What did you do in the garden today?

[WthrLady]

Just watched a Rusty spider wasp, kill the BIGGEST female wolf Spider I've ever seen, drag it across the walkway and TRY to get it down a dark crack where her den is.

 

[Elyrian1]

I'm more than slightly horrified you got close enough to put that quarter there.

 

[bruceha2000]

Does that sound like a dumb idea?

Not even remotely dumb! It will keep rabbits out for sure.

I came across a big 3" tunnel underground so whatever it is must be pretty big. Do voles get that big?

Not here they don't, they are somewhat bigger than a mouse, not as big as a rat. And generally they don't tunnel. Do you have gophers there? IIRC from my very early days in So Cal the gopher tunnels are about 3"

There's also a thread on BYC for a bunch of people who tap trees and make their own.

Oh cool, I should follow just for fun. I've never made maple syrup - 40 gallons of sap to get 1 gallon of syrup. And you don't want to make it in the house ..... unless you likely sticky all over the place from the steam. I guess it carries some of the sugar with it.

Just watched a Rusty spider wasp, kill the BIGGEST female wolf Spider I've ever seen, drag it across the walkway and TRY to get it down a dark crack

A little wasp can drag a wolf spider???? Wow. Must have a lot of eggs to lay on it

 

[TJAnonymous]

I have a hilarious spider story that I have to share.... This happened about 4 yrs ago but I will never forget it.

I was boarding a couple of my horses at a cattle ranch near my house. They didn't have a barn, per se, so I'd split the horses up into different pens to feed them so they could eat in peace without other horses or cows trying to raid their food. So I kept hanging feeders in the pens for this purpose. One day the bubble gum pink hanging feeder for my paint horse disappeared. It was missing for months and I couldn't find it anywhere. Then one day I saw a sliver of pink between the boards of the cattle chute. I made a beeline for the entrance of the cattle chute and was so focused on the feeder that I didn't notice until a SPLIT SECOND before that I was about to walk face first into an enormous spiderweb full of spiders. Very reminiscent of a horror movie... I half screamed, gasped, and choked all at once. I immediately threw myself backwards to avoid the nest of spiders smack in the face that I LITERALLY flipped backwards like something on a cartoon.... Landed flat on my back in a steaming pile of cow poo.... . And I couldn't help but laugh at the absurdity of what happened....

Luckily there were no spiders on me although I did have to wrap the drivers seat with a tarp to get home....

 

[TJAnonymous]

Not even remotely dumb! It will keep rabbits out for sure.


Not here they don't, they are somewhat bigger than a mouse, not as big as a rat. And generally they don't tunnel. Do you have gophers there? IIRC from my very early days in So Cal the gopher tunnels are about 3"


Oh cool, I should follow just for fun. I've never made maple syrup - 40 gallons of sap to get 1 gallon of syrup. And you don't want to make it in the house ..... unless you likely sticky all over the place from the steam. I guess it carries some of the sugar with it.


A little wasp can drag a wolf spider???? Wow. Must have a lot of eggs to lay on it

I've never seen a gopher here but that doesn't rule it out. We have mound tunnels all over the place but I assumed they were moles because the dogs catch them from time to time. But it's my understanding that moles eat grubs, not roots... We do NOT have any exit/entry mounds that I've seen like I would expect from a large burrowing animal like a groundhog or gopher.


As for the syrup thread, here's a link - https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/tree-sap-gathering-and-syrup-making.1351273/

 

[pennyJo1960]

I can hardly wait for our first tomato here maybe another month but then we will have them for a month or more.

 

[MACCanadianCoop]

My first baby tomatoes and baby peppers are growing

 

[Acre4Me]

Working outside today - very hot. The sprinkler or the soaker hose was on somewhere in the garden much of the day.


Harvested All the Early Italian Garlic, then bundled it to cure from the rafters. About 160 heads of garlic - some kinda small, and some rather large, but most of a middle size.

Harvested all of the Candy Apple Red onions, and some of one of the white onions. Using the empty brooder for curing since it has a mesh lid.

Beans are climbing....but there is always that ONE that needs to race to the top. Its only got maybe 1 foot to go.

 

[mamablair]

My bountiful strawberry and tomato harvests from today

 

[Gammas Bearded Babies]

I'm thinkin possum or armadillo. Both subsist on earthworms and grubs they dig up. And a freshly watered garden is the Garden of Eden to them. Could be raccoon though as they will also dig and eat, but are not dependent on them. I have trapped both coons and possums in my garden. They have ben bad this year 'cause of the drought we are in here in SE Tx.. The only place around with wet ground.

We have had 1/2" of rain in the past 48 hrs. Slowly. Took several hours each day to get that much. Oh well, at least slow, it didn't run off. But it is so dry here even a flash flood probably would'a soaked in. Maybe enough to prompt the peanut seeds I just planted to sprout.

We're in a drought...hadn't had any rain for weeks now!
What I dont understand is why they skip a few nights...then come back with a vengeance!