Ladybug Larvae in the Garden and Reworking Old Cottage Siding

There was ladybug larvae in our garden and we began the task of reworking our old cottage siding that started to peel.

We continued to learn about many new things as we tackled projects around our little pine cottage. First of all, what the heck ladybug larvae are and what they look like! That was definitely a new experience. And we also learned why the primer on our old original siding started to peel and what we needed to do to remedy the situation.

FIRST RAIN STORM ON NEW GARDEN BEDS

A storm came through after I had planted my first seeds and seedlings into our brand new raised garden beds! There was a lot of rain and maybe even some hail. It was pounding on the house and I was afraid that my poor seedling babies would have been damaged.

dark outside with rain on raised garden beds

There was so much rain that it was forming huge puddles all around our property. Not to mention the frightening lightning and thunder all happening at once. The good news was that the water was going away from the house though as a result of the swale we had dug in our yard.

It was a really disheartening feeling after putting in all that hard work to get the garden started. I was anxious to get out there to check on everything, but it was impossible until the rain stopped.

The next morning, I eagerly made my way into the garden stepping through the squishy ground until I reached the raised garden beds. I was a bit nervous to see the results, but knew after such a hard rain, that there was bound to be some sort of damage.

It was amazing to see the bright sunshine after the storm and how dry it actually looked in the garden. It was like nothing had happened but a nice rain shower to feed all of the living things. To my delightful surprise, my seedlings seemed to be just fine. They were tough and took on the storm like champs!

sweet pea seedlings in raised garden beds

I checked on my snap peas first and they looked great. Then it was the radishes, spinach, and cilantro. Everything was all good and growing really fast because of the rain.

LADYBUG LARVAE

Most of us are familiar with ladybugs, but what about ladybug larvae?! I started to notice these tiny black reptile like creatures with orange spots on them all throughout my new garden. At first, I was alarmed and thought that they were predators! But, after a little research, I realized that they are actually good for gardens. All I wanted after that was for them to stick around and make my garden their home.

They were everywhere and all over our new garden beds. It was such a delight and I tried my best to make sure they felt welcomed! I have never in my life experienced such fascinating creatures. Yea, I know, another reminder of my city roots.

Although aphids (another creature I’ve learned about in gardening) can be awful pests (literally!) in the garden, they are food for ladybug larvae. That is a good thing as the ladybug larvae help to keep the aphid population on your plants down as they love to feast on them and ruin your crops.

LADYBUG LARVAE PUPA (COCOON)

As time went by I noticed that the ladybug larvae were transitioning into their cocoon phase or what I researched as their pupa stage. I have never seen or heard of this process before and it was pretty fascinating!

I was getting the inside scoop on how these little creatures form into ladybugs and become my ally in the garden. After the hungry aphid eating larvae roamed around the beds feasting to their hearts content, they formed these cocoon like shells around their soft bodies and went dormant for a while.

It was incredible to see them later popped out of their pupa and exploring the world in a new hard shelled ladybug body. One of them didn’t even have spots on it yet and was more of an orange color than red. After a bit of time, you could see very faint black spots starting to form over its body. Such an incredible thing to witness!

As the saying goes, if you build it they will come! These little guys must’ve known we were building a garden. It was so cool to actually see the progress of their life cycle! I was so excited because I’ve heard that they are really good for your garden.

COTTAGE SIDING

In a prior blog post, we showed how we uncovered the old original siding on our little pine cottage. We restored it, sanded and primed it. The problem was that we used water based primer instead of oil based and it started to peel. We learned that you have to use oil based primer on old wood because it sticks to it better. So then Nate had to power wash the siding to prep it for oil based primer this time!

The story of our lives and working backwards! After Nate prepped the siding for oil based primer by power washing it, he began to sand it down with an electric sander to remove as much old primer as possible. It’s a lot of work and wasted time when you have to go back over things. But, that’s a part of the learning process, to fail and then fail again, all while you learn and get better the next time! Hopefully!

Materials & Tools We Used

Power Washer: This was used to remove old chipping primer from the siding. We were prepping the siding for a fresh coat of oil based primer.
Electric Sander: This tool with this attachment was used to remove as much old primer as possible after power washing. To give the siding a smooth finish and ready for a new coat of oil based primer.
Pitch Fork: We used a pitch fork to remove the compost from our bin and break it up. This helps to break down the compost a bit faster so that it’s ready to use sooner.
Shovel: We used a shovel to scoop the compost back into the outdoor bin after it was broken down. Don’t forget to layer the scoops of compost with other materials like leaves, grass, water, etc.

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small cottage with wood siding exposed and man electric sanding siding

CHECK OUT OUR VIDEOS

Thanks for joining us on this journey! We hope that you will find inspiration watching us learn as we go while we’re attempting to renovate and rebuild this old small historic cottage mostly on our own~ while working full time jobs! Stay tuned for more progress updates ahead. Read more about us here.

You can also watch a video about this here.