Content Again

Posted on July 5, 2010 by Meredith

My initial shock and dismay over the vast destruction laid to my Cinnamon Sun sunflowers and Zexmenia by millions and gazillions of caterpillars all at one time were fortunately temporary emotions, and I’ve adjusted to this new level of habitat. I’m back to feeling happy, content, and utterly pleased. The butterflies fluttering about the garden today are more numerous than I’d ever dreamed of (I’m still astounded by this, I admit), and they swept me up in waves of joy and peace. Soon, all those hundreds of ravenous Bordered Patch caterpillars that caused me momentary freak-out will create an even more amazing butterfly scene — who can argue with that?

So I won’t dwell on the skeleton leaves and plant carcasses they are leaving behind and I will instead rejoice in the fact that most of the plants so far are surviving and putting on a beautiful bloom display — 30 blooms almost entirely on one Cinnamon Sun plant alone. I get to report on new butterflies in the garden, as well, and also bees and spiders, and this habitat mama is happy as a clam.

If ever there was a question about sunflowers being so aptly named, I present this photo as a clear argument for the appropriateness. It shows the fiery side of the sun in flower form. In fact, I almost named this post Sunrise or Sunset after this shot, because that’s what it makes me think of, but I actually took this in the middle of the day, so it would be cheating.

As I hovered around my sunflowers, alternating between pictures of blooms and caterpillar damage, I was joined by hummingbirds just a few feet away at the Standing Cypress, flying closer to me than ever and completely ignoring me. I missed the snapshot, though, because the two hummingbirds suddenly had one of their feisty spats and flew off. I’m not sure they even realized how close to me they were.

And then I saw the bees at the sunflowers, and my attention turned back to the fiery blazes before me. These weren’t honeybees — they were “Yellow Butt Bees” as I called them when I first saw them (Please don’t think that’s their real name! I was just distinguishing them from the similarly-sized honeybees we all know. Besides, perhaps “Yellow Belly” would be more appropriate; I can hear Yosemite Sam now calling them Yellow-bellied Varmints… except they are no varmints!). The best I could do was try to get some pictures in the poor light so that I could ID them later. I believe they are the species Megachile perihirta. Western Leafcutter Bees. Texas natives, woot.

Why are they called Leafcutter Bees? Well, they cut small little circles out of leaves and use the pieces to fashion little nest cells, adding to them some nectar and pollen for the eggs they’ll lay. These solitary bees are some of the bees that benefit from Bee Boxes.

At one point, one of the bees looked straight at me. The little bee looks so cute that it seems unreal — my son actually thought I stuck the bee image onto the photo. I like to think that it was posing for the camera and not considering me a momentary threat. In any case, it was cute enough to become a header shot for the blog page (scroll up and click refresh if you’d like to see it).

At the same time as their larger cousins, tinier native bees were also busy at work. They are harder to see, crawling in and out of the little flower parts.

These native bees are the best pollinators a garden could ask for. Hugs to them all.

Back at the Gregg’s Mistflower in the Spider’s Favorite Locale, a spider reigns queen predator. I believe she is a Banded Garden Spider, Argiope trifasciata. And I think she might be the very same spider I found in the same spot a couple of weeks ago, perhaps then a juvenile and now mature (I’ve edited that post). She’s a beauty, and highly successful in her predator talents. She had four wrapped-up carcasses that she was very focused on, and within hours she had consumed them, removed them, and repaired the web, ready for more.

She’s as beautiful on her upper exterior…

as she is underneath. In fact, I shot the picture below first before I even realized she was facing away from me.

I spy what might be pollen seeping through the silk encasing — might that be another bee? Gah. The nature of nature, once again.

To follow up on the Bordered Patch butterflies, I’m happy to report that they do eat Straggler Daisy, or Horseherb. In fact, there are already other groups of them out there munching away. The ones in the picture below are a little too small for me to identify for sure as Bordered Patch, but they are surely related, at the very least.

I took a few of the more severely devasted sunflower leaves still covered with tons of caterpillars and relocated the little crawlies to the Horseherb for a dietary change, and so far so good. There are still many dozens on the sunflowers, but I feel better about all the plants’ chances at this point. And as I mentioned last time, I’ve got plenty of Horseherb to go around. I also discovered even more groups of young caterpillars on the Zexmenia, but those plants are fairly well established and are thus on their own. I read that one Bordered Patch female can lay 500 eggs — now I understand why I have such an invasion of munching munchers.

The older caterpillars are looking quite interesting, now that they are getting large.

Hmmm. Another caterpillar discovery. I have Genista moth caterpillars munching on one of my Texas Mountain Laurels, and eggs on another. But from what I read, the laurels should be okay. There are so many mountain laurels here in Austin, Texas, and they all do okay, right? The damage is ugly, though, but not devastating. I think. Hmmm, I feel the inkling of worry again…

I’m not sure whether these are Genista eggs, but I suspect they could be.

While I was walking around outside, something large moving by caught my eye. At first I thought it was a bird, but then I realized it was a butterfly. From a distance I couldn’t tell whether it was a Giant Swallowtail or an Eastern Tiger, but it was definitely huge. And then it came down right by me for a nectar feast on the butterfly bush. An Eastern Tiger Swallowtail. Yay!

It’s the first time one has stayed still long enough for me to get a non-blurry picture. The sun was too harsh, but I’ll take what I can get. I continue to have a wary eye on the butterfly bush (Buddleia davidii, a non-native with a questionable reputation), but it earned big points when that Eastern Tiger landed upon it.

I’m still waiting on my Giants to emerge from their chrysalises. I’m getting nervous, as I always do.

Buckeyes are here now! New visitors to the garden. So beautiful.

And I still can’t resist the charm of the Cinnamon Sun sunflowers. More pictures must be posted.

See what I mean?

Bittersweet

Posted on July 2, 2010 by Meredith

I’m having another Wildlife Lover’s Moral Dilemma, but this time it’s of a different sort. Up until now, my love of butterfly caterpillars has known no bounds, and I’ve gone out of my way to plant larval host plants and create a Caterpillar Hotel and so forth. But today caterpillars have rained on my parade, and my beloved caterpillars have come back to bite me, or at least my precious flower favorites.

It’s been raining a lot lately, and so I’ve not been in the garden too much, grudgingly recognizing that the nutsedge and bermuda are taking over again in the meantime. But a glimpse out my bedroom window got me excited — blooms lower down on the tall Cinnamon Sunflowers meant I had a chance to take new photos of my dark red blooms. I rushed outside in a dry pause from the rain… to a horrible sight.

The first thing I saw from a mere glance was a mass congregation of black on the leaves of one of my yellow sunflowers. Caterpillars, and a lot of them.

Then my eyes opened wider. There were more on the plant next to that one. And on down the short row.

Then I was hit with the realization that they’d completely defoliated many of the leaves of the yellow sunflowers, to the point that I’m not sure whether there’s a future in sight for any of the already-struggling annuals.

In fact, I’m quite certain that two of the smaller plants are dead, or at least zombies. I hadn’t even shown a photograph of a bloom from the poor traditional flowers — I’d been waiting for them to get bigger. I felt such sadness.

And then, like a scene in a horror movie, I turned slowly to look at my Cinnamon Sunflowers, dread gripping my heart.

The first thing I saw was caterpillar poop, and a lot of it.

Ok, something’s eating my Cinnamon Sunflowers. Looks like a few caterpillars. At this point, I’m still thinking it’s ok — I knew the flowers were larval hosts. I accepted that.

But as I opened my eyes beyond the poop to the damage and destruction above, around, and beyond, my heart started breaking.

I have what I can’t seem to call anything else — an infestation — of literally hundreds of caterpillars of all sizes. I knew by the spines that there was a good chance they were butterfly caterpillars, but still… in those numbers?

Part of me wanted them to be something that I could consider pest caterpillars, so that my moral dilemma could be simpler to deal with and I could find a soapy bucket of water. But no, as near as I can tell, these are the larvae of the Bordered Patch Butterfly. At some point, I am going to have incredible numbers of chrysalises and several dead, once beautiful sunflowers. Was this gorgeous butterfly from just a few weeks ago one of the culprits?

Despite the destruction, I can’t bring myself to dispose of the caterpillars, or feed them to the birds, nothing. Must… love… caterpillars.

I can’t love the butterflies without supporting their eggs and babies. I guess I’m just going to have to watch them devour my plants and hope that the sunflowers, at least the larger ones, will recover.

I thought about moving the Bordered Patch caterpillars over to the Zexmenia, also a host plant. But that’s when I discovered hundreds of caterpillars were over there, too. My beautiful Zexmenia, already getting eaten up, too. Gah! It’s ok, Meredith, it’s ok… planted as a host plant. All good.

Here’s what I want to know: when exactly did these Bordered Patch butterflies show up laying eggs? And OH MY GOSH JUST HOW MANY EGGS CAN THEY LAY? Holy cow. And where are my beneficial predators now, now that I need some ecoystem balancing? Hello birds, stop feasting on my seeds and get yourself some live protein. Leave a few so there’s still a good population of butterflies, please. Why didn’t anyone tell me that Bordered Patch butterflies and their cousins are the rabbits of the butterfly world?!!!

According to some sources online, Straggler’s Daisy, or Horseherb, is a larval host plant for the Bordered Patch. I’ve got plenty of horseherb, so I did try moving some of the caterpillars over. They wouldn’t eat while I was watching, and then the rain came again, so I’ll have to monitor them for awhile before moving the rest over. Cross your fingers — there’s a glimpse of hope for the sunflowers if I can pull this off. I’m not holding my breath for too long, though, since so many other sites didn’t list the little groundcover as a favorite host plant.

Between the masses of caterpillars eating my CinnSuns and the masses of nutsedge and weeds abounding in my garden, I just want to cry. And yet, I’m so happy we’ve had rain — just an absolutely wonderful thing in central Texas during the summer. And I can still smile at the Gulf Fritillary caterpillars on the passionvine.

I saw one starting its chrysalis stage today — it’s a J right now — and I happily discovered a chrysalis hanging from a Mexican Redbud branch. (I also discovered a passionflower bloom in the redbud tree — that pesky vine has done it again!)

But overall I feel like I’m being tested, and I’m not sure whether I’m passing or failing. Passing as a wildlife lover with a high level of tolerance for munchers; passing as a butterfly grower. Failing as a gardener who wants beautiful, intact plants around; failing my new sunflowers. This isn’t my veggie garden– with my tomatoes, it was a war I had to engage in, those hornworms and stink bugs. Now the line in front of me is blurry. Should I be thinking of the crazy numbers of caterpillars as pests or be happy that I’m supporting more butterflies?

No worries, it’s still the latter. I just need to get used to this new concept of caterpillar quantity and re-evaluate my planting methods. Clearly I need more sunflowers so that my plants aren’t so easily overtaken. That will work, right? Learn to share, butterflies!

Hang in there, sunflowers. I know this is tough love from mama.

A smile from a damselfly to cheer us up… 🙂

Bittersweet. That’s what it is. Bittersweet.

Humming a Tune in the Garden

Posted on June 29, 2010 by Meredith

I’m so pleased — the hummingbird feeders have been getting a lot of birdie traffic!

Do you see the pollen on the little hummingbird’s beak above? Someone has been visiting flowers! Hurray for our flying, humming pollinators.

I’ve tried again and again to get a good picture of a hummingbird visiting one of our blooms — usually they come out blurry because the birds dart off so fast. And then this morning…

The little lady usually doesn’t let me get too close when she’s at a bloom — she is much more tolerant when she’s at the feeder. Perhaps she’s getting used to me and will let me get more flower shots, given the progress above. She used to visit the Salvias, but when the Standing Cypress started blooming, it became her favorite.

The Cinnamon Sun has produced a lovely bouquet. All the flowers are still above the roofline, though. I’m waiting for the lower buds to open up so I can really study the blooms easily.

We’ve had a bit of rain with the tropical systems happening in the Gulf of Mexico — it made for a pleasant relaxed time in the garden. This male Queen butterfly took a long rest on a lantana.

How do you ID a Queen, and a male from female? Many people often mistake Queens for Monarchs, easy to do because they really are lookalike cousins. Soldiers make it even more confusing, and then there are the mimic Viceroys, too! Take a look at the photo again, this time with labels.

If you’d like more info on IDing the lookalike cousins, click here.

Also resting on the Lantana was this handsome damselfly. I’m needing a nap, just watching these guys. Perhaps the overcast day has something to do with that, too.

We’ve had another butterfly release from the Caterpillar Hotel! A black swallowtail emerged and took its time resting and drying its wings. I hope it came from the brown chrysalis from awhile back — I was worried about it taking too long. Now I’ve got so many chrysalises that I can’t tell which came first.

Soon the swallowtail headed over to the butterfly bush for a longer rest. Within a few minutes later, it flew away for its grown-up adventures.

I’m eagerly watching for the Giant Swallowtails to emerge. How can they fit in such a tiny shape?

Good news on the tomato front. Over several days we devoured tons of homegrown Romas in homemade spaghetti sauce, and now the Brandywines are starting to produce.

Is that crown an indication of how big the tomato will become? I won’t eat these myself — but I hope they’ll turn out so I can give them to friends and neighbors. I’m a cooked-tomato kind of girl.

I’m also a pomegranate kind of girl! Lookee, lookee!

Fun morning in the garden. Had me humming like the hummingbirds. Hoping for more rain, though!

Pollinator Power! It’s Pollinator Week, June 21-27, 2010

Posted on June 21, 2010 by Meredith

Happy National Pollinator Week, June 21-27! All this week (and everyday the rest of the year), let’s celebrate our peppy pollinators and all that they do. Without them, many flowers, trees, fruits, veggies, and other plants would be in serious trouble! Did you know that 80 percent of the world’s crops require pollination to set seed? And many, many pollinators are in decline due to the use of pesticides and to habitat loss. We must take care of these little guys, who in turn are OUR caretakers.

For more information on pollinators and this special dedication week, be sure to visit Pollinator Partnership.

I for one love to use this week’s dedication to go out and buy a new plant for our pollinators. What will it be? A new caterpillar larval host plant for the butterflies? A bee’s favorite bush? A new hummingbird plant? I’ll let you know!

Let’s give a cheer for… butterflies!

Bees!

Hummingbirds!

Hoverflies!

Bats, geckos, opossums, beetles, wasps, flies, and more!

Some of my favorite plants for pollinators include Purple Coneflower, Milkweed, Greg’s Mistflower, Cardinal Flower, any number of Salvias, Mealy Blue Sage, Firebush, Goldenball Leadtree, Kidneywood, Texas Lantana, Sunflower, Pumpkins and Squashes, and oh so many more. Think native when you can, and stay organic! Pesticides kill the GOOD guys, too — not just the bad ones.

Speaking of sunflowers, the Cinnamon Sun is taller than ever — now past the roof’s edge of our house. It is threatening to burst out with blooms any day now.

Don’t forget about putting out a bee box for our solitary native bees to show we love them!

Caterpillar Hotel

Posted on June 14, 2010 by Meredith

This weekend I taught all about creating habitats at a conference for kids. As part of the presentation, I brought along this little guy — one of our black swallowtail caterpillars.

Talk about a wonderful assistant — not only did he delight the families in the workshops, but he and I visited with a lot of people as I carried him around during the rest of the conference. It was simply too hot in the car for me to leave him in there, so he got to walk around with me, happily munching on dill set in a bouquet of native TX flowers.

When I got home, I let him go back to his world of giant dill in my backyard. Later I walked around to check on my other caterpillars and to look for more. I’m thrilled to have found our first Gulf Fritillary caterpillar on our Passionvine.
But when I went to check on the new bird poop caterpillars I’d found the day before on my Wafer Ash, I saw with alarm a hornet visiting the leaves of the tree, hunting the same way they hunt the caterpillars on my milkweed. I was relieved to find two of my caterpillars were happily munching on the citrus leaves.

And to my delight, I found lots of eggs all over the tree. Here’s a caterpillar with a few eggs nearby.

But to my horror, my third little caterpillar was dead. My first thought was that a hornet had killed it, but this was a false accusation, because on closer inspection it was clear that my little caterpillar was being feasted upon by two bugs I didn’t recognize. It turns out that they are predatory stink bugs. Predatory stink bugs? I’d never heard of such a thing. And what — they are considered beneficial bugs in the garden, so I can’t get rid of them? I have to just let these stink bugs feast on my caterpillars? Now THAT stinks! I thought having to accept hornets and wasps going after my caterpillars was bad enough. Thinking about it, I saw somewhat similar bugs over on my dill a few days ago. I think I know what’s been contributing to the deaths of some of my swallowtail caterpillars.

Well, I couldn’t bear it the thought of more giant swallowtails falling prey to the terrible sucking tubes of these clearly ferocious predators, so I decided that my remaining caterpillars earned deluxe accommodations in our Caterpillar Hotel, a collapsible laundry basket that has soft, breathable fabric on the sides. It’s perfect, and we’ve had great success so far, with 3 caterpillars going to chrysalis stage. I’ve released one beautiful butterfly already — here it is, a Black Swallowtail just before release.

So I gathered dill and wafer ash for the two caterpillar species and put the plants in a bottle of water. Then I collected my caterpillar assistant and my two adorable bird poop caterpillars. Isn’t it a lovely Caterpillar Bouquet?

Bouquet in the hotel:

Yesterday I wasn’t worried about the Gulf Fritillary (he’s on the other side of the yard), but today I’m having second thoughts and might be checking him into the Caterpillar Hotel as well.

I know I can’t rescue all my caterpillars — nature must take its course — but here and there I don’t mind lending them a helping hand.

It might be time to set out a new banana to distract the hornets and wasps, as well. I’ll add a rotting one for the butterflies — they love it so. HOLD ON — BRILLIANT IDEA — I’ll move the predatory stink bugs to my tomatoes and let them do their thing on my true pest bugs! By Jove, I think she’s got it!

Speaking of butterflies, a new species has entered the garden. Bordered Patch — what a beauty! Unfortunately, my pup scared it off after I grabbed only a couple of shots.

Over on the dill, this damselfly let it all hang out, wings included.

The dill is going to seed. I think it’s still pretty, even when brown. There’s plenty of dill left for the swallowtails, though.

The Cinnamon Sunflower is reaching toward the sky — now officially taller than its neighbor, the Mexican Redbud tree. I hope the tree doesn’t get a complex. Looks like a couple of buds are forming — I can’t wait! The giant sunflowers by the house are still struggling, poor things.

And the pretty Flame Acanthus blooms are flashing red from behind the wispy Big Muhly.

We finally got Mr. Vulture moved — now he looks down on us from our chimney, as he was always meant to do.

He can stand guard over the Caterpillar Hotel.

We Have Bird Poop! Caterpillars, That Is

Posted on June 12, 2010 by Meredith

Ohhhhhhhh, happy day. I’ve been waiting for two years to find Giant Swallowtail caterpillars munching on our Wafer Ash Trees (also known as Hop Trees). These trees were some of the very first plants we chose for our wildlife habitat, and I’ve been waiting and waiting for the those big, gorgeous butterflies to find them. Time and again over the past two years I searched, getting my hopes up when noting the occasional bird poop on the foliage, only to discover it was REAL bird poop. But look what I found today! Real bird poop caterpillars!

Aren’t they beautiful?!!! Yes, and gross, too. I’m completely convinced that these caterpillars have the best camouflage of any creature in the world.

Not so much “camouflage,” though — they really are quite out in the open, saying “Here we are!” But they sure don’t look like anything I’d want to eat if I were a bird. We actually found three of them. I hope, I hope… that I’ll get to watch them through chrysalis and butterfly stage. FYI, they also like lemon trees, lime trees, and other citrus trees, so if you don’t have Wafer Ash, look for them on your citrus trees.

And whoa — another discovery! We have ripe Roma tomatoes! It’s official — I have bird poop AND I’m a successful tomato gardener!

Happy, happy day.

Growing Up

Posted on June 4, 2010 by Meredith

I love the rain. Everything just looks so green afterwards.

But even without the heavy rainfall this week, which I was so grateful for (by the way Austinites — you can thank me for the rain on Wednesday because it was my watering day and I got up and watered– Murphy’s Law was in full effect, because the rain showed up that evening… now if you got hail, too, that’s not my fault…), this year we are enjoying massive growth of pretty much everything in the garden. I suppose that sounds reasonable, as in the plant world we are in Year 2, at least for some of our plants — the rest are still young. Following the saying “Sleep, Creep, then Leap” — it is clear that our plants are enjoying a growth spurt!

I am envisioning a garden of giants before long — the thought crossed my mind that I might have to trim some of these back at some point. Whoa, that’s too much for this girl to think about right now.

But take a look at this Rock Rose, one that I don’t even remember planting in that spot. It’s massive. Right now I’m just letting it do its thing, but I’m sure that other gardeners are wisely shaking their head, saying that I’m going to be dealing with lots of little Pavonia babies everywhere and soon. (Here’s where I’ll tell you that one of my other Pavonias already made lots of babies, as I discovered a couple of days ago. And it was a much smaller plant!)

On the plus side, I hope that the natural shade that the larger plants in the butterfly garden will provide this summer will help the smaller ones get through the heat and sun. Downside is that right now everything appears to be the same height. Somewhere in the middle of all that is a Texas Kidneywood, as well as a Barbados Cherry, which at some point should provide the height variation the garden needs. They need to be in their Leap Year, too!

All around the garden, I’ve got new plants I’m excitedly watching. Exotic Love Vine, an annual vine from Mexico and Central/South America, still hasn’t produced any flowers, but I find myself admiring its beautiful leaves everyday. I guess the love effect is already, well, in effect, even without the amazing blooms it hopefully will produce. Maybe they bloom in fall.

Now check out this great stem — hoho, Great Stem.

Now at 4-foot tall, this Cinnamon Sunflower is already bigger than some of my trees. Still no evidence of blooms. The leaves themselves are the biggest leaves of any plant I have on the entire property. For comparison, I placed a Pomegranate leaf on one of the Sunflower leaves — I still don’t think it does it justice.

For the record, the Cinnamon Sunflower’s growth is putting the Giant Sunflower’s growth to shame. I haven’t taken pictures of the Giant yet, so it better do some catching up!

The Passionflower is blooming like mad. I’m still waiting for the Fritillaries to show up.

But here’s a little Phaon Crescent come to visit.

The Purple Coneflowers are doing some strange things this year, but at least they are officially blooming. Some big, some small, some tall, some flat, some wide, some droopy…

This odd Coneflower has a striped appearance.

Speaking of Great Stems (giggle), here’s another one. Check out the thorns on this wee tree, a Toothache Tree, or Prickly Ash. The thorns are currently longer than the stem is wide!

We’re fortunate to have two species growing — Zanthoxylum hirsutum (shown) and Zanthoxylum clava-herculis (very much still a sapling). If you haven’t heard of these trees, they’re fun. Chew on a leaf and your mouth goes numb for a few minutes. Back in the old days, they served to help with toothaches, hence the name. Bonus — a larval host for the Giant Swallowtail butterfly! I look forward to our trees getting bigger.

Venturing back to the butterfly garden, I paused to admire a strawberry-like annual, the Gomphrena, that I spur of the moment planted a couple of weeks ago. It’s a dwarf compared to the older perennials, but I appreciate the red color that was needed in the garden.

And ugh, a decision to make. This rogue not-native Lantana has popped up in the yard near the pond. Now I have to decide whether to pull it. This is why I stick to the native Lantana urticoides/horrida (Texas Lantana–has orange/yellow/red blooms) — I don’t want to contribute to the easily-spread other kind. I know where it came from, too — my neighbor had one. Had. I notice she pulled it out this year.

Over in the veggie garden, I discovered an abundance of peppers! Garden Salsa peppers, and they are inspiring the Mexican meal we will have tonight. I didn’t even see them start out as babies, and here they are.

Meanwhile, their leaves are getting munched by these little culprits — tiny (but pretty) grasshoppers. The admiration stops there. They are munching on my peppers, my tomatoes, and my Exotic Love Vine. Stop it, grasshoppers!

The tomatoes are certainly growing up. They’ve outgrown their cages, keep trying to topple over, and so bushy I’m feeling a little concerned. Next time, I’m going for the big collapsible and way over-priced Texas cages.

The runner beans have grown up past the trellis. I’m hoping we’ll actually get some beans before the heat of the summer really hits us. I feel we’re pushing the season a bit.

And the perennial Bell Pepper is producing fruit again. I look at this plant in wonder — it survived last year’s terribly hot summer, made it through fall and winter without any attention from me, and here it is, still growing. I didn’t know they could do that. Talk about pushing seasons!

Plants aren’t the only things growing up around here. I’m about to have a teenager in the house (egads). And at 12, he’s already 6-feet tall. We’re going to do a final “kid” measure tomorrow, the day before he turns 13.

And these fledgling cardinals showed up this morning. Three of them. I love how their feathers are in transition. Mama and papa should be proud! You can tell my blood sugar was dropping at the time — the camera was shaking! I’d eaten breakfast, but only just. Not enough time to hit the bloodstream, I guess.

I’m pleased that birds are finally starting to pay attention to the thistle feeder. I abandoned the thistle socks awhile back due to the damage the eager birds were doing — I kept having to replace the feeders. But wow, they did love those socks. It’s not off the project list — I just needed a regular feeder to keep around constantly.

Yeah, I see you squirrel. I know what you’re up to. Yeah, I know you see me, too. And yes, I saw you on the birdfeeder this morning. I noticed the young squirrel nearby, too, watching you do it. Naughty squirrel.

So the organic garden is growing up. The birds are growing up. The squirrels are growing up. My kids are growing up. And I guess the evidence is there that this gardener is growing up, too. If I haven’t already done it, I guess I have to do away with my newbie status officially, my crutch when I don’t know what in the world is going on in my garden. But the greenery around means I must have done something right, newbie or not. If in doubt, add compost — that’s my motto! I’m loving it and ready for more.

For a look back at the garden beginnings through its first year, visit this page.

Whatnots

Posted on May 27, 2010 by Meredith

I just couldn’t come with a title for this one. But I had fun taking photos!

The Cinnamon Sunflower is about 3 feet tall now, but still no blooms. Looking pretty snazzy even without the blooms, I must say.

I never realized how fun milkweed seeds are, fresh from a pod. Hopefully some of these will germinate — I need more milkweed!

Still damp from a gentle rain, the Passionvine is happily entwining along its trellis. With luck it will hide our A/C unit soon, at least until the caterpillars start munching!

Passiflora flowers just might be the most bizarre flowers out there. I mean seriously — how on earth did nature come up with that crazy design?

The tripod of a stigma at the top looks like some alien straight from a sci-fi movie.

The coneflowers are huge and teasing me with blooms to come.

I’m not sure whether it was the rain or the change in temperature, but I finally got a Checkered White butterfly to hold still for a photo.

And a Dainty Sulphur — both of these butterflies usually tend to dart around like mad if I get too close. Gotcha, little flutterbies!

I’ve been noticing more wasps visiting the dill lately, and the caterpillar deaths have increased, so I decided it was time to create a butterfly tent. Within a day we had our first swallowtail chrysalis. The tent is a collapsible $9 laundry hamper — much cheaper and much larger than the “butterfly kits” you can buy online and in various stores.

Okay, what’s this bug? Good guy? Bad guy? Found him on my native White Honeysuckle bush. I guess I could go look him up.

In other news, I found little slimy larval stuff eating one of my tomato leaves. I took a picture, but they’re gross and I decided that they messed with my pretty zen pictures, so I’m not posting it today. The slimy things are in the compost bin now. I don’t know whether they’re good guys or bad guys, but they were working as a team and my gut told me I didn’t want more of them around. And there was a leaf-footed bug on another tomato leaf. Little booger got away. Gah. But at least I’m onto him.

The Wildlife Lover’s Moral Dilemma

Posted on May 24, 2010 by Meredith

In this amazing world, to me every creature is fascinating and beautiful in its own way. Nature has a way of showing off the remarkable, and it’s like an addictive thrill for me to find and watch nature in action — the way a tiny jumping spider stalks the much larger ant, the way a bird tilts its head to watch for predators while it eats, the different pitches of the mating sounds of the male toads croaking by the pond. I’ve been studying nature my whole life, and it never ceases to amaze me.

When nature is left to its own devices, a balance of predator and prey is the expected result, and the natural dynamics of an ecosystem in their own right are fascinating. Even now I feel the shock of climbing a ladder years ago to peer at new baby birds in a nest, only to discover a snake actively swallowing the last baby bird there. But it was nature in action, and while my heart was broken, I used it as an opportunity to teach my young children that the snake has a right to live as much as the little birds, and while we might not like what happened, it’s nature. And then we talked about the hinged jaws of a snake, and all was good.

So what makes a wildlife lover become executioner, a god deciding who shall live and who shall die? How can one be absolutely dedicated to gardening for wildlife and seeking out the fascination that nature inspires, then cross the line to what feels like heartless murder?

I’ve already crossed the line to actively killing fire ants in my yard. Anyone who has ever been bitten and stung, especially repeatedly, knows why these invasive insects are such a serious danger and problem. For immediate control, we use the boiling water method, but I also use beneficial nematodes and organic bait to help control these aggressive and painfully fierce armies of ants. Not only am I doing this to discourage a rampant problem from growing worse, but I’m a mother protecting her family from danger. So, easy justification.

I also have crossed the line to removal by hand of spotted cucumber beetles, aphids, stink bugs, grasshoppers, and a few others. But now I face a new foe, and a new dilemma. My tomatoes are in danger… from a most beautiful pest.

This is my first year growing tomatoes — Romas, Brandywines, and Tomatillos– and so far so good. The bushes are outgrowing their cages and already need new support.

The young Roma tomatoes are plentiful, and the flowers on the Brandywines let me know they aren’t far behind. The tomatillos are younger but well on their way.

But the other night, a friend came over to share a birthday key lime pie I’d made my husband, and we ventured outside in the dark with flashlight in hand to view my enormous tomato bushes. My friend had been talking about a little green worm he’d found munching on his tomatoes at home, and wouldn’t you know when he reached out to my tomatoes in the dark, he found a “squishy” creature on my tomatoes, too!

It was a hornworm — specifically a tobacco hornworm, designated by the red horn on its end. We brought it back into the house and watched it munch away on the leaf we’d brought back with it (there were actually two — see the small one there as well?). It became the table centerpiece and primary topic of conversation as we munched on key lime pie and it on its tomato leaf. We watched it munch and poop and munch some more — yes, now you know how far I’ll go to study nature. And we truly admired its beauty –a tobacco hornworm and its counterpart the tomato hornworm are gorgeous as far as caterpillars go, and the large sphinx moths they become are beautiful, too.

But we also discussed the dilemma I was in. If I let it live and go back to feasting on my tomato plants, its voracious appetite would defoliate my plants in a flash and leave holes in my young tomatoes. But after an evening of studying the little guy, could I just brutally murder this lovely green caterpillar just innocently munching on the leaves its mama left it on? Was this the Last Supper?

Ultimately I decided not to dwell on the pending demise of this pretty caterpillar. I knew the outcome the moment we’d found it. The fact is, I have an investment in the vegetable garden, and while many plants elsewhere in my yard are chosen for the wildlife that depend on them, my tomatoes are there for my family. Hornworms have a history of being pretty terrible pests, and if I let this one live, more will come to my tomatoes.

I did give it a home for the night and a bit of breakfast (the Last Breakfast, as it were) while I looked for its siblings on my tomato plants. I couldn’t find anymore, but I suspect they are just quite adept at blending in. And in the morning daylight, the true beauty of the caterpillar was apparent. Look at how the lines on its body eventually converge to form the horn.

With sadness, this morning the caterpillar will go to the bird feeder tray. I can’t bring myself to do the deed, but perhaps a bird will do the job for me.

And there is the wildlife lover’s dilemma. I’m having to send that which I admire to its doom, but maybe I can feel good that a bird will be happy. For what it’s worth, little caterpillar, I’m sorry.

EDIT:

Umm, yeah. I just went outside to the tomatoes again and found this monster. They get rather fat and a little more intimidating when they’re gigantic and practically bursting with your tomato plants inside them… And talk about the elephant of all caterpillar poop. I’m letting you imagine it rather than sharing a picture, but trust me, HUGE.

I saw this squirrel at the feeder when I put the caterpillars out. Think she’ll eat them?

My husband’s comment: Maybe the caterpillars will eat the squirrel.

Having a (Soggy) Ball

Posted on May 15, 2010 by Meredith

On this my son’s birthday, we’re having a ball. But for the first time ever, he’s not getting a party — instead we’re declaring this day his day, and he gets to dictate everything we do for the entire day. (Basically he gets to boss us all around, and that’s a dream come true for the youngest and smallest of our family.)

But outside, nature is still putting on a party!

The Goldenball Leadtree decided that this year it would finally show off the little yellow puffballs for which it was named. They are stunning against the darker green leaves.

But we’ve had a fair amount of rain the past 24 hours, and it turns out it’s become a bad hair day for the little goldenballs.

The dill is putting on a spectacular fireworks display, both of seedheads and new batches of swallowtail caterpillars. I know I’m destined to have dill everywhere, but for all those wonderful butterflies, it’s so worth it. There are so many caterpillars, it’s too hard to count!

The caterpillars made sure to take a shower and get all clean for my son’s birthday.

A monarch caterpillar munches on milkweed — our first of the season! Soon it will be dressed in chrysalis, a fine look for a birthday.

Over in the veggie garden, the green lacewings are lined up to join the party. One of them was already dancing — it might be a lacewing birthday, too!

Behind the lacewings, the tomato plants are growing like mad, just like our birthday boy. (Yes, Draco — I’m growing tomatoes — three different varieties! I’m officially a gardener!)