Blog posts in category “garden”
Grass Labyrinth
I’ve been cleaning up several acres of old hilly pasture overgrown with tall grass, and decided to set aside a relatively flat chunk of it to try making some sort of labyrinth.
Nature Photos
Just an assortment of photos from the past few months.
Cicada Status
The Brood X cicadas are mostly done at this point. I still hear one occasionally but the only ones I’ve seen in the past week or so are dead.
Dahlia Status
It’s been a couple months and things have really moved along.
Mantis Nymph
Several weeks ago I noticed an ootheca in the back yard, and there might be more in the bushes that I haven’t seen.
More Yard Plants
Just an assortment of other plant photos from around the yard.
Dandelions
Dandelions are much more interesting up-close than I would have expected.
Yard Flowers
An assortment of flowering plants from around the yard over the past few months:
Pink Lady's Slipper
I was going through the woods last month getting pictures of flowering trees, and noticed this odd-looking flower on the ground. From a quick bit of research it’s a pink “lady’s slipper” orchid. They’re native to the area but I don’t recall ever seeing one before.
Brood X Cicadas
The 17-year “Brood X” cicadas started showing up this week. They aren’t flying around or making much noise yet, but it’s only a matter of time. Looking around the yard I can easily find some hanging out on low plants along with lots of cast-off shells.
Dahlia Status
Out the beds several more plants have come back on their own. There are lot that still aren’t showing any sign of surviving the Winter, though, so that’s at least more places I might be able to put the ones from the grow racks.
Starting Dahlias
I put around 50 bundles of tubers in the fridge for Winter storage, and it’s about time to get them started.
Garden Photos (image heavy)
I’ve been taking a lot of pictures to get more familiar with my new camera and software.
Garden Status (image heavy)
We had some big rainstorms this week, with even a bit of hail and a nearby tornado, but the beds have held up. My driveway did have to be repaired a few times, though. On the plus side, the heat and humidity have gone down and the nights are even cool now. I’ve also got several varieties that are finally starting to bloom, after spending all Summer making large amounts of foliage without buds.
Garden Status
Not much new in the beds. The flowers aren’t getting chewed-up as much and I haven’t seen any Japanese beetles lately, so that’s a plus. I’ve also had to go around and strap up a bunch of stalks after some wind and rain.
Garden Status
More of the same this week – some rain, a few broken branches, and more blooming.
Dahlia: Lemonade (not Jenna)
[Update 2020-08-29] Whoops, originally thought this was Jenna but it turned out to be a low branch of Lemonade that had reached across the bed and upward through the Jenna plant. The actual Jenna is starting to bloom and is a completely different color.
Garden Status
Lots of heavy rain over the past couple weeks, which combined with the heat caused several more bent and snapped branches.
Garden Status
Not much new this week. More heat and more beetle damage, but the beds are still generally green and thick.
Garden Status
The plants are getting to be very thick now, and I keep finding more new stalks that need to be staked up.
Garden Status
The plants are filling out and even starting to lean into the walkway. I’ve had to add a lot more strapping to keep everything in place, and I had a couple of the original straps break loose under the weight. I lost a couple small side-stalks this week, but nothing major.
Garden Status
Over 30 varieties are now blooming, so I’m getting quite an assortment of flowers for cutting:
Garden Status
I had my first major plant losses of the year. It was really hot, which makes the plants a bit floppy, and then it rained, which makes the plants a lot heavier. The straps holding up several large Kabloom stalks came loose and the stalks fell over to the ground. I was able to recover and re-strap a few of the stalks, but most of the really big ones completely snapped off.
🎵 Spider-Mom, Spider-Mom... 🎵
A spider recently set up a fine network of lines on one of the dahlias, pulling the leaves together to make a little tent for her brood. From the behavior I assume this is a nursery web spider.
Garden Status
I had three tubers still in the basement grow racks that had barely sprouted and never produced visible roots. I took a closer look at them this week and found that the tubers were soft or completely rotten, so those are a lost cause. Everything else continues to grow. I’ve got a few plants in the beds that are going very slowly, but so far nothing that made it outside has died.
Garden And Yard Critters
A week ago there were mantids everywhere, for example here’s three in close proximity:
Garden And Yard Critters
5-6 weeks ago I spotted an ootheca in the woods and brought it closer to the flower beds.
Garden And Yard Miscellanea
So far my only big garden/fence project recently was to finally install a gate to the front yard, which makes it a lot quicker and easier to get over there.
Getting Dahlias Started For 2020
Last year I’d started something like 130 plants and it was a bit much to deal with, so at the end of 2019 I only dug up a couple dozen of my best producers to save for 2020. I left the rest in the ground to freeze and die over the Winter. The ones I dug up were “temporarily” placed in plastic containers, but I procrastinated about properly dividing and storing them.
Starting Dahlias In Baggies
When I prep them for storage I usually can’t tell where the eyes are, so before starting the tubers I usually first let them sit for a week or two at room temperature. I leave them bundled like they were in the fridge, so that they won’t dry out. I have some dark shelves at the top of my growing racks where I can set them, which gives them a bit of warmt from the lamps but not the light, so I just put a couple trays of them up there at a time.
Potting Mix For Starting Dahlias
In the past I’ve just used off-the-shelf mixes such as Miracle-Gro, and while it did grow some plants I also lost a lot of them before they even went outside. Swan Island recommends using a mix that doesn’t have a lot of added fertilizer, so for 2018 I did my own mix that’s not as strong. It worked out really well, so I’m using it again in 2019.
Luna Moth
Noticed this large and very furry moth hanging out next to the front door yesterday.
Last One Departs
I had one praying mantis left in a cage. It was a female and the only way she’d make more mantids is if I either catch a mate or let her out. Letting her go also solves the problem of having to feed her, so off to the yard…
Cricket Escape
The other day I found a cricket in the kitchen sink. It looked like one of the feeders for my remaining praying mantis, but I keep those in a sealed plastic container. I thought perhaps it had escaped when I was dumping them into the cage and I didn’t notice. I grabbed it with my hand and dropped it in with the mantis.
8th Instar
I’d read that the wings show up at the last stage and mantis #1 already had some little ones after the last molt, so it was a bit of a surprise when I found a big shed in the habitat.
Into the Wild
My mantids are finally reaching maturity and I only have suitable long-term accommodations for one, so it’s time to get the others out of the house (and with the addition of the kitten I have too many irons in the fire anyway).
7th Instar
It took two weeks for this next molt, and I assume the feeder insects ate the shed again since I only saw a leg’s worth remaining in the tank. The wings are now present, though tiny and definitely not enough to fly with – I don’t know if they continue to grow to flying size or if that’s going to be it for this individual. She’s so big that she can’t easily climb up the inside of the dome any longer, so now she spends most of her time down on the middle part of the wall, which is just as well since it puts her closer to the crickets.
6th Instar
My #1 mantis seemed a lot bigger today, but I wasn’t sure she’d (I’m 90% sure this is a female) molted because there was no change in coloring and there was no shed to be found. But then I looked at the others that I know were about the same size as this one the other day, and they looked tiny in comparison. Maybe the feeder crickets ate the shed.
5th Instar
Two more molts to go, I think.
4th Instar
I moved one of the mantids into a big 360-degree terrarium last week and as a side effect I’ve been able to observe its behavior a lot better. This morning it seemed to be acting unusual, ignoring the feeder flies and very slowly creeping around the top of the dome. It’s been about 10 days since the last molt so I suspected it was getting ready. Sure enough, I walked by a while later and it was suddenly a whole lot bigger. It had just finished climbing out of the old skin; it’s hard to believe it was able to fit in there at all.
3rd Instar
When I went to feed and water the mantids today, the first one I went to was obviously much larger and I found a shed down inside the container. The first molt took two weeks but the second was only 9 days later. It was also much calmer than after the first molt.
2nd Instar
I went to feed the mantids this morning and for a moment thought some other bug had gotten in with one of them. During hatching I’ve had a few others end up loose in the house and found them wandering around later, so it’s not completely impossible:
Upgraded Mantis Housing
I made some larger and more woodsy homes for my mantids (albeit with fake leaves so they won’t rot), plus it gives more height and stuff to hang from which they apparently need for molting.
Feeding Baby Mantids
I’ve got several praying mantis ootheca set out to hatch. To do this I just put each one in a small container with some netting and set it in a sunny spot. It usually takes about 30 days after bringing them out of cold storage. There’s also paper pieces mixed in, so that when they hatch they’ll have somewhere to hide from each other.
Caterpillar Invasion
Originally posted to a now-defunct forum in 2009.