The Cause of My Blog Neglect

I think this has been the longest stretch I've gone without posting with no really good excuse. It's not like I've not been home. My mornings are pretty occupied. First thing I do of a morning is go out to the garden. The garden LOOKS good, for the most part. BUT it has not been a good harvest this year. The squash started to do well till the squash bugs took over. And all the other plants are green and pretty, they're just not producing.
This was my harvest today and is really more than what I've had many days. The arugula has been my best crop so far this year. Last year about this time I was blogging about a Bountiful Harvest.

When I finish in the garden I get on my bike. One of my grandson's rode with me one day earlier in the summer. He asked if I was going to take "that", meaning my cart. I inherited this cart from my son and didn't get the attachment to connect it to my bike, so it is bungee cord strapped and not easily removed. So, YES, it goes with me. I carry all sorts of things in my cart. My bike is old and is a challenge to ride. I have two of 10 gears, 1st and 6th. I don't use 1st. The brakes work, but really squeak, so I try not to use them.

Here is my route. The X in the lower right hand corner is my house. My daughter assures me that this route is two miles. They checked it with the car when she started walking for exercise several years ago. The route is a challenge because the roads are paved, dirt & chert. There are also slight inclines along the route. Currently I ride 3 laps.

When I get home I scratch on the back window to let dh know I'm home then I go out to the pool, turn the stereo to NPR and get changed into my swimsuit to cool off, stretch and relax in the pool. Here lately the water has been REALLY cold getting in, but once I get used to it, it's really nice. I'm going to miss the pool when the weather gets cold.

And then there's yard work. Mowing and trimming and just general keeping things looking nice. The grass has stayed green all summer and I haven't watered it once, which is odd for as hot as it was.

This shot is from the backyard shooting just opposite from the front diagonal. Lots of work I still need to do, especially in the back. The sandplum thicket needs to be cut back so I can cut the trees out of it. And I need to clean things out from behind the shower house. I still want to build a leanto on the back of it.

My flowers were sure pretty. The loofah haven't produced anything yet, though they have had plenty of blooms.

My giant sunflower have gotten very heavy heads. I need to get them before the birds and other animals do. The birdhouse squash was suppose to have grown up over the top, but the heat stunted it's growth. I do have one squash though. You can see it hanging at the bottom of the sunflower toward the center of the picture.

My container plants on the porch didn't get all bushy like they did last year and the morning glory are thinner than I've ever seen them. I need to sand and paint my stair handrails yet this summer.

But I'd say the biggest cause for my neglect of my blog is this...

...way too much time on Facebook!!!

Hope everyone has had a wonderful summer. Kids are back in school here, I wave at them when I see them on the playground as I ride my bike. Into another season we go.

Insects and Flowers

A few days back I was getting ready to get in my pool when I noticed the surface was covered by insects and they were getting sucked into the skimmer. Not knowing what they were I didn't stop this process.
Later I emptied the skimmer on a piece of paper so I could get a better look at what these were...

Looking on the Internet I believe these to be Five-banded Tiphiid Wasp -

Description: Five-banded tiphiid wasps are parasitic wasps
that are about 11/8 to 13/8 inches long. Adults are black with
yellow on their head and thorax. They have yellow bands
around each segment of the abdomen and yellow legs.
Their antennae are black.

Benefit: Larvae are parasites of May beetle, scarab beetle,
and tiger beetle larvae. Female wasps lay eggs on
burrowing larvae in the soil. Larvae penetrate the host and
feed until the host is eventually killed. Adults feed on nectar.

Management: Commonly found in southern Nevada,
homeowners may find five-banded tiphiid wasps in or around
their home in the fall and winter. If disturbed, the wasps may
sting. Five-banded tiphiid wasps are not harmful,
if they are found in your yard, encourage them to stay.

Looks like I should have tried to save these. The next day I found just as many floating on pool, heading to their demise in the skimmer. So I got the net and fished them out. There's been a few since, but not the hundreds there were the first couple days. I wonder what drew them to the pool like that?

My flowers are sure looking pretty. It's kind of hard to see them all in the picture. Check out the sunflower below, hiding behind the other flowers.

You know how everyone uses the little heart symbol? I "heart" my kids, that type of thing. I want a heart with an international "no" symbol over it. Than I can do a "I do not heart"... squash bugs. It's bad enough the squash bugs are eating up all my squash plants but now I even have to watch for the stupid eggs on my arugula!!!

If you can't see what I'm talking about then click on the picture, it should get big enough for you to see them.

I hope you're all staying cool or at least out of the sun. Drink plenty of water, we'll be complaining about the cold before you know it.

Did I Say It Was HOT?

Wow! It's been a while since I last posted here. I've just been so preoccupied with other things lately. I've been getting up around 6:30 - 7am and going out to the garden. I don't use any pesticides so to keep the squash bugs from destroying my plants I have to turn leaves and look for eggs or even bugs which I then squash. It takes a while to turn all those leaves in two beds of squash plants. Then I go for my bike ride. My daughter had measured out a route around town that was two miles long when she was walking during her break every day. I ride this route and usually do two laps. That usually takes me about a half an hour unless I stop to talk to someone along the way. When I get home I cool down in the pool and swim a little, stretch a little and just float. By the time I get in the house it's around noon. With as hot as it's been I usually don't go back outside again till the next morning. This morning I went outside and saw this...
...my poor catnip was all droopy. I had watered it just like had been watering. But...

...my marigolds were droopy, too.

The marigolds on the porch looked sad, but the ones on this side of the step looked good. They are in the same kind of pot with the same soil as the the ones on the other side that looked so bad. Must be the location. The garden is LOOKING really good. But it's not producing very well.

My sunflowers are getting nice and tall. I have one birdhouse gourd, but you can't see it in this picture. It's hiding behind the leaves there at the bottom for the fence.

Below is an earlier picture where you can see the gourd.

My flower bed on the alley side of the studio is looking pretty.

The luffa is blooming.

I love the little yellow 'flowers' within the pink flower. So pretty.

By the time I go back in the the house the catnip and marigolds have rejuvenated. Tonight I'll check to see if they need an evening watering.

I hope everyone is keeping cool out there where it's so hot.

Baby It's HOT Outside!

We're under a heat advisory and it's so hot that the grandkids are in the AC instead of the pool. I've been getting up early to water and tend to my garden and yard. Not doing ANY yard work afternoon till it starts cooling down.

My zucchini have started producing. The plants this year are growing like I remember the first zucchini I ever planted. Tighter and bushier. The zucchini plants the past couple of years spread out more, like vines.
I've got everything planted pretty tight, as usual. My 'three sisters' beds are REALLY tight. That would be corn in the four corners, acorn squash in the middle and pole beans between the corn. We'll just have to see how they do.
The birdhouse gourd vines are really taking off. The flowers on these are quite interesting.
I think 4th of July was the last rain we've had. There have been stormy looking clouds, but no storms. Not here anyway. The cloud below looked a lot brighter when I first saw it. By the time I got back with my camera it was a bit more subdued.
I hope everyone is enjoying their summer. I've been trying to get the grands over to swim in the pool as often as they can. I think PK would live in the pool if we let her. She's quite the little swimmer.

Falling Behind

I can't believe it's been over a week since I last posted. It's not that I don't have anything to post, it's just difficult to post and do yard work at the same time. My white lilies were really pretty this year.
I've been getting a lot of nature shots. This hawk and small bird were flying above us when we were at Kingman for a T-ball game. Not real sure what kind of a hawk it is, but I don't think it's a redtailed. I think it's small than that.

With my trees getting so large and the bounty of mulberries and sandplums, I've been noticing birds and butterflies that I noticed before. Below is a Brown Thrasher. They're suppose to be timid but this one was so intent in his bug hunting that he allowed me to get fairly close.

I'm not absolutely positive, but I believe the butterfly below is called a Question Mark. ?

Father's Day was the first without my dad. Two of my granddaughters had spent the night and both their father and mother worked on Father's Day so I had the girls make cards. When their mother went to work she dropped their brother off also and he got in on the card making too.

A few weeks ago when I went out to get the paper and mail I found a baby Bluejay sitting on my sidewalk. Days following I saw it in various spots in my yard but more often saw it's daddy flying around and dropping into hidden places in the yard.

Then a couple days ago I spooked a young jay out of my Rose of Sharon bush and up into the maple tree. I don't know if this is the same bird of one of it's siblings. It became interested in the beeping of my camera focus and even came in closer but those pictures didn't turn out real well because he kept flapping his wings.

My garden is coming along, planted late again. This picture is a week or two old, I need to get some new pictures to post.

The pools seen quite a bit of action already this summer. Can you see my cherry tomato plants along the top of the pallets? If they manage to survive I'll need to put them in bigger pots.

And then there's been the T-ball games. I have lots of pictures I need to post from these. I'll probably make slide shows from the games and post them all together in one post. PK has really been enjoying herself playing ball.

It's ALIVE!

The little green starts were poking their heads up through the soil the other day, but I had neglected to take my camera with me.
This is chamomile, looks like I'm going to need to thin it quite a bit. I wonder if it would transplant?

See the little white spot? That the side of a cucumber stem.

Got a couple of reddish seeds busting open in this one. I don't remember what it was and I've planted quite a few different things in this bunch.

Well, it's a beginning. :)

Getting Started

My seeds arrived in the mail Saturday. Sunday afternoon I spent out in the studio making paper starter pots and filling them with dirt. I made a tray to set them in from a box the lunch size potato chip packages came in. I used a big black trash bag to make it waterproof. The round planters are flowers for the front porch. On the table is my chart for what is planted in the paper pots.
It took me a couple tries before I decided to use a pop can to make the pots. So I have two larger pots and 45 smaller starter pots. The video I watched said not to water the pots from the top but to pour water into the tray and it would be absorbed up into the soil. I did this yesterday and today when I went to check on them the water had all been absorbed and the soil looked wet on top. So I'll let it dry a bit before I water again.

Can you see my two tomato plants over the back of the tray? These I have nurtured all winter in my living room window. The little one started coming up about the end of summer. All the seed packets on the table are from previous years. Some were purchased on sale, close outs, at the end of the season. I'm sure there are seeds that are still good. Just not as likely the older they get. I'll let you know how my starts progress.

Getting an Earlier Start

For the past couple of years I've been late in getting my garden in. This year I'm getting an earlier start. I ran the tiller through this about 3 times over...
...and a couple times on the small bed. I plan on going out tomorrow and tiller each of them a few more times. I haven't decided if I want to enlarge either of them.

I ordered my seeds online. So as soon as they get here I'll start planting some of them. I'll let you know when they get here.

Lost Ladybug Project

In Sunday's Wichita Eagle I saw the following article...

Scientists in search of nation's lost ladybugs
BY MARY ESCH
Associated Press

ITHACA, N.Y. —A year after they launched a nationwide search for dwindling native ladybugs, New York researchers are breeding colonies of them from insects found by citizen scientists in Oregon and Colorado....

The article gave a link to the project's website (here). If you're looking for an interesting project to do with your children, this one has all sorts of resources.
I'm always seeing ladybugs in my garden and have noted that they don't all look the same, so this was quite interesting to me. Today I went out with my camera and found the one below on the okra. After looking at the picture on my computer I believe that there were also larva, most noticeably to the left (possibly two?) and then to the right. All out of focus. This ladybird, it's actual name, looks to be a seven spotted, an import from Asia.

The next one I found on a cucumber leaf, it's a Multicolored Asian.

And this larva was scurrying around on a leaf beneath it.

Many years ago I found a mass of these larva on the cement foundation of my house that is kept warm being on the south side in the sun. At that time I didn't have a clue WHAT they were. After doing some research I finally that they were ladybird beetles. Amazing the transformation they make. So grab your cameras and head outdoors for a ladybug/ladybird beetle hunt, maybe YOU have some nine spot in your yard.