Up close and personal

While spraying the weeds, I came across this guy, not in the milkweed "forest" but on one solo volunteer outside the "meadow". I worried that he might be too late for the trip to Mexico, but late monarch caterpillars are part of the "super generation" that not only migrates thousands of miles but lives for months instead of weeks. Alas, it was gone the next day, presumably eaten by a bird. :-(

Then while weeding the meadow, I noticed clusters of red milkweed beetles. When I got too close, they began to scatter. Not sure why, as they taste terrible (according to AI) so are not prey. You'd think they would be more confrontational over being disturbed.

The container plants on the deck are now getting more sun, provoking them to bloom more. I repotted the fuchsia with plans to try to winter them over indoors. The question is whether to do so in the garage where they will be dormant or try to keep them inside the house and maintain them like active houseplants.

This geranium has been overwintered inside the house but looked ragged... until I repotted it. Right now the whole plant looks great. If I overwinter outdoor plants in the house, I should provide them with more light.

The pineapple sage is starting to bloom. It provides late summer nectar for the hummingbirds. In fact, I see a hummer feeding on the blossoms RIGHT NOW.

I've been remiss about some of the weeds and they are going to seed (BAD, BAD GARDENER!) One type of so-called weed sending fluffy seeds hither and yon turned out to not be a weed after all but wild aster. It's very prolific and the goldfinch like the seeds, so I guess I'll stop pulling it.

Most of my labor these days is weeding and mulching. I'm still picking tomatoes and strawberries, but I gave up on the green beans. The grass continues to grow, so there is mowing and trimming as well. The temps are in the 70's, sometimes 80's, so it is still summerlike but not so oppressive. We could use more rain, though.

Everbearing is right

Today seemed like a good day to plant garlic in the strawberry bed. Believe it or not, those everbearing strawberries are still bearing. Not a lot, mind you, and we haven't had a killing frost yet (maybe tonight), but still at it.

Does this look like a good idea? (Photo from somewhere else.) I'm intrigued by the concrete block part, not so much the 2x4 bit. Not sure where I would locate such a planter, nor what I would put in it. Herbs?

This critter was my 17th Trick or Treater last night, the final one.

From Wiki: "The banded woolly bear larva emerges from the egg in the fall and overwinters in its caterpillar form, by allowing most of its mass to freeze solid. First its heart stops beating, then its gut freezes, then its blood, followed by the rest of the body. It survives being frozen by producing a cryoprotectant in its tissues.[5] This freezing occurs outside of body cells, but not within. In the spring, it thaws."

Isn't nature amazing?

Few bugs anywhere

We enjoyed a picnic, swim, and hike at Metea Park on Independence Day. The pond was a bit shallow despite the recent rain, but I managed to do the breast stroke hither and yon, supported by a couple of pool noodles. (For some reason, I have no buoyancy.) Then we took a hike in the woods. We didn't need the bug spray I brought along, as there were basically no bugs. No mosquitoes, no deer flies, nothing besides a few gnats. I frequently lament the lack of bugs in my yard, especially pollinators, which I blame on lawn treatments, but it looks like it is an area-wide issue? Or not, as mosquitoes found me while I was visiting with the neighbors across the street in their backyard. They also have moles, while I do not. Go figure.

Eastern tiger swallowtail caterpillar at Metea

Coral fungus at Metea

The monarda on the south side of the house has brought out the bees, which I am happy to see.

The common milkweed in the same area is starting to bloom. Smells so sweet! I haven't seen any butterflies to speak of, but those red milkweed beetles are around.

The ironweed is just starting to bloom, so the rudbeckia can't be too far behind.

The blossoms have popped on the Buddleia 'Pink Microchip'. This little shrub likes growing in a container.

Besides the holiday, this week was week two of colorguard camp, so I was again busy chauffeuring my granddaughter. She won an award for being the hardest working "cadet". We watched her perform in the Three Rivers Festival parade yesterday, which marks the end of camp. Whew!

Have a festive week!

On pause

Sorry for the lapse in blogging. The passing of RBG was quite a blow and I didn't feel like doing much of anything for several days (except eat comfort food). My son and his girl friend visited yesterday (we wore masks and social distanced), which really lifted my spirits. I hadn't seen them since last xmas.

Because of their impending visit, I spent more time housecleaning than I normally do, so less time gardening. And now the temps are a bit uncomfortable for outdoor work, again. I did relocate some coreopsis to the area under the 'Perfect Purple' flowering crab, and mulched there and under the 'Golden Spirit' smokebush.

After not seeing hardly any monarch butterflies this summer and deciding to cut down the common milkweed, I spotted this fellow. I haven't seen him since - probably eaten by a bird, yum! As much as we all love monarchs and want them to thrive, the fact is they are primarily food for other creatures.

I stopped moving transplants to the south side of the house. For one thing, there will be some work on the fence and I don't want new transplants to be trampled. Also, an area I want to move some asters to is not ready for them yet. There is still time.

The area doesn't look like much, but give it a year or two (or three).

Along the fence, ironweed, rudbeckia, coneflower, aster. Along the house, switch grass and northern sea oats, plus some aster to be moved.

I talked my SO into taking some of the extra rudbeckia I had. We positioned six of them along his neighbor's privacy fence. The soil is sandy there, so I told him to water, water, water. He likes Mexican sunflower and can plant those in between the rudbeckia next spring. I'll turn him into a gardener yet!

The backyard has been full of sparrows, at the feeders and in the birdbath and all over the weedy lawn. I've seen robins eating pokeweed berries, nuthatches fetching peanut splits, blue jays hogging the whole peanut "wreath", etc. While a squirrel occasionally creeps along the fence or the telephone wire, I have not seen any perched on the feeders, so either the dogs are being vigilent enough or else the rodents can't get to the feeders.

It's the time of year I get a little burned out on gardening, find myself wishing for snow. I have a list of what I want to finish up this year - it's not that long - so (in so many ways) I must soldier on.

Will summer ever end?!?

This is not a normal autumn for this part of Indiana. In the past, we could count on cool, rainy weather, with a brief respite in October. Instead, summer just lingers on. I like changing seasons - when is this one going to change?!?

After listening to an association member complain about his neighbor's yard, I decided I should at least make an effort in mine, before someone calls neighborhood code enforcement. I hobbled around yesterday, trimming the front yard, a few days ago pulled some weeds. I can't wait to get my hip replaced!

Yellow Bear, Spilosoma virginica (I think)

While weeding, I came across the above fuzzy yellow caterpillar. Today I saw bluebirds around the empty bird feeders. This summer I am a bad yardener. Hopefully, I will be able to get back in the groove shortly.

Meanwhile, Clio knows how to beat the heat.

Jealous

My daughter sent me this pic of what I assume is a swallowtail caterpillar on her dill plants. She says there are four, chomping away. I offered up my butterfly habitat, but she declined. It's one thing if Mother Nature ends their lives, quite another if they die from neglect.

My dill is long dead, so now I am thinking I should plant it successively, to increase the likelihood that I will attract some egg-laying swallowtail butterflies.

Still no butterflies

There are three pupae in the butterfly habitat, but none have hatched yet. I moved the habitat outside, as I thought maybe being exposed to natural temperatures instead of the steady 74 in my house might help things along and/or acclimatize the little buggers to the real world. So far, no luck. Hope everything is okay.

While gathering fresh leaves for the captives, I found this guy in the wild (backyard). I checked on it everyday, but now it is gone. Did a bird eat it? Did the dogs knock it off the milkweed? Is it pupating somewhere not obvious?

Regardless of my success or failure with the caterpillars, my heart has been gladdened by the sheer number of butterflies, especially monarchs, I see in the backyard these days. Most are nectaring on the Mexican sunflowers, along with the hummingbirds. Both are preparing for their migration south.

Otherwise, not a whole lot has been going on in the yard and garden. I finally tired of harvesting flowers for dyeing, so there is a small riot of color out there, mostly yellow and orange. The weather continues to confound - it's either too hot or too wet to do much besides mow. Speaking of which, I'd better get at it.

And we have a chrysalis!

Many moths spin cocoons. Butterflies create a chrysalis to protect themselves during the final stages of metamorphosis. (I am getting my monarch information from here. That site has better photos - I am finding it difficult to snap pix without disturbing the critters too much.)

Just hanging around

Closed for renovations

We're right behind you!

Now that the end is near for one of my monarch caterpillars, I am finding it much easier to remember to check on the habitat. To extend the main milkweed stalk, I twisty-tied a shorter one to it. Now the remaining caterpillars will be able to climb to the top of the mesh ceiling.

Out of sight, out of mind

One problem with keeping the monarch caterpillars locked away from the cat is I forget to tend them. A milkweed stalk does not last long even when standing in a jar of water. Also, caterpillars can fall into the jar of water (I rescued one). All I need to do is remember to give them fresh leaves everyday, but somehow that is too much.

Another problem is fresh leaves may also have eggs on them - or even a teeny tiny caterpillar the birds haven't found yet. I really need to get on the ball here or I will miss out on the fun of releasing a live monarch into the wild.

With all the rain we've had lately, it is all I can do to keep ahead of the mowing and trimming. Yesterday I was feeling rather blue about the yard. Today I weeded a bit, though, and discovered it's not as bad as I thought. The raised beds are relatively weedfree. It's the areas that are not protected and mulched that are problematic. In past years, my SO has helped out a LOT, especially battling weeds. This year his contribution was primarily the moving of the wood chips from driveway to backyard. That reflects some progress. Once it cools down, I will corral him into helping me tackle (my side of) the (neighbor's) privet.

A little catch-up

Sometimes I think I have too many hobbies. Other times I just seem to be inefficient or lazy. I'm retired, so all "goals" are self-inflicted, but I know I am happiest when I feel like I have accomplished something by the end of the day. Blogging tends to fall by the wayside.

Monarch update: I think I have put six caterpillars into the butterfly habitat. I'm hesitant to check the leaves too thoroughly, as if a caterpillar falls off its leaf (a common reaction to disturbance), there is no way it can climb back on.

When it's time for cocoon formation, they will want to climb up and attach to the top of the habitat, but right now there is no way to do that, either. I'd like to add another milkweed plant, but a danger of doing that is introducing a predator. The newly hatched larva are SOOOO tiny I think the smallest spiders could make a meal of them. What is a monarch foster mom to do?

August is rudbeckia season. I have some scattered around the yard; next year, there should be a lot more. Thanks to all the rain we have received, the coneflower and rudbeckia transplants are doing great (as are all the weeds). The butterfly weed is okay; it takes a while to get established.

It's easy to forget about the 'Limelight' hydrangea. It is in a corner I don't visit often except to mow, and then I am looking down, not up. I caught a glimpse of it over the fence while walking the dog the other day and realized it is in bloom.

The late season 'Royal Standard' hosta is in bloom as well. The hosta in general have somewhat recovered from dog trampling but only because I fenced off that section of the yard. I would not be walking daily were it not for the dogs, but sometimes I wonder if my health is worth all the damage they do to the yard.

I continue to pluck blossoms from the cosmos and dyers coreopsis on a daily basis, and in less than 24 hours, there are MORE. A LOT more. There is a lesson in deadheading there, I believe (although the marigold are much slower to recover from just such a denuding). Some plants are in desperate need of deadheading - those flowers are definitely DEAD - but then I see goldfinch feeding on the seeds. Maybe the birds and I can reach a compromise of some sort.

They grow up so fast!

I have little bitty monarch caterpillars! Ironically, the eggs on the first leaves I picked did not hatch (not fertile?), but after ordering the butterfly habitat, I saw a monarch laying eggs on the milkweed by the deck. I grabbed a couple of leaves from there and those are the ones that hatched.

Day 1 (or 2?)

I didn't write down the caterpillars' "birthday", so I'm a bit fuzzy on exactly when they hatched. (And I suffer from CRAFT - can't remember a freaking thing.) I *think* day one they looked like teeny tiny meal worms, but by day two the stripes were visible.

Day 3 (or 4?)

Now you can see the antennae, which for some reason just makes me go *squeee*!

Day 4 (or 5?)

The first indicator that there were caterpillars was the appearance of frass (caterpillar poop) in the bottom of the mason jar. This has to be kept cleaned up, so now not only do I pick up dog poop and scoop kitty litter, I am mopping up frass.

Frass

Initially, I set up the butterfly habitat in the kitchen, weighting it down with a couple of bricks in what turned out to be a vain hope Beau (the feline destroyer of all things fine) could not knock it over. Unfortunately, the mess sides are perfect for snagging cat claws. So now the habitat is in the bathtub, behind a closed door.

Butterfly habitat

According to the instructions, this habitat can incubate up to 30 butterflies at a time, so of course I went out and found five more leaves with eggs. It is not limited to monarchs, either, so maybe next year I'll be able to raise some swallowtails or something. Science is fun!

Not a monarch, but still a caterpillar on milkweed

There were hornworms on the tomato plants. My son picked them off and threw them over the fence before I could get a look, so I've been on the lookout for more. Then I took a tour of the yard. The aphid-infested milkweed host a variety of insects - ladybugs, wasps, etc. - AND some caterpillars!

These are the "other milkweed caterpillar", larva for the milkweed tussock moth, a.k.a. milkweed tiger moth, more specifically euchaetes egle. I trapped one and brought it in for my g'daughter to see. After learning the chrysalis must winter over, I decided I will return it to its natural environment, then try to remember NOT to clean up that small stand of milkweed this fall, ugly as it is.

Also in the yard was this very cooperative swallowtail, enjoying the zinnia.

The Mexican sunflower finally bloomed, much to the delight of this bee, also a cooperative subject.

What's "bugging" you in your yard?

Lucky in in-laws

Yesterday my daughter and son-in-law came over to install the microwave/exhaust vent over the new stove.

Before:



Notice how the old exhaust vent drooped in the back right corner. I paid for that lousy installation, and at the time felt fortunate to do so.

During:



Notice the jog in the exhaust duct. My SIL had to make that jog, as things did not line up quite right. Also notice the outlet in the cupboard. He added that, as the original exhaust fan was hardwired and the new one is not. Shims were required as well.

After:


Before installation, all three of us were questioning just how the microwave was going to fit over the stove and still allow normal cooking operations. But it turned out great. And it required only two trips to the hardware store.

My dad has been nagging his state horticultural society to identify his petunia-eating caterpillar. They responded to his original query with a commentary on slugs. His pest is obviously not a slug, so he sent them a better photo of it.



I still think it is a tobacco budworm. What do you think?

First frost, sorta

Last night there was a threat of frost, so I covered the peppers, herbs, and some of the tomatoes with sheets; the zucchini were on their own! This morning, my thermometer read 35, and the dew on the grass was frosted, but the zucchini came through relatively unscathed.

Not much new in the yard, except for these struggling asters.



But in my dad's yard, something happened. He captured the critter that has been eating his petunia blossoms!



He even verified it prefers blossoms over leaves. I think it is a tobacco budworm, aka geranium budworm. If the winter is sufficiently harsh, it should not live to see the spring.

Tonight I watered a few thing, so of course, now it is raining. But after a crummy day at work, puttering in the yard puts my mind right.

Re this year's construction project, i.e. converting the workshop to a laundry room, the contractor called tonight and I think we have a price. Then I dropped the bomb that I would like to get it done by the first week in November because I am having company then. He is going to talk to his crews and see if that is doable.

I'm so excited!