Thursday, August 9, 2007
Wednesday, August 8, 2007
various pictures of the Anole I found in the yard today...
This one is actually a really bad photo...but I just call it 'Artsy'. And really, I probably should have cropped all of them...meh, I'm lazy.
Yay for Hymenoptera Braconidae
Yep, that's right, we've got Parasitic Wasps. Yay!!!! Here they are eating a hornworm:
The wasp pupae are the little white grains of rice on the worm. Eventually, they will kill the worm and eat it. Furthermore, they are called 'wasps' but they aren't harmful to humans. Is it any wonder that some people will pay good money to buy some of these wasps to naturally control garden pests like caterpillars, ants, and aphids?
The wasp pupae are the little white grains of rice on the worm. Eventually, they will kill the worm and eat it. Furthermore, they are called 'wasps' but they aren't harmful to humans. Is it any wonder that some people will pay good money to buy some of these wasps to naturally control garden pests like caterpillars, ants, and aphids?
Sunday, August 5, 2007
Caterpillars (8-5-07)
It's okay though, these ones are most likely Black Swallowtail Butterfly caterpillars. They like plants in the carrot family (carrots, dill, fennel, parsley). Had I known about the parsley and the fact that the butterflies and caterpillars would be here, I probably wouldn't have been so keen on eradicating the excess parsley from the garden. (both pictures unedited, and I used the telephoto lens on "macro" mode).
Caterpillar about ready to pupate (make its little chrysalises thing). (Backyard garden)
Smaller caterpillar. If you click on the picture to see the full sized image, you can just make out little 'horns' on the back. These go away as the caterpillar gets closer to pupating. (front yard garden--this parsley plants was one that I cut down to the ground and it started coming back).
Also, I found a praying mantis, but by the time I got inside to get the camera, it was gone.
I severely cut back the tomato plants--because of all the rain we've been getting, the tomatoes haven't been doing so well and the leaves all started turning yellow and looking rotten. The last couple of times I've pulled fruit off, it's had soft spots on it...almost like the fruit itself got too much water in it.
The cantaloupe plant also was getting too much water...it's a good thing it's supposed to be a drying trend now. The plant, though, has 2 cantaloupes and today I went out and fertilized some of the female flowers (I got that idea from this blog that Colin wrote...also, maybe I ought to try a ginormous pumpkin some year soon).
Oh right, because of all the rain, the rosemary plant finally gave up and died. I think I'm going to leave it in the ground though, just to see if it happens to come back next year.
Caterpillar about ready to pupate (make its little chrysalises thing). (Backyard garden)
Smaller caterpillar. If you click on the picture to see the full sized image, you can just make out little 'horns' on the back. These go away as the caterpillar gets closer to pupating. (front yard garden--this parsley plants was one that I cut down to the ground and it started coming back).Also, I found a praying mantis, but by the time I got inside to get the camera, it was gone.
I severely cut back the tomato plants--because of all the rain we've been getting, the tomatoes haven't been doing so well and the leaves all started turning yellow and looking rotten. The last couple of times I've pulled fruit off, it's had soft spots on it...almost like the fruit itself got too much water in it.
The cantaloupe plant also was getting too much water...it's a good thing it's supposed to be a drying trend now. The plant, though, has 2 cantaloupes and today I went out and fertilized some of the female flowers (I got that idea from this blog that Colin wrote...also, maybe I ought to try a ginormous pumpkin some year soon).
Oh right, because of all the rain, the rosemary plant finally gave up and died. I think I'm going to leave it in the ground though, just to see if it happens to come back next year.
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
Pictures from the garden Friday July 20
Go to this link. I'm too lazy to repost all the pictures here.
Thursday, July 19, 2007
damn birds
Damn birds made off with one of my almost ripe tomatoes. Stupid ass birds. good thing I don't like tomatoes, eh?
Sunday, July 8, 2007
7-08-07
Fruits of my labor:
So, we've gotten a few cayennes (probably 5 or so, but there are more on the way), a handful of Lima beans (not enough serve though), and a tomato (and 2 more close to ripe)...so far, I think the cayennes are a keeper. The tomatoes just don't do as well as I like. and it seems like some animal goes about digging up the Lima beans.
the cantaloupe in the back yard has taken off, and a few of the basil seeds I planted came up, but they're funny looking plants compared to last year's basil. And I noticed today that one of the reseeded basils came up too.
Herbs:
last weekend we got a letter from our Home Owners Association (which is only funny because we don't have any associated fees for said home owners association, and there's no covenants or anything) stating that we needed to mow and trim our lawn. This of course spawned quite the strongly worded letter from Shawn, but it also got me off my lazy ass to go out and rip up all the plants that were dead or i didn't like. So, I cut one of the reseeded parsley plants out front down to the ground. Then I dried the leaves. Now I got 2 sandwich baggies full of parsley.
So, my suggestion if you're going to grow any sort of herbs is to invest in a dehydrator. Mostly because you'll need it. Plus, they're great.
Mulching/Composting:
We went and bought a chipper from Harbor Freight on Saturday. This was so we could finally chip up all the branches from last year we cut off of our trees, plus the new pile of branches Shawn cut off the trees this year. We spent 4 hours chipping and sorting. Yes, we put the branches in the chipper, but the chipper doesn't exactly do much to leaves so we had to sort through all the detritus to pull out the large chunks of leaves so we could use the wood chips as mulch cover in the garden and out front. All I really have to say is that my legs hurt. well, after 4 hours of squatting I bet your legs would hurt too!
Rain/Watering:
Austin has gotten a large amount of rain over the last couple of weeks (this is the year that Marble Falls got 19" of rain in 6 hours--Lake Travis crested at 701 msl, and the LCRA thinks they'll have to have floodgates open until August). It started when Dani came to town on June 20th, and yesterday was the first day it hasn't rained. I ended up watering some newly transplanted plants (just to keep them from dying), but other than that, I haven't watered anything. Every time I've gone to look at the little rain gauge, it's always had at least half an inch of water in it (and I check the thing about once a day).
So, we've gotten a few cayennes (probably 5 or so, but there are more on the way), a handful of Lima beans (not enough serve though), and a tomato (and 2 more close to ripe)...so far, I think the cayennes are a keeper. The tomatoes just don't do as well as I like. and it seems like some animal goes about digging up the Lima beans.
the cantaloupe in the back yard has taken off, and a few of the basil seeds I planted came up, but they're funny looking plants compared to last year's basil. And I noticed today that one of the reseeded basils came up too.
Herbs:
last weekend we got a letter from our Home Owners Association (which is only funny because we don't have any associated fees for said home owners association, and there's no covenants or anything) stating that we needed to mow and trim our lawn. This of course spawned quite the strongly worded letter from Shawn, but it also got me off my lazy ass to go out and rip up all the plants that were dead or i didn't like. So, I cut one of the reseeded parsley plants out front down to the ground. Then I dried the leaves. Now I got 2 sandwich baggies full of parsley.
So, my suggestion if you're going to grow any sort of herbs is to invest in a dehydrator. Mostly because you'll need it. Plus, they're great.
Mulching/Composting:
We went and bought a chipper from Harbor Freight on Saturday. This was so we could finally chip up all the branches from last year we cut off of our trees, plus the new pile of branches Shawn cut off the trees this year. We spent 4 hours chipping and sorting. Yes, we put the branches in the chipper, but the chipper doesn't exactly do much to leaves so we had to sort through all the detritus to pull out the large chunks of leaves so we could use the wood chips as mulch cover in the garden and out front. All I really have to say is that my legs hurt. well, after 4 hours of squatting I bet your legs would hurt too!
Rain/Watering:
Austin has gotten a large amount of rain over the last couple of weeks (this is the year that Marble Falls got 19" of rain in 6 hours--Lake Travis crested at 701 msl, and the LCRA thinks they'll have to have floodgates open until August). It started when Dani came to town on June 20th, and yesterday was the first day it hasn't rained. I ended up watering some newly transplanted plants (just to keep them from dying), but other than that, I haven't watered anything. Every time I've gone to look at the little rain gauge, it's always had at least half an inch of water in it (and I check the thing about once a day).
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