Pollination Fascination

Posted on October 7, 2009 by Meredith

While taking a stroll near the butterfly garden, the sound of busy bees caught my attention, and I realized that my little pollinating friends had moved from the pumpkin flowers over to a nice big batch of native plants, and my gardener’s heart did a little pitter-patter.

But in observing them, I realized something I’d never noticed before. Gregg’s Mistflower produces white pollen.

My mind was boggled. In all my years watching wildlife, I never knew that pollen could be anything but yellow?

In the same patch of flowers, the honeybees on the Zexmenia had bright orange pollen baskets on their little legs.

This little bee has been to both Mistflower and Zexmenia. His pollen is pale orange.

I was fascinated. Today was a day where nature just had me reeling.

When I could tear my eyes away from the bees, I noticed a beautiful male Queen butterfly keeping me company.

And on the Fall Aster, newly blooming just on the other side of the Gregg’s Mistflower, little hoverflies enjoyed a feast without getting the attention of the bigger bees nearby.

Sure enough, these little flies can hover. Someone sure came up with a brilliant name for them! (Hey, guess what hoverflies eat? Aphids! Yay!)

Pollination inspiration, here’s my poem for the day:

Flyby

© Great Stems

Fly little fly

Fly little bee

Queen be flying

But not Queen Bee

One of Those Days

Posted on September 25, 2009 by Meredith

Didn’t sleep well last night, had to drop a kid off at school at 7am, car broke in the bus lane at school (fortunately I got moving before the buses arrived), $700 repair fee at the dealer, forgot to get my husband to move the heavy birdbath so I could grout it, my dogs are wreaking havoc on my garden, and aphids are wreaking havoc on my plants. BUT.. other than that it’s a fine day.

Look what I discovered this morning! Know what these are? I just learned what they are at a lecture by a local entomologist last night, and lo and behold I found some in my garden the very next day. Life works in funny ways, doesn’t it?

These are the eggs of green lacewings. As larvae, they are voracious aphid eaters. Yay, another ally in the garden! I need them because the aphids are worse than ever. I seem to have least three species now — I’ll call them green, yellow, and beige. The green I’m sure are corn leaf aphids. I have got to get out and tackle them TODAY. My veggies, my milkweed, and now my firebush plant are all having an aphid problem. The little pests took advantage of my time away from the garden during the rainy week and bred like rabbits. I’m starting to think that it’s the other way around, and rabbits breed like aphids. Today I’m seeing wings on some. Gah, more colonization!

So I’ve got new lacewings arriving soon, and of course I’ve got ladybugs. More spiders are arriving, as are earthworms. The bees are getting plentiful, and I don’t even have to do the veggie porn thing to pollinate my plants anymore. I truly love the way nature just naturally (ha) balances its ecosystems. Got organic wastes? Happy earthworms move in. Got flowers? Let’s pollinate. Overpopulation of something? Here come the predators. And here come the predators to eat the other predators. Oh look, birdie treats. And then snakes. And hawks. Whee, life is grand.

I call these my bees because I’m so fond of them, but of course they are wild. They get a little drunk-like in their flying when they are heavily loaded with pollen — it’s fun to watch. The pumpkin flowers were all abuzz this morning with bees about, and as I took pictures, I realized that there was some hostility going on. It seems at least one other colony has found our garden, and apparently different bee colonies don’t play nicely with others.

Know what else I learned from the entomologist? Feral honeybees in Texas and other states of the Southwest have all been Africanized in some way. Only beekeepers are able to keep sound European colonies because of their control of the queens.

FYI, in case I’ve scared anyone, bees in your garden are not a threat — don’t rush out and kill them, please! They are not in stinging mode when they are out pollinating — that’s quite counter-productive to their hive’s needs. Africanized honeybees, or any bees really, are a danger only when you threaten their hive (allergies aside), and apparently they’ll give a warning by buzzing around your head or actually bonking you on the head, believe it or not. If you find yourself near a wild hive, RUN — don’t walk away. Like fire ants, the Africanized honeybees give word to others in their colony by pheromones, and you need to put immediate distance (at least 200 yards) between you and the hive. Other than their defensiveness in protecting their hive, Africanized bees are not really any different from other bees. And actually there have been positive changes in their aggressiveness, too, depending on factors of colony age and breeding with European bees. It’s all good. No worries. As with anything, just be aware, not necessarily beware. Ooh, I like that.

By the way, have you hugged a beekeeper today? Not only do they raise pollinators and help with honey production, they are helping tremendously by keeping domestic European bee colonies intact, as well as helping breed gentler stocks of Africanized bees by culling out aggressive queens. Hug!

Thanks to my bees, I have several pumpkins growing. One is approaching the size of a soccer ball now (it’s been a week since I discovered female buds in bloom). Another is growing in the dead tree. And more are scattered here and there — finding them is like going on an Easter Egg hunt. There’s one! There’s another one! Again, how I love nature.

With the rain this week, the yard is a big mudfest for the dogs, and they took advantage of it — digging where they shouldn’t, trampling through the butterfly garden, and taking turns leaping over the pumpkin vines. I’m out there yelling, “This is not your playground!” And then I realized my neighbor must think I’m nuts, because of course it IS their playground. If I can manage it, I’ll try to get a picture of the husky leaping in full gallop over the massive pumpkin plants (in between my yelling at him, of course). It really is a sight to behold.

Goodbye Cantaloupe Thing

Posted on September 18, 2009 by Meredith

Due to some exciting goings on, my next few posts will be bird-related, so I thought I best put out a veggie garden update. But first I want to share some thrilling butterfly news — the Monarchs, Queens, Swallowtails, and Gulf Fritillaries, among others, have finally returned to the garden! You can believe I’ll be out there with my camera. I did manage to capture a picture of my first Gray Hairstreak butterfly. I was happy to see her on the Blackfoot Daisies — those flowers are often ignored by the bigger butterflies, who go straight for the Lantana or Mistflower. I read that Gray Hairstreak caterpillars will eat bean plants. Oh well, guess I’ll share.

But back to the “farm.”

The cantaloupe experiment has finally come to an end, and it’s report time. It’s kind of sad, really. My beautiful cantaloupe plants finally succumbed to the aphids, which had become so abundant (despite the ladybugs) that their sticky “honeydew” residue, combined with the rains from last week, had led to a nasty sooty mold problem.

After several days of wondering whether to let my cantaloupes keep trying to ripen, I decided to go ahead and pull the plug. My big one just kept growing but never sweetening, and the shapes of the other two medium-ones led me to believe that I was, in fact, growing a hybrid. I suspected as much, but I decided to enjoy the process anyway.

The big cantaloupe, cut open, actually did look like a cantaloupe. I opted not to take a bite, but I did lick a piece. Yuck… as I suspected. Though I couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed, I do consider the experiment a success. Growing the cantaloupes got me excited about my first veggie garden, led to my first raised beds with trellises, and really helped me get a headstart on the veggie learning curve. I did learn a lot, and I got hooked on growing edibles. Plus, one can’t beat the excitement of finding out that your plant is actually growing fruit (even if it’s weird hybrid fruit). I don’t consider the cantaloupes my first official harvest, mind you. They were an experiment, especially after I found out that seeds from store-bought cantaloupes should not be used, no matter how much fun it might be.

So I began the process of cutting up the fruit for the compost bin. By the way, ever wonder what the inside of a young cantaloupe looks like? Pretty cool.

Removing the icky plants from the trellis was NO fun. During the process I realized why many garden bloggers opt only to show their beautiful harvests instead of what might be a failure — it’s depressing. I was out there quite grateful that my camera was nowhere near the sooty mold, and while I felt partially obligated to show the whole miserable trellis, I just wanted to get that cantaloupe and all the thousands of aphids into the trash and as far away from my sugar pumpkin plants ASAP. I didn’t even want the plants to go into the compost, they were so gross.

A closer inspection of the sugar pumpkin plants showed that the aphids are starting to move over, and I plan to attack them better. I was happy to find several ladybug nymphs — hurray for my aphid-fighting allies!

But all is well, and I’m looking forward. The sugar pumpkins are the biggest things I’ve ever seen. They are growing up and over and out from the raised garden bed.

I FINALLY had a blooming female bud on a sugar pumpkin, and hopefully I helped it pollinate in time. Cross your fingers! There will be more, and I must be on the lookout. There were two blooming females on the jack-o-lantern pumpkins, but I doubt they’ll be big enough for carving by Halloween. At least they opened, and I did the pumpkin porn thing to help things along — I didn’t have time to watch to see whether the bees were doing their job!

The jack-o-lantern pumpkins have begun their spread into the perennial garden, so I have to monitor them. One is even taking advantage of the dead Mexican redbud. It’s nice to see green on the redbud again, poor thing. 😉 It’s scheduled for fall replacement.

The corn is growing, though I’ve found a couple of worms hiding out in the leaf niches. I’m trying to watch for more, but they seem to sneak in when the gardener’s not looking. I’ve also got young beans, zucchini, and snap peas growing, as well as tiny kohlrabi, carrots, lettuce and spinach seedlings.

This morning I found some strawberry plants at Natural Gardener. These are “Seascape” strawberries, and when more varieties arrive, I’ll try to get some for comparison. I’m eager for strawberry success!

And another exciting find at Natural Gardener — I finally got a gargoyle. They arrived this morning, and the staff seemed as excited as I was. Apparently they don’t usually have gargoyles. He’s a little guy, but his protective watch over our garden is sure to drive away all pests. Right?

Maybe he can tell me what to do about this Green June Beetle. I found it on one of my pumpkin plants. I see beetle grubs in the soil all the time. I believe they qualify as a minor pest, but I’m not sure. The beetle is pretty, as far as beetles go. Underneath is a pretty, shiny coppery surface. It’s still alive, but in a jar, until I decide whether it should stay or go. I don’t care about damage to turf, as I have none worth saving, but I don’t want damage to other plants and fruit.

I did learn an interesting way to identify the Green June Beetle white grubs from other white grubs — the ones of the Green June Beetle will “crawl” on their back via undulating movements. Somehow I think Shrek would appreciate that.

The Indiscriminate Hunter

Posted on September 17, 2009 by Meredith

Meet the Green Lynx Spider (Peucetia viridans), a common spider in Texas and Mexico. It surprised me when I was out inspecting my sugar pumpkin vines. I’m amazed I saw it — its lime-green coloring makes it perfectly camouflaged against the vines, and though it was on a bloom and holding a bee, I’m pretty sure what drew my eyes to it were those hairy legs.

I’m sad that it chose for its meal one of my precious honeybees, but I’m glad this beneficial spider has found my garden. It might pounce on bees, but it also feasts on wasps (which had been getting out of control during the summer) and pest moths and caterpillars (they’re arriving). This beautiful spider is a female, and like most spiders, she’s much larger than the typical male. The female Green Lynx spiders are fierce protectors of their egg sacs — I’m pleased, because I’d like to see more of them around the garden.

The spines on the spider’s legs seem to match little hairs on the pumpkin blooms, stems, and foliage. With her perfect camouflage, it’s easy for this spider to hide and lurk, and then leap onto her prey, which is how lynx spiders got their name.

The Formal Corn

Posted on September 1, 2009 by Meredith

The formal corn wears tassels and silk

to an elegant affair. Would you care to have this dance? A pollination waltz, perhaps?

Four honeybees partake in the jitterbug, flitting about from cantaloupe flower to cantaloupe flower. Their heavy pollen sacs don’t slow them down.

Just a few feet away, male sugar pumpkin flowers have finally opened up in the cooler temperatures, but their pollen grains have yet to entice the busy little bees.

Perhaps when the females start to open, the bees will move over to help the pumpkins along.

The cantaloupe grows big, and a ladybug kindly pauses to give a size comparison.

It won’t be much longer before the melon is ripe, and there are more cantaloupes waiting their turn.

Meanwhile, other ladybugs are busy… (gasp) Avert your eyes!

The assassin bug nymph doesn’t notice. He’s too busy waiting for a tasty dinner companion.

Would that it might be this black bug, the larger version of the unknown little red bug…

Their numbers are dwindling, thanks to the ever-watchful predators and (perhaps more so) quick little fingers.

The trellised garden nears the top.

With the promise of a harvest, one hopes that the squirrels that ate their way into the birdseed container won’t turn their little black eyes toward the veggies and fruit.

The jack-o-lantern pumpkin plants get bigger and bigger. The male flowers come and go, but the cooler temperatures bring promises that females will bloom soon.

A checkered garter snake leads the way to another discovery…

that a pumpkin plant is trying to do the great escape…

behind the air conditioner, which broke just last night, thankfully timed with the cooler temperatures.

The “dwarf” papyrus continues on its world conquest, one pond at a time. Its sheer size and weight helped it shift off its support and into deeper waters. Its plan to quickly send out new growth and roots was soon foiled, however. It’s been raised back out of the water depths and is marked for major division very, very soon.

Is that a ghost haunting the house?

It’s too early for Halloween, so it must be tricksy little pole bean seedlings.

An easy move to a planter,

and then nestled in bed…

for another busy day in the garden.

Ladybug Superheroes

Posted on August 31, 2009 by Meredith

Saving the world from organized aphid crime

Our heroes!

The Pests Cometh

Posted on August 13, 2009 by Meredith

My last post was atypically serious for me, so I feel the need to cleanse with a standard “ack, my garden” post. Bit by bit, the pests are starting to find my garden. What if they tell their friends?

I knew what those ants on my pumpkin vines were up to, so I was prepared mentally for yesterday’s discovery, if not emotionally. The aphids had found the pumpkins. I thought about reaching for the soapy water, but the affected leaves were few, so I removed just those leaves and stuck them in the soapy water instead. I know I can’t continue to do that, but I wasn’t worried about affecting the plant — people sometimes pinch off whole vines in growing their pumpkins. One or two leaves shouldn’t be a problem. But there will be more aphids, so I best prepare the soapy spray.

Today I got up to check the garden and found that something had chopped off a large section of one of the corn plants. This was no grasshopper, unless it was the big dude from the other day back to seek revenge. What might it be? Opossum? Dog? No evidence on the ground to help me solve the mystery.

The garden’s not too far from my bedroom window. I need a spotlight and a switch inside the house so that I can spy on the garden from time to time during my insomniac moments in the night (brought about by the cats attacking my toes and dogs who are either thirsty or need to go outside having drunk all their water). Perhaps a bright light will help me catch the culprit in the act. Of course, if it’s not mammal-caused, then perhaps it won’t do me a bit of good.

Most of the corn is fine and healthy. But a few seedlings stay small, victims of terrible regular feasting by a vicious corn-eating monster. You thinking what I’m thinking? Grasshopper.

NEWS FLASH: This just in. Either the evil grasshopper from two days ago came back to the garden, or I found his cousin, who jumped up to the trellis wires. He expected me to run and get my camera, I know, but instead I removed both my flip flops and sandwiched him in between. Gruesome, you say? Did you see what he did to my poor corn plants? Remember, he makes babies. Or she. Or it. The Thing. No pictures. I’m not that gruesome!

I noticed that two of my pumpkin plants are starting to show strange discoloring to their leaves. I don’t know whether this is normal or some sort of powdery mildew or other disease. Only some leaves are affected, and only two plants. What does this mean? Or am I showing my newbness and those are perfectly normal pumpkin leaves and all pumpkins do that?

While I was taking pictures, this black bug flew down. What is he?

The leafminer flies are frequent visitors to the plants. Though the damage of their larvae is slight, it’s unsightly. Not slightly unsightly, hoho.

I’m checking the plants daily for more evidence of squash vine borer eggs and for more of those little unknown red bugs. The closest thing I can come up with on identifying that bug is flea beetle, but there don’t seem to be any pictures to support this.

I know it’s only going to get worse. But I’m still going to do my best to keep all these and new pests at bay! <breaks out the boxer gloves>

Cantaloupe Sex Ed

Posted on August 12, 2009 by Meredith

And the mistakes I’ve made, SO FAR.

Here’s what I did wrong. I’m going to be happy that this list, as far as I’m aware, is short.

1. I grew cantaloupe from the seeds of store-bought cantaloupes. To be fair to myself, I didn’t know any better! So don’t do the same thing — sure it’s tempting, but hybrids, if you bought one from the store (most of them are hybrids, apparently), will give you heartache or at least some stress. Read on to find out why. To those I gave seedlings, I will report my findings as I find them out, and I greatly apologize for any grief you experience!

2. I took a picture of the giant grasshopper, and it got away. I’m still kicking myself about this one, and it only happened yesterday. The babies are hard enough to catch. If you see a big one, don’t try to capture the awe in regards to its size or even impressive markings. Just kill it. It will eat and make babies. Something eats bits of my corn, and I blame him. Or them.

Here’s what I’m doing right (again, as far as I’m aware). Top-Ten List! Top-Ten List That’s Really in No Particular Order!

10. I gave my cantaloupe seedlings a raised bed and trellis in which to grow to their heart’s content without getting trampled by dogs.

9. I learned about square-foot gardening and went ahead and spent the big bucks to give them a good soil in which to grow. Even the in-ground pumpkins got a healthy dose of compost mixed into their soil spots.

8. I lovingly give them water each day, and I know to hold back on water as fruit maturity begins to happen.

7. I learned the difference between male and female flowers and what “self-fertile but not self-fertilizing” plants are.

6. I learned about and am quite willing to help my cantaloupes’ pollination. I don’t have many bees here yet, so I have to do what I can to help (I did see one of those big black ones this morning, but he didn’t linger long at the cantaloupe flowers; I also see an occasional sweat bee).

5. I check them each day for bugs and kill anything that looks menacing. Unless it gets away while I’m taking a picture, that is…

4. I’m being a good mom by growing the cantaloupes at my son’s request, and along the way I get to teach my kids about plant life cycles and good gardening practices (and/or my mistakes!).

3. I gently guide the cantaloupe vines up the trellis to give them something to hang on to.

2. I learned about companion planting and put in marigolds and corn in their raised bed.

1. And most importantly, I love them and talk to them and love them some more!

And there you have it. I’m so excited to have thriving cantaloupe plants, but I’m worried that I’m growing a hybrid. So I’m seeking words of wisdom from the experienced cantaloupe gardeners out there! And Cat at AmloFarms has some blooming male flowers (from REAL seeds) she can share with me for pollination purposes. This cantaloupe thing is getting pretty complicated, haha. But for the sake of my cantaloupes, I will drive across town and back! Thank you, Cat!

The cantaloupes are happily growing up their trellis and trying to grow out wide, too.

We’ve had male flowers for awhile, and today (day 38) I found my first female. Here’s how you tell the difference. The easiest way is looking at the flower stem.

The male rises from the vine with a single plain stem of its own.

The female has a cute little bulge that will become the fruit if pollinated.

Here’s a baby female bud.

You can also tell the difference by looking at the inside of the bloom, but here’s where I’m unsure about the condition of the inside of my cantaloupe blooms. The male stamens will have pollen, but I can’t tell whether mine do, haha.

And the females will have their stigma ready to receive pollen. But mine look quite green, so I don’t know if mine look the way they should (I’ve seen pics with them yellow).

All the same, I did my best to get some pollen from the male to the female. At first I tried q-tips and a paintbrush, but I saw hardly any yellow on either. So I finally pulled off some male flowers and exposed their stamens and rubbed them on the female.

No idea whether any pollen grains stuck.

So experienced cantaloupe gardeners, should I be seeing lots of yellow pollen on the males? The male pumpkin flower (just saw my first two today!) has a lot of pollen, that’s for sure. And ants. First blooms, day 38.

Here’s one of the giant plants. They have a long way to go to reach full size. Egads.

From what I’ve read, if I read correctly, the female flowers should be ok and just the males might be sterile. But I don’t know whether the females are sometimes sterile, too. And even if pollination happens, will I get a regular cantaloupe out of it or some dud?

And while I’m asking, let me ask this: Can someone identify this red bug for me? The bigger versions of it are black, but I don’t see any of those on the garden yet, but last fall I had a ton of all sizes in a bunch of fallen leaves. Even the people at Natural Gardener couldn’t name them for me. I kill them when I see them now. But I’d like to know what they are. They are not tiny lady bugs, that’s all I know.

In other garden news, I decided to do something with my broken tools. Please tell me this looks like a flower, because it’s supposed to, HA! I will probably paint it at some point, but it’s growing on me (hehe) as is, too.

You can see the evil chinaberry in my very nice neighbor’s yard behind it — it’s been my nemesis for many a year. My neighbor finally had it cut down several months ago, but the workers left the stump and roots, so of course it’s been growing back with a vengeance. We cut it again just to prevent seeds and it’s back — so the neighbor is getting the tree people back out to properly kill it. Not sure they’ll succeed if they don’t get the roots out. I’m having to close my eyes and ears about the herbicides they’ll probably use… But I’m so thrilled to have a neighbor who is trying to help with the invasives problem!

Sugar pumpkins continue to grow and confuse me. They just aren’t eager to send out tendrils, but growing they be, with new bloom buds forming.

sugar pumpkins08-12-09.jpg Marigold seedlings! Only about 6 took, but I have more seeds to try with.

And much of my corn is happy. A few seedlings are getting chomped by something <evil eye at grasshoppers, even if they aren’t to blame>, but the rest are growing. I never really realized how beautiful a corn plant is until all this growing stuff.

And I’ve planted 8 pole bean seeds so far. I’m making use of the far corners of the trellis squares (ok, according to square-foot gardening, those squares belong to the cantaloupes but they were just sitting there empty! seemed so wasteful). I’ll be planting more along the fence once I amend the soil. My wonderful oldest son dug out the weeds from that area for me this morning. This whole “raising kids to work on the farm” was a brilliant plan of the pioneering farmers!

I planted Black-Seeded Blue Lake Pole Beans. The seeds look like engorged ticks. Don’t they sound wonderful? But I hear they are delicious. No, really. Really!

And we had another frog in the dog pond. Not surprisingly, he’s just as cute as Murray! Pictures soon!

Welcome and Unwelcome Visitors

Posted on August 11, 2009 by Meredith

Yesterday I had a very pleasant time visiting with Bob of Draco Gardens and his wonderful wife Lynn. They had me cracking up with so many hilarious stories, and they ~~forced on me~~ gave me some fantail goldfish for my pond. Well, to be honest, I was out there to get fish (they have a rather plentiful population at the moment), but somehow they managed to sneak more into the bucket… they claimed it was in case one of the fish died on the way home, haha. I told them that because I didn’t actually need more, that they’d all survive, grow, and make babies for me to bring back to Draco Gardens. Sure enough they all survived! More on that in a bit…

We spent a pleasant time chatting, and we got to talking about the Texas Star Hibiscus, a plant they love and one I just happen to have growing in my pond. I told them about the buds on my hibiscus that hadn’t bloomed yet, and Bob said I’d be posting a picture in my blog as soon as they did. Well, guess what I discovered today?

Look at that gorgeous red. The species is Hibiscus coccineus, and it’s also known as Scarlet Rose Mallow and Wild Red Mallow. It’s in the same family as the Texas Rock Rose (Rose Pavonia), and it’s native to Texas.

From a distance the leaves appear straggly to me, but close up they are quite striking. Elongated, toothed, and a beautiful combination of green and ruby… It’s interesting to note that when this plant was quite small, the lowest leaves were remarkably wide and looked almost as if they belonged to a different plant.

Googling for a bit about the plant, I laughed when I read that in 2004 a Houston narcotics task force raided a landscaper’s home and held him at gunpoint because they thought the Texas Star Hibiscus growing in the man’s front yard was marijuana. This earned them a Bum Steer Award from Texas Monthly magazine — for those of you not in Texas, Bum Steer Awards are given each year to the most idiotic or ridiculous people, actions, and events of the year in Texas and sometimes nationally. Not surprisingly, the list is long (and often includes politicians).

Back to the subject at hand — yes, this photo was taken at the wrong time of day, but I had to capture a picture of the tiny spider standing guard on the flower. Can you spot him?

Here he is:

The buds on my plant are all paired. I wonder if they always appear in pairs. Even the single bloom has a bud with it, as seen in the pictures above.

While photographing the stunning plant, I realized I was being watched by our newest amphibian resident. Being ever the romantic, it’s tempting to name him Prince, but I think instead I will call him Murray, after Bill Murray, who gets slimed by Slimer the ghost in “Ghostbusters.” Why not just call him Slimer, you ask? Because that would be too obvious, of course.

I tried hard to capture a picture of the new fish, but they scooted under foliage anytime they noticed me looming above. I enjoyed watching all the fish school around together. The new fish are quite at home. We’re now up to nine fish, egads! This isn’t a great picture, but you can see one of the wee ones swimming with the “big” fish.

I am so jealous of the gorgeous dragonfly and damselfly pictures that many other garden bloggers get. Without a good zoom lens, I can’t close enough to take a picture without the little guys flying away, if they even land near me. And yet I am happy to have as many as will come eat my mosquitoes and wasps and even some of the plentiful tadpoles. I definitely have noticed a decrease in mosquitoes since having the pond, though perhaps that has more to do with the drought, lol. Maybe bats are visiting my pond at night now. One could hope! Do bats eat wasps and hornets?

Just behind it was this caterpillar-eating menace. Can’t it just eat webworms instead of my future butterflies?

And in my garden, I found this horrifying creature, the terrifying, shriek-causing, hide-all-your-plants-from Gigantic Grasshopper — one of those that are so big they don’t bother to jump at all — they just fly their clumsy fly way out of reach. I knew I was making a mistake taking a picture of it when I should have just killed it — it got away, flying to the branches of an oak tree. Which really bugged me! (pun intended)