Garden headaches

See that? That is a borer worm. Evil little sucker. Hollows out the plant then the second picture shows what's left. That is/was a pepper plant. Last month I posted pictures of my beans with a question of what did it, (ok, maybe I forgot to add text to that post.....) anyway, the answer is the pictured little pest worm. And no, this does not mean we are giving up our principles and turning to chemical poisons. We looked at pesticides at the garden store and every single one of them said: "WARNING, THIS PRODUCT KILLS BEES".......I refuse to be part of the problem. We need bees more than we need another pepper or bean plant. What we need to do is foster our lacewing population and get our soil even healthier to the plants can defend themselves.

Garden produce

My bugs, my bugs, my bugs!

So at another one of our lively family discussions, (which is not code for "argument that I won", btw) this idea was put out for ponder: Why are we smushing cabbage caterpillars and getting excited about the pretty yellow and black caterpillar to the point of checking on it everyday? They both essentially do the same thing, right? Short answer is this- the cabbage caterpillars turn into cabbage moths and they are both decimating my crop and the pretty bug will turn into a monarch butterfly and is only and exclusively munching on milkweed. I don't eat milkweed, she can have it. They both play a part in the balance of our garden, even if it seems that the only benefit is that we are communing with our plants each day to de-bug them without chemicals.

The picture on the right is of a clutch of lacewing eggs. Neat. These are good bugs- very, very good bugs. I grew up calling lacewings "Mosquito Hawks"- they eat mosquitoes, mosquito larvae, and lots of other pesties.

Not complaining for 30 days?!

Seriously, some of my mama friends are trying this out: not complaining or gossiping for thirty days. What a challenge.

I'd like to think of myself as an optimist, you know- someone who doesn't complain, but a friend once pointed out that I cross the line into "the worst kind of idealist" ie, I set impossible goals and sometimes ignore reality. On the other hand, Napoleon did not conquer most of the European world by thinking, "Maybe I'm not being realistic...." Anyway, maybe I do complain a lot, even if it's masked in amusing (hey, I think they are!) stories about our neighbor kids, neighbor adults, or local politics- it's still complaining.

I've decide to step up to the plate and support their efforts by creating a weekly gratitudes list too:
1) I am grateful that I married young and to the most amazing man, we've spent almost 1/2 our lives together and its only getting better.
2) My daughter is the happiest child and funny too. I am glad that her first words used in context were "Giggle giggle/ tickle tickle" and "quack". (Hey, that's a kids book!)
3) We live in a really cool house. I am enjoying our time here but I am happy we are moving.
4) The carrot cake I made this week was awesome (the frosting is not included in that statement).
5) I have the loveliest friends and some have wonderful children who are friends with my wonderful child.
6) I rock at Catch Phrase.
7) I have a tomato on the plant! Whoo hoo!

I'm sure that I will still be grateful for all of the above next week too. I'm grateful for that.

The hungry caterpillar

This evening I was weeding the perennial bed that I have terribly neglected this Spring. I was delighted to find a pumpkin plant! Heh. I threw out random seeds of various squash plants here and there and gave Lil'Bug some to "plant." I was examining it with dear husband to identify which yummy squash was going to grow and we found this lovely little caterpillar. I wanted to bring him in and feed him, but dear husband made a convincing argument for it to stay AND I'm not allowed to weed that bed anymore. I might have already removed its food source, which is not pumpkin. I know what kind this one is, do you?

It's not easy being green

Dear husband found this awesome spider in our front yard. It's bright green and likes to drop a web and swing three inches below his hand like a little trapeze artist. Any idea what kind it is? I know its a bad picture, but I couldn't find a better picture online (since I don't know what kind it is) and the little bugger wouldn't sit still.

We find a lot of bugs, snakes, and other creepy crawlies. My husband and child both just love to pick them up and look at them.

Bee Charmers, they are. I can't wait to have actual bees. In fact, I can't wait to have an actual farm. Lil'Bug has already shown an affinity and kindness towards animals, a calmness that I hope she keeps as she grows up. Not that she's all that calm most of the time!

*edited to add* We have submitted the pictures to whatsthatbug.com. I do not think it is a lynx spider, but I have no idea what it is!

Night of the Living Ladybug

We let loose the bag o' bugs last night. It was awesome and I highly recommend it as a learning experience for little ones. They were lovely little bugs, very polite, and quite grateful for the meal we shared with them. This morning, they were contentedly sleeping nestled under the pepper foliage, full bellies, dreaming of aphids. Ah, perhaps I am personifying them a bit, but they certainly looked happy in their new home.

What's in my refrigerator....

Coming soon to a garden near me......

Ah, yes, the yearly batch of lady bugs. We have a pretty good sized ant colony and their herd of aphids does a pretty good job on our garden. The solution? We could soak a square mile around our house with industrial poisons but 1) the neighbors refused consent and 2) just kidding, it's just not practical plus the ick factor of poisons. Instead we decided to get down and dirty with an army of lady bugs.

One more thing to note: despite our neighbors accusations, the state-wide infestation of Japanese lady-beetles was not our fault. :)

And......The Really Pretty....

The Bad.......

The Good.......

Very, very good.

Not so wordless Friday.....

This should have been posted for wordless Wednesday, I know. I'm still getting the hang of this blogging thing.

This, my friends, is a Leopard Slug from our garden. My dear husband was moving bricks when he discovered this monster! It was HUGE. Is still huge. We released it back near the brick pile. Lil'Bug wanted to touch it but not really. Finally we convinced her and she thought it was, "awesome." That's her hand holding it (with daddy's help, of course).

Indeed. I took the pictures. Dear husband and child spent quite a bit of time scrubbing Leopard Slug slime from their hands. Not me, I got to play with digital pictures! :)