monarch caterpillars

I have been seeing plenty of swallowtail butterflies around the yard, so wondered if the monarchs came through yet. Haven't seen one- but I checked the milkweed plants again. Yeah, they were here!I found at least a dozen fat monarch caterpillars- sorry I missed seeing them at first few instars when they were little guys (this is the smallest one I found).

But glad to see so many munching away. There seems to be plenty of milkweed for them this time around.

There aren't any on my one common milkweed that survived transplant though:

critters

 Fat broad-head skink on a stump

Leaping insect that definitely eats plants. I think it's a katydid? My youngest protested when I said I would "recycle its body into worm food" so we released it in the woods behind our neighborhood during a trail walk. 

Insect I found in the garden on the sunberry bush. Don't know what it is, but the front legs definitely look like they aim to grab others- predatory. 

I keep finding and doing away with the striped beetles, only one at a time now so their numbers are diminishing. And brown stink bugs. And there's lots of whitefly on the sunberry, leaves full of small holes. However this doesn't seem to affect the fruit ripening, and the whitefly appears to be more attracted to the sunberry plant than to the chard in the next garden spot, so I did nothing to deter them. If sunberry acts a trap plant for me, that's great. 

Tiny spider with front legs held like a scorpion- only I couldn't get close (on the turtlehead):

And today also on turtlehead I saw the first preying mantis! 

Brown one

in the garden

 I'm seeing more ripe tomatoes, and no bitten ones, since got the hornworms out of there. I want to figure out what other plants tomato hornworms eat, though. Turns out they develop into beautiful hawk moths- called hummingbird moths- and I'd love to see one. I just don't want them spoiling my tomatoes!

A while back I direct-sowed seed for spider zinnias in between the sunberry and amaranth plants. I didn't see much happening and kind of forgot they were there. Sunberry plant was leaning over far after some heavy rainstorms softened the ground, so I propped it up with a few poles. Also cut back the amaranth to eat again. There's a tiny spider zinnia blooming! I don't think they're always this small- probably it was too shaded so didn't grow well.

My next bunch of tokyo bekana is growing quickly in the seedling tray. I think in a week or two I'll plant them out and start more. Getting a little better at this succession-planting method.

angelfish

 

fishes

On August first I started treating the window tank for gill flukes. I'm using Prazipro (praziquantel) and doing a 35-day regimen I've seen detailed several times on the planted tank forum. It's repeated doses and water changes and substrate cleaning at five or six or seven-day intervals over the course of a month. So far, seems to be helping- Laddie has perked up a lot, quit gulping for air, fins no longer clamped and his appetite is improving. 

He was looking poorly last night, and this morning right after dose started darting around as if irritated, but now cruises in various levels of the tank and eyes me expectantly through the glass (I fed him mosquito wigglers yesterday, he really liked that!)

Corner shot of the ten gallon, from across the room. Guppies still doing grand. A few weeks ago I unplugged the heater during a water change and then forgot to plug it back in- for um, several days. Everything looks fine, though. I'm running the AC less this summer (two degrees warmer than I used to, at 74°). I thought it would be hard on the plants, to have a temperature drop- the tank is usually now between 72 and 74°, but it looks even better than before. The rotala stems are greener, and the crypts are growing in thicker. So I think I will just keep as is (unheated) until fall when it cools off enough to quit using the AC.

White cloud fry still growing! I have tried again to count them and think there's about thirty in there. I thought I would ease up on water changes as they got older, but nope. Still doing a partial wc every other day, or every third day if I get extra busy, but changing out three gallons at a time now, instead of two. Because the fish are bigger, and eating more, so I want to be sure to keep the water clean enough, until I can give some away to my fishkeeping friends. They're seven weeks old now. Best photos I was able to get today: 

Angel is doing well, but I wanted to get a good photo of her so have to wait til after dark.

little handfuls

I'm able to pick a few more sunberries each day, now. Kind of surprised the birds haven't discovered them yet. Or don't like them. There are quite a few stinkbugs, though. Adding them all to container in the freezer until I have enough to make a small pie and re-evaluate if I'll grow this next year.

I've been lax at deadheading the sweet peas, and they aren't doing great on the back side of the greens beds- probably from not quite enough sun. So some seed pods have developed and three times now I've picked, let sit to dry in windowsill, and hulled the sweet pea seeds:

early hours

I didn't sleep well last night. Tried reading a tough book to get drowsy again, it didn't work. So at five-thirty AM decided might as well do something productive. Went out into the garden when it was just getting light enough to see, and did nearly two hours of work. It was nice, actually- the neighborhood very quiet, the insects not yet pestering, the air nice and cool.

I cut down to three or four inches the yellow collards, making room for new set of tokyo bekana. Plan is that when it gets too cold for the chinese cabbage, I'll quit cutting back the collards and see if they grow back for fall/winter greens. Cut back and composted the garden kale too- it's too hot to eat them and now more light gets to the sweet peas. Cleaned up some yellowing leaves off the swiss chard and sorrel. Leaf beet chard isn't nearly as affected by pests- not sure if this is coincidence (the bugs just found the swiss chard first) or if it's more resistant? Deadheaded the tithonia and some echinacea (in the front corner, where they're visible to passerby). Picked up fallen branches, admired the rose of sharon, cut and washed amaranth greens for dinner tonight. 

Then I gathered up all the bare pots of plants that have died: lentils (no surprise), chervil (natural end of its season), fenugreek (when I doused the kale next to it with soapy water, some of the pests jumped ship onto the fenugreek and ruined it before I noticed). Fuschia had grown back a little this spring but then faltered and died, hellebore seedlings I had potted withered in the heat - I had them in the wrong spot. And one more pot I can't remember what grew in it, now. I dumped them all into empty soil bags, sifted out crockery shards and bits of sticks, and set them wide open in the mini greenhouse. With the idea that heat in there will kill some pathogen or insect eggs/larvae, so I can use the soil again. On days over ninety (we have plenty now) the interior of the shut greenhouse gets far beyond what my thermometer will even register- over one hundred fifty.

flowers

My new rose of sharon are both blooming now! 'Pink Chiffon'

and 'Purple Satin'

Summersweet is in open bloom, and the flowers have a wonderful, delicate scent just like vanilla. I can't detect it until I'm very close, though.

In the bedroom window, another of my young violets is budding!

Funny that the last post I did about african violet blooms also featured rose of sharon.

insect battle

This is the beetle that is eating up my amaranth greens, and now leaves on the sunberry too. After further searches, I now think it's the pale-striped flea beetle-

the holes in the leaves are more like flea beetle damage than potato beetle. There's still enough greens I cut the plant back, rinse clean and cook 'em anyway.

Something is still eating all my tomatoes, while they're green- and stripping leaves as well. Due to the frass, I found four very fat tomato hornworms. Got rid of them, but I am not sure if something else (chimpmunk?) was actually eating the fruit.

Sprayed my green bean vines, and they're doing much better now! Lots of tiny purple flowers and I am looking forward to at least one good picking of beans. I also sprayed the side of euonymus shrub near that corner of the garden. It always has a ton of yellowed leaves dropping. I think now this garden bed has done poorly over the years not for lack of sun, but because there's a constant infestation of aphids or spider mites or whatever on that euonymus that always spreads into the garden plot.

some other things

I have not given much attention to the "yard plants" this season. Putting all the effort watering and weeding and pest control on the vegetable/herb garden, the other plants just have to survive on their own. I haven't watered the coleus I planted out front (they are small and poorly, whereas the mums are doing just fine in the heat) or the salvia around trees on the lawn, or even walked through the shady side yard much. 

Last week I did take a few photos, to note: Mayapple was still around, even in the heat

Bleeding hearts were about done for, but they'll be back next spring

Summersweet has grown tall enough to almost obscure the rear neighbor's little white fence- and it has way more blooms forming than last year!

My inkberry looks poorly now, while the bayberry is doing better.

Out front around the mailbox, the borage got all wilted and icky from bugs- I smashed quite a few japanese beetles- they didn't make their way to the garden in the backyard thank goodness. Pulled up that borage and scattered some flower seed (which I also got from the friend who gave me lamb's ears and joe pye and catmint). Watered for a while, now we're having scattered thunderstorms again. Lots of borage and celosia seedlings have come up in that spot, but not the new flowers yet.

I tidied up the sedum that grows over the old cherry stump, clipping off the dead flower heads which give it a brown crown in summer. That's nicer now. Need to figure out the lawn, sigh. The seed mix I used under the crabapple tree did fine, the nice bright green grass I planted by the driveway failed in the summer heat. Now it's all clover, wiry-stemmed weed and crabgrass taking over again (yeah, I didn't get rid of that so well as I had thought, yet).

with pictures

Baby cantaloupes!

Joe pye weed- the standard one- turned out to be more attractive than I expected.

Still really happy with the lamb's ears under my gladiolas (which are nearly done flowering now).

But the catmint I got from friend, died. I had one cutting still alive in a pot of soil and it started growing new leaves and I thought it was time to put it outside to get more sun- but the day was too hot and when I went back outside to water it, it had dried to a crisp. I think it was too soon, didn't have enough good root system yet. 

This is definitely my hollyhock mallow (zebrina) coming up!

Tithonia starting to get taller and flower more. One got devastated by pests and I pulled it out. Have been cleaning wilted lower leaves and deadheading old blooms every other day or so, it seems to help.

Here's my cardinal climber! It looks kinda silly going up these metal racks which were for shelves in the greenhouse I didn't use, I just propped them by the fence in case the cardinal plant needed something to cling to. Which it sure did.

I'm hoping the hummingbird will come for its flowers. Last week one day when I got in the car, I saw the hummingbird at the black-and-blue salvia, hovering from one flower to the next for several minutes. And this week I saw it once in the garden, it stopped at the tithonia and then paused at the hydrangea (I didn't know hummingbirds would feed from hydrangea). It's like magic, seeing that tiny bird that hangs in the air with a thrum.

My newest set of chinese cabbage sprouted

Final news: I busted my pinkie toe. Stubbed it hard on something in the garden and it hurt a lot. Noticed later it's bloody and the nail split down the middle, vertical completely from edge to the cuticle. Spent most of yesterday sitting with my foot up and ice on it. It's not torn off or swollen, so I am just going to wait and see how it heals. I read that it takes up to eighteen months for a nail to grow back! Meanwhile I am keeping a bandaid on so it doesn't snag on something and actually tear off, and it's still a little sore today so I'm not doing as much outside work for the time being . . .

garden report

No photos today, but some brief notes. Bugs have got ahead of me in the garden again, since I wasn't out there much last week. I have to put in a few hours before ten or eleven if I want to get something productive done, as by nine it starts to get unbearably hot. Insects have killed my nasturtiums and are making inroads on other plants. I doused many in soapy water again and it's helped some. Pulled all the old snap pea plants- they're past saving for seed as all look diseased. Cut sickly foliage off the bean plants and sprayed them again. If the soapy water doesn't help enough I'll do neem oil before a rainstorm today. Newer foliage still looks fresh.

I was looking forward to amaranth greens again, but the potato beetles like it just as much as I do- they are completely riddled with holes and on two plants the leaves have started to drop off. I've been squishing the beetles as I find them but didn't realize there's larvae as well- short fat pale grey caterpillars on leaf undersides. Never seen them before. Picked two dozen off the plants this morning. Cleaned up sickly leaves off the glaze collards, swiss chard, zucchini, cuke and tomato plants. Not very many so I'm still ahead of it there.

Took a large harvest of chinese cabbage (aka tokyo bekana) cutting the plants nearly down to the ground and dousing the remaining crowns with soapy water. They were very much riddled with bug holes. Not just slugs, something else too I think. Had a nice meal the day before- portabella mushrooms sliced and cooked with leeks and onions, then simmered in a bit of soy sauce with zucchini sautéed in farm butter on the side, and chinese cabbage cooked in soy sauce and apple cider vinegar, all on a bed of rice. I used apple cider vinegar in place of rice wine vinegar, it just takes a dash. I also used ginger mint in place of fresh ginger root (my ginger plant has long since died and I don't have another yet). So that dinner had four garden ingredients: leeks, chinese cabbage, ginger mint and the zucchini. It was a lovely zucchini. There's another one growing! There's a baby cantaloupe on the vine out there, too. Today I cut more chinese cabbage, pretty much using all the rest of it (going to make the same dish but with salmon and couscous today). I think I only got two harvests out of that lot of chinese cabbage. I started more seed of it today, but really I should have done a new sowing as soon as the young plants went into the ground. Aim for that this time.

garden food

I was pleased with this meal last week- the potatoes are from a box and the peas from a bag of frozen,

but the minced green onion garnish, cooked amaranth greens, turnips and dill with the peas are all home-grown. People weren't kidding- amaranth 'calaloo' has great taste! Tossed it with a bit of butter and salt, that's all. Much better flavor than collards or even leaf beet chard, very close flavor to spinach. And it loves the heat. It's growing like crazy in my garden though I've cut it back twice already. Great plant.

new eats

Picked my first cucumber. It was better-tasting than previous years (no bitterness) and fat, too!

Zucchini, going to eat this one tonight.

And a large tomato. I brought it in to finish ripen on the windowsill.

Something has been eating my tomatoes. I kept thinking I saw more cherokee purples on the vine, but then when they ripened, only a few are left. Then I found a large tomato with a spot of decay on one side- or a bite, because the next day the hole was larger. Third day I went out to pick and bring it inside, and even more of it was missing, from the same side! Is it the squirrel? usually they carry the whole thing off, or take a bite and then go on to another fruit, but whatever creature nibbled my tomato came back every day to eat a little more of it. Maybe the chipmunk.

I don't have a photo of this, but started picking the sunberries. Only two or three at a time- the clusters don't all ripen at once. I offered some to each of my family. My kids liked them all right, my husband didn't. They're not very sweet, the flavor is mild and they're kind of mealy in texture. I think I will have to pick and freeze a lot in succession, get enough to try a small pie. If we're not too fond of that, this might be a plant to skip in the garden next year.

paradise fish status

I'm nervous to either take a gill sample or make potassium permanganate dip for Laddie. I reconsidered all his symptoms- pale, mostly clamped fins, lethargic, no appetite, hanging at the surface, sometimes flashing off the filter uplift tube, seeming to gasp for breath. Now I think could be gill flukes?

I looked through my box of fish meds and last night dosed the tank with general cure (praziquantel and metronidazole). I have enough to do one complete round of two doses fortyeight hours apart- and then will have to buy more to repeat in however many weeks this parasite reproduces- or use prazipro to continue treatment (still have a bottle of that, but not sure how much is in it).

I think maybe I'm on the right track- Laddie looks much better this morning. He's alert, looking at me expectantly through the glass, went after flake, even competing with the guppies and minnows for food. He's moving about the tank at normal levels, inspecting stuff with interest, not hanging at the surface, and fins are not so clamped. I'm glad to see him better but have to figure out when to repeat treatment and what to use (get more general cure or just go with prazipro).