Hoplia Beetles

I got to thinking about the post I had on the hoplia beetles a few days ago--I forgot to show what they looked like, not just the damage they did. So, here is a picture of one. They are kind of funny when you knock them out of the flowers--they just lay where they fall and play dead! They give me plenty of time to step on them. The less of them means less eggs laid, which means less beetles next year. Or, at least, that's what I think! They are here just a few weeks, and damage the first flush of light-colored roses, iris', and a few other flowers. Then, they lay their eggs in the ground around the plants, so their offspring will have something to eat when they hatch next year.

Cucumbers and Dill

I finally got a start to planting my summer seeds. I put in three 2 x 2 posts that will hold up some netting for my cucumbers to climb on. I planted half of a row in regular eating cucumbers, and will plant the other half in pickling cucumbers (I just bought the seeds). I will also plant some dill; and I look forward to making my own dill pickles, again. They were the first thing I learned to can after I made jams. Dill pickles are so easy, no cooking and no water bath! There's not much canning that's easier than that! I will plant the rest of the bed in green beans, again for canning.

Grow It, Cook It

Here's a terrific new magazine from Birds and Blooms (part of the Taste of Home family of magazines), that I found at the market. It tells how to grow several different vegetables, and then there are a variety of recipes for cooking these vegetables. I am anxious to try the recipes as several of them sound really good. I hope you can find a copy!

Dog/Cat-Proof Your Garden

Here's a neat trick to keep pets from digging in our gardens! [I had a link here, but it seems that Yahoo was messing with the address, so I will just tell you what it said (I can no longer find the source, either)]. You just lay hog wire across your garden soil. You can use U-shaped wire as pegs to hold the wire down. Some dogs are determined to dig, but if the hog wire is pegged, then it will really slow the dogs down! Cats, on the other hand, would just go somewhere else to do their business if they found the hog wire covering the the soil. (This was from a P. Allen Smith newsletter).

My Pond

Last month my husband and I bought a small pond, and he installed it. I have a miniature cattail (in the upper part of the pond) and a pink lily (there are two small leaves that are floating on the surface). It has a bubbler that that keeps the water moving, and filters it, too. You can see that there are some large rocks in the pond, and a few outside the pond--this is an ongoing project and I will likely move everything around (except the pond). This area is at the entry of my house and I want to create a cool, welcoming garden. Soon, I hope it will be more shaded, and then it will create a nice place for frogs and toads (and people, too!). We used to have hundreds of toads in the summer, but they died out several years ago (the neighbors all around us started using companies that sprayed their yards for bugs every month). We still have one or two toads, and needed a pond for them to reproduce (that's the reason I got this pond!). Toads are great bug-eaters!

My Peach Tree

I went to thin the peaches off of this tree (a genetically miniaturized peach tree) and realized that it has grown too tall and wide. Last winter I cut off about 1/3 of the larger branches, but it is still too big. I did cut off one more large branch (it would have snapped under the weight of the peaches) and a few small ones. As I was pruning, I wanted to cut off more, but if I cut off to much, then the tree would go into shock--it would focus on making leaves instead of producing fruit. This is what happens to landscape trees you see all over town that have been butchered--the tree starts sending out shoots all along the trunk, to make leaves for food. These shoots would make branches, but they are superficial and not really anchored to the trunk, making them more likely to snap off later. Anyway, looking closer, the peach tree has a lot of die-back, where many of the smaller branch-tips have died. This indicates to me that the tree is not happy (healthy). It is about 20 years old, so it's lifespan has been reached. I did thin the peaches, I will harvest the peaches when they are ripe, and then prune the tree to a nicer-looking shape. Next winter I will take the tree out; and then replant the space with a new peach next spring.

One year, when we moved to a house on two acres, there was an orchard of mature mixed fruit trees. We were told that the previous few years the trees had been neglected (=not watered or pruned), so I set about watering, pruning and fertilizing. There were two sour cherry trees that produced wonderful jam- and pie-cherries. The second year one of the cherry trees produced 72 pounds of fruit, a huge amount for one tree, and then the tree died (it had been neglected too long and couldn't recover). It had put forth it's last effort. I think this is what my little peach tree is doing, as the number of peaches I had to thin was incredible. The almond-sized peaches were clustered like grapes, something I had not seen before. So, all indications are that the tree has nearly finished what it was put there to do. Life goes on.

Hoplia Beetles Have Arrived

This is how my roses are starting to look. The hoplia beetles are busy chewing holes in my flowers. The beetles aren't here long, but they ruin my first flush of roses, and some of my iris flowers.
This is a closer look at the same flower--you might need to click on the picture to make it bigger, so you can see the beetles better. These beetles are easy to knock off into some soapy water, just be careful as they just as easily fall to the ground!