs and butterflies live out their tiny dramas...
Here a preying mantis devours a fly on a pear tree.
April 02, 2019
  insect