Surprise! A loofah gourd I didn’t plant has already reached the top of the trellis.Chard, mini bell peppers, and Chimayó peppers.The Chef found a cutworm in the chard.I found a big beautiful banana spider (Argiope) in the tomatoes while I harvested! I made sure not to bother her more.I finally determined the zucchini plant was a total loss to squash vine borers. I also made an executive decision to not let the very thriving white currant tomato plant shade out the moon and stars watermelon or the salvia or the rosemary. There’s only one plant and it’s a monster! I got over 900 g this evening alone.All tidy now. I hope the watermelon will do better now.I came inside to find this beautiful meal prepared by the Chef. Greens are chard from the garden and the bell pepper topping is mini bell peppers sliced. Yum. Nice and cool after working in the heat and humidity.
I was taking some seedling trays outside when I saw a big thing land on a log. It was an eyed click beetle!!I got a little too close and it ran (I didn’t know they were so fast) to the other side of the log.
I am very honored to announce I have received one of the highest endorsements of my garden I can think of: we have a bumblebee nest!
They are in the wren house, in the abandoned nesting material.They look so much less round here than when out pollinating flowers, so much so that I tried to get closer for a confirmation photo.
So! That last picture, the bumblebee flying? Yes, well, I have found their limit is about a meter or so. Keep scrolling to see three of my four stings and one unlucky bumblebee that clung to me into the house and got squished in a panic, sadly. Content warning if you keep scrolling down: squished bee, reddish stings, puffy knuckle. No blood.
Briar was interested in an ice cube abandoned after Wes got out the more useful bag of frozen peas n carrots for me. Last chance to turn back from sad bee and sting pics!!!!Sting above knuckle on ring finger.Left arm stingRight arm sting. This was the unlucky and persistent bee we squished in house. I feel bad about that.We kept the dead bee for identification. Tentative identification by several people is American Bumblebee, Bombus pennsylvanicus.Front viewAnother above shot. Pattern of yellow and black seems to be how they are identified.This morning my two arm and one neck stings not too bad. Last night the arm ones hurt when bounced (ie when I took dog on her bike ride) and the knuckle hurt to flex. This morning the ring finger knuckle is very puffy and definitely hurts more to flex.Note how the affected knuckle doesn’t wrinkle up like all the others.Unaffected left ring knuckle for comparison.We’ve been walking by here all summer with no problems, but I decided to put a chair out for safety for now. Finger pointing at bees.You can see it’s on the way to the door to the garage. I think it should bee fine but for a few days at least I am going to go around!
New growth on fern by water faucet.New growth on fern under north side of house rain barrel.I set the rain barrel openings to leak just slightly to water the ferns.
Leftover hotpot style soup. The Chef also used venison from Paula and chard and kohlrabi leaves in eggrolls. Sauce for eggrolls was South Dakota honey from our esteemed visitor this week!
Argiope spider. We call them banana spiders for the yellow but I think most people call them garden spiders.Missouri fluttermill primrose in the rock/sedum garden continues to bloom!Many tomatoes along with kohlrabi.A caterpillar on cilantro. Maybe a cutworm? It looks familiar…Uzbek golden carrots! Excited to try them… I harvested a bit early on two. Oops.Wes made hot pot style soup. It contains chard, kohlrabi stem and leaves, green beans, sweet peppers, onions, and green onions.A view of the spread. We have a vaccinated guest!!
