LEATHERJACKETS ATE MY LAWN

This is a post left over from when Loose and Leafy was a work of fiction. Later, it evolved into what it is now - a blog about the wild plants of the South Dorset Coast.

To make sense (in so far as there is sense) of these early posts, you may like to take a look at Esther in the Garden.

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Leatherjackets:
Leatherjackets are like long, brown maggots that have been rolled in cocoa-dust.
When they grow up, they become jennylegs / daddylonglegs / crane flies; those large, flying spidery things which bounce into your face in September and trail their stiff-thread legs up walls.


But when they are young they are dry-brown, inch-long, maggoty wrinkled disgusts which burrow through the roots of grass and eat them.
Before that first winter was done, the might-have-been-a-lawn had vanished.

There wasn't a single withered square left and the ground had been turned into an impenetrable mud rink from which rain slid down into my kitchen.

Now, let's think of something else.

This sky, for instance.

Or this water.

There are better things in life than leatherjackets.

For tomorrow's post, click here.

For yesterday's post, click here.