Juli Lawrence - Rakish Gardening

If these eggs aren’t the coolest thing ever, I don’t know. These are green lacewing eggs, and they hang on the little threads to keep them from eating one another when they hatch.

Lacewing larvae look like funny little alligators, then turn into pretty green lacewings. The larvae are also called aphid lions, because they devour aphids. I am still amazed that one day, my butterfly weed was just covered in oleander aphids, the next day…gone. The lacewings and ladybugs had an end-of-summer feast.

Here’s a creepy grasshopper that wouldn’t stop looking at me while I photographed the eggs. I probably should have killed him, but I didn’t have the heart for it.

Am I the only person in the world who now LIKES the aphids? Instead of pests, I’ve begun to view these guys as food for my friends.

These red aphids moved in as I was taking pictures, and then a few ladybug larvae marched on in and ate them.

As promised, I’ve uploaded some of my beetle sex photos into the photo area. Clickie on the picture for a better view.

This was the day I was invaded by Japanese beetles. I’d had about one per day and was hand picking them and putting them into the “Can O’ Death,” which is a coffee can with soapy water. By the end of the invasion, it was smelling pretty funky.

So on this day, two Japanese beetles were coupling and I said “Wow.” I just never thought about bugs doing it, and it was bizarre in an interesting way. Before I finished saying wow, more came and landed in a sex pile. When I took this picture, there were five in the pile, and Mr. Studly marching to join in. All but one entered the Can O’ Death, and the other one got away. Hopefully to tell his friends to stay away.

And then here are two pink spotted ladybugs having sex. What was so interesting about this was that the one on bottom just kept on trucking, headed for the aphid patch. I’m assuming the one on bottom was the female. Apparently the male was a lot more interested, and she just wanted something to eat. She crawled all over the plant with that guy on top of her. These are my favorite ladybugs because of their color.

My neighbor says she’s seen the squirrel four times with green tomatoes. She’s not growing this year, so they have to be mine. But I just can’t decide if she’s trying to trick me into killing the squirrel, just plain cause trouble, or if she really has seen this.

I have no evidence. I haven’t noticed any tomatoes missing, and I certainly haven’t found any partially-eaten tomatoes in the yard. That was my first hint last year, but I thought it was one of my neighbor’s little granddaughters who likes to pick things. I thought she was picking her grandma’s fruits, taking a bite and then tossing them into my yard for fun. I’d never heard of squirrels eating tomatoes until I finally saw him munching on one, then throwing it away.

She also says she saw a rabbit with a huge tomato from my garden. Green one. I have an even harder time believing that one, because 1) how does a rabbit stand on its hind legs and grab a tomato (none are at ground level) 2) how does a rabbit carry a large green tomato in its mouth into my neighbor’s yard 3) I thought rabbits just nibbled around on greens

So I just don’t know about all of this. I’m so very tempted to buy some ears of dried corn and feed that squirrel with my super bungee cord squirrel feeder. It’s fun to watch, but the last time I did that, I ended up with an infestation of squirrels and they chewed up all my cable wires.

Good grief, life without dogs is a real challenge. I had no idea. And I certainly had no idea suburban living included so many critters. When I lived in the country and on the edge of the Shawnee National Forest, the critters we saw included snakes, an occasional deer quickly chased off by the dogs, turtles and big frogs when we had some ponds, and one mole that lost its life and became a rolling toy for the dogs. And one deer carcass with head and antlers attached, apparently stolen from hunters by my golden retriever. That was horrible.

And that’s pretty much it, because as it turns out, dogs chase these other things away. Or the critters smell the dogs and know they’d better not bother with a visit.

So now I have the squirrel that I’m trying to coexist with, but he throws things at my head. Sticks, twigs, nuts..whatever he has. I just yell at him and he throws more stuff at me.

But we just relocated a groundhog to a nature preserve. A couple of days ago, the ground outside next to some bushes and under the front deck was completely dug up. It looked like someone tilled it. Today we had a friend set a humane trap, and within minutes, the animal was in there. A cute groundhog.

The friend returned and took him to a hopefully happier place with butterflies and wildflowers and a little tree on a hill. I’m very sad, because I fell in love with this groundhog. He was just adorable, even though he kind of looked like a super giant rat with rat teeth. I took some pictures of him in his cage, but they weren’t very good. He looked like any other groundhog I guess. Just kind of nervous, but he seemed to know I wasn’t going to hurt him.

I still feel very sorry for him. I really do. I’m nearly in tears over this groundhog and my husband is having a grand time making fun of me. Had it been up to him, the groundhog would be dead.

Goodbye my little friend, may your journey into your new home be healthy and happy.

Wow, I’d never even seen one until last year. Each day I’m going out to the back garden and finding more, mostly on the butterfly weed and hibiscus (that’s in a huge pot).

Today I got two more into the can of soapy water, but one flew away, and one couple was doing it and I only got one. Boo hoo, you’re a widow now. However, I found another one on the butterfly BUSH, but missed it. These are a little more frisky than the one last year. Either that or they’ve gotten the word out: if you see the yellow gloved hand coming your way, fly for your lives.

All I can do is hand pick them every day, because I don’t even want to use soapy water on any of these plants. They’re for the butterflies, and soapy water will destroy the eggs. At least the ladybugs are feasting on the aphids. That’s a nice sight.

But I’m not happy about these Japanese beetles. Obviously the tansy doesn’t work.

Geez, I found two more Japanese beetles having sex, this time on my hibiscus plant. Then I saw two milkweed bugs (which are pretty bugs) doing it too. There’s an orgy going on in my back garden and I don’t like it.

So I smashed them all.

Lots of ladybugs, though, enjoying the oleander aphids I’ve left for them. I don’t mind if ladybugs have sex in my garden, because the more the merrier.

Everything is looking pretty good. I’ve got a number of tomatoes, none ripe yet. And I’ve got tiny cucumbers. I think one Blue Hubbard was invaded by a squash vine borer, so I pulled it up. There are two more growing that look okay, and I gave their stems a squirt of spinosad. That’s kind of like BT but better; but it can kill the bees and ladybugs, so I haven’t used it until now. I’m trying to find my hypodermics I bought so I can inject directly into the vines. I don’t know if that works or not, just made it up. But it sounds like it should if there are any borer worms in there. I’ve misplaced them, along with my twine. I wish I were better organized, but it’s just not my nature. I have to accept that shortcoming.

Got all the tomatoes staked today, plus the goldenrod and tansy. They were so big they had spread out and were falling over. Making shade and in my way, so I tied them up. I’ve got this pounder thing that pounds stakes into the ground. I swear it’s the best tool ever invented.

Here’s what they look like, and all you do is slip the thing (heavy) over the stake or pole, give it a few taps, and it’s in the ground nice and sturdy. I can’t believe I lived without this tool my whole life. Someone gave this to me. Actually, they loaned it and I said if you ever want it back, let me know. Seriously. This person has more tools than he would ever use, so I borrow and then don’t return sometimes. It’s consensual.

The mosquitoes were terrible; they hadn’t been a problem this year, probably because we got our gutters cleaned out. LOL. But I bought this gadget that is a fan and has a scent from a geranium. It’s supposed to give you 400 square feet of no mosquitoes and other flying biting bugs. I hadn’t used it yet because there hadn’t been any skeeters. Now I need to get that out, put the batteries in it and start using it. I hope it works. Paul James said it did, which is why I bought it.

I’ve bought a number of garden things because he recommended them, and I haven’t been sorry.