We finally had some rain, real rain. Meaning we had rain, drizzle, and more rain on and off for two days. Already you can see things greening up. It was wonderful.
Here are a few things I saw during my Second Look this week.
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| They're hard to see, but honey bees were all over the hydrangea blooms. |
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Meanwhile, less than 10 feet away, the spirea were covered with bumble bees
but no honey bees. |
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| And in the vegetable garden, it was bumble bees. I don't know if all of the orange color in the pollen sac came from the tomato blossoms or not. |
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However, in the beans, I found an insect that I didn't want to see, a Japanese beetle.
Time to get the traps out. |
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| As it turns out, the volunteer plants that I thought might be Mexican sunflowers are four o'clocks, named because they open in the late afternoon and are closed during the day. With the rain came the wind, and you can see its effects in the picture I tried to take of them. |
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| We finally got some mulch in around the vinca. |
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The butterfly bush is starting to bloom, but cabbage butterflies are the only
ones we've seen so far. |
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| The baby house wrens should be fledging soon. |
Until next time...
Lovely flowers and the pollinators are happy! I see many honey bees in my garden, but, not many bumble bees. Glad you got some rain! Ooh, it looks a bit crowded in that nest, doesn't it? :D
ReplyDeleteAnd those little birds are noisy. However, when I get close to the nest box, they get silent instantly. Survival instincts are there from the beginning. I am very curious about bees, but I don't know much about them.
DeleteWhat traps do you use for those Japanese beetles and do you have tips on controlling earwigs? I have both, plus cabbage moths. When I find them before they hatch out of the pupae stage I put them out for the birds, on a stump and they love them. Those baby wrens are very cute. The fledgling green heron vanished after two days on the ground at that busy corner.
ReplyDeleteYou can get Japanese beetle traps at the hardware store or places like Walmart. They are bags you hang that have a bait to attract the beetles. They fly into the bag and get trapped. However, you shouldn't hang them too close to the plants your trying to protect because the bait could lure more beetles to the area. Here's a good overview article from BHG https://www.bhg.com/gardening/pests/insects-diseases-weeds/japanese-beetle-trap/.
DeleteI haven't paid much attention to earwigs, but maybe I should have. I guess since they come out at night, I don't usually see them eating my plants. Here's another good overview article on controling them from BHG https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/home/gardening/a20706728/how-to-control-earwigs/
We have had better success with the cabbage moths this year with a very tight cover we put over our broccoli plants. I think the plants will die out before we have much of a problem unlike last year when the caterpillars decimated all of our cruciferous plants.
I hope the fledgling heron found it's way back to where it belonged.
Your blooms are beautiful! I especially love the butterfly bush. Ours didn't make it through the winter, so it's nice to see yours.
ReplyDeleteButterfly bushes are so pretty especially when there are butterflies on them. However, they can spread easily, at least they do here, anyway. Some consider them invasive. So far, ours is under control.
DeleteYour baby bird house is sweet. My daughter and husband are monitoring bluebird nest boxes this summer as a volunteer project.
ReplyDeleteWe had a damp week of vacation in West Virginia. I was wishing that the rain would go north to my house. It was nice to have the cooler temperatures while we were traveling.
When your daughter and husband are monitoring the bluebird boxes, what are they looking for? Do they remove nests of less desirable birds such as sparrows?
DeleteSorry that you had a damp week in WV, but I hope you found some things to do out of the rain, anyway.
They are supposed to remove sparrow nests but my husband says that he isn't confident enough in his nest identification to try that. They are supposed to identify any birds/eggs in the nest and count them. Since my daughter is considering a career in conservation/ecology, this is a great opportunity for her, but my husband also enjoys it. :)
DeleteWe have sparrows nesting in two of our nest boxes. I removed sparrow's nests three times before I gave up in one of the boxes. I removed a sparrow's nest in one of the other boxes once. After that, I didn't have the heart to remove them any more. I know house sparrows can be an invasive species, but when they are trying that hard, I give in.
DeleteI would like to monitor bird boxes. Maybe I'll look into doing that next year. Maybe I'll ask your daughter for some tips then.
Four o'clocks remind me of being at my grandmother's house. All along her side yard was a border of those and lantana. I can remember sitting there in the late afternoon with my cousins making four o'clock leis.
ReplyDeleteMy neighbor has some bright yellow 4 o'clocks that are quite striking. They seem very vigorous, so maybe I'll try to make a lei out of them too on one of those days when I need a distraction. I remember when we lived in Houston, we had big lantana plants and I miss them. Here they are an annual and never get that big.
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