Mumsy's Romantic Garden Advice

[Kassaundra]

Your welcome, insects are one of my absolute favorite things to photograph

here are some hard working garden friends


preditory spider using an iris as a dining table






lacewing, good preditors

 

[armorfirelady]

Kassaundra your pictures are beautiful.

Mumsy I love to watch the bees work in the garden. As long as they dont sting me

 

[midnightroo]

Lovely photos. That is a big spider! I love the bugs, but I still jump when I see them that big. Pretty creepy even if it is a preying mantis runs across your hand when you are picking green beans.

. An adult wheel bug.

. Not a beneficial, but the only reason why we grow fennel. Anyone want some bronze fennel seeds?

 

[Jessica Lynn]

Kassaundra your pictures are beautiful.

I agree!

 

[aoxa]

Mumsy you were right, those were sunflowers. The goats got to half of this one lol

 

[Mrs Rebecca]

The pictures are beautiful! It inspires me to try to take some of my own. It would probably help me to identify the ones I don't know. After seeing your pictures of wheel bugs, I went searching. I thought I had seen something like it in my kids' sunflower patch. I was right. The kids and I have noticed that there is something boring down into the sunflower stalks, leaving nasty black holes. I believe the wheel bug must be dining on whatever that critter is. I was sure to show the kids what a wheel bug looks like and I instructed them to never touch it. My kids are afraid of very few animals, I have to be sure to tell them what is safe to touch and what is not. Teaching kids in the garden is a wonderful experience!

 

[midnightroo]

The pictures are beautiful! It inspires me to try to take some of my own.  It would probably help me to identify the ones I don't know.  After seeing your pictures of wheel bugs, I went searching.  I thought I had seen something like it in my kids' sunflower patch.  I was right.  The kids and I have noticed that there is something boring down into the sunflower stalks, leaving nasty black holes.  I believe the wheel bug must be dining on whatever that critter is. I was sure to show the kids what a wheel bug looks like and I instructed them to never touch it.  My kids are afraid of very few animals, I have to be sure to tell them what is safe to touch and what is not.  Teaching kids in the garden is a wonderful experience!

Yes, it is good to know this bug. I have read their bites can be painful for a long time. I am glad they have found your garden and you have identified the wheel bug before one of your kids got bit.

I love taking photos of bugs we can't identify and looking them up. We have found so many interesting insects that way and taught us so much. My daughter can identify bugs well enough that the Master Gardeners at the farmers market were impressed.

 

[rosiekitty94]

I'm ready to learn! Maybe I'll find a way to obscure all my Dad's junk cars in the back yard! My Grandma always liked to Garden and some of my fondest memories are outside with her. Hopefully I can recreate an outdoor space like she had.

 

[BlueMouse]

I had never even heard of a wheel bug. I think it's big enough that I'd look it up if I found it. I love beneficial insects two. All the creepy crawly inhabitants of the animal kingdom are just fascinating! we have a lot of animal and plant ID books around here. Love looking up things I don't know. Love showing things I do know to my kids

Mom Mom gave us the gift of excitement about plants animals and insects. She would find something on the side of the road while we were walking, or in the woods, and call us over, if she knew what it was she would tell us all about it. If she didn't we would collect samples and take them home to identify them. the only denizens of the animal kingdom that I have a vendetta against and cannot appreciate in their place is the earwig. Darned things give me the heebie jeebies. I dont' typically squash even those, although I MAY call the chickens over and point the little creepy feller out

We have lots of toads and garter snakes, I try to leave them plenty of places to live as we continue to clean up our property. It's a good idea to incorporate a small pond type area to give these kinds of beneficials a water source. I'll have to think about that..... I do wish we could get rid of whatever critter it is that is eating the bottom six inches off all my bean vines....

Garden is terrible this year. Corn is yellow and puny, I attribut that to first year soil/very sandy/needs hefty addition of DL. It's august and we haven't even gotten a single tomato yet. Mom's garden either. Only the cold weather plants are doing well. Really need to look into doing that hoop house. Do you leave it over it all year long? only in the spring like a cold frame? We have a whole bunch of the vapor barrier left from our house, and I'm thinking that would work out just great to put over it!

 

[armorfirelady]

Seems everyone's veggies are doing poor this year. Well except Mumsys that is

While at standby we have been talking about our poor veggie gardens. Seems others got blight this year also. The Cornell extension at the fair said its been a bad year for blight.