My Goodness What A Day In The Garden!

I headed out to the garden pretty early to pick squash blossoms to stuff for lunch.  It would have been a bit less exciting if I had gotten outside earlier.  As it was I had to shake bees out of the blossoms before I could place them in the plastic bag.  On my way out I noticed this milk snake curled up in the stone wall.  I promised myself I would take a picture if it was still there on my return.  There it was right at my eye level.  It looked like a fancy bracelet.  Ed and I did a couple rounds of "You touch it! " "No you touch it!"  In the end even though snakes give the the willies, I did touch it lightly.  It barely moved and was soft and dry to the touch.  Maybe someday I won't shriek when a snake surprises me, but I doubt it.

Woo Hoo!  I present to you the first Monarch caterpillar I have seen in the garden this summer.  In this picture it's a little hard to tell which end is up.  We watched it for some time and decided that the end with the shorter horns has the mouth.

I noticed him sitting on an immature seed pod.  Usually I find them chomping on the leaves.  I was delighted to see him!  I hope there will be more!  Our mowed area is looking a little strange as Ed avoids mowing the young milkweed now growing in our lawn.  He is unwilling to take the chance of cutting down a caterpillar food source.

We have left milkweed growing in the garden in places we would normally weed it out.  Here we have a lovely planting of Black-eyed Susans with three milkweed plants.  All of these plants are invasive and have displaced what we planted there.  In time we may see the winner here but perhaps both plants will survive.

We had a busy day in the garden.  We harvested onions, picked and processed Tavera green beans, picked some tomatoes, pulled lots of weeds and Ed mowed some the hay field that we pretend is our lawn.

We also discovered that a ground hog has dug a tunnel under one of Ed's stone walls in the square.  A huge pile of stones and yellowish subsoil was piled in the corner.  No end of the tunnel could be seen.  The ground gave way under foot revealing a six foot tunnel running parallel to the wall.  That critter doesn't know it yet, but he has crossed a line and war has been declared.  I gave up one of my heads of broccoli to bait the trap.

I also discovered an active hornet's nest under the ramp into the kitchen.  In the past a neighborhood skunk took care of a nest of ill tempered bees for me.  I'm afraid where this one is hanging Ed will have to come to the rescue like he so often does.  Tonight a big yellow moon shines on the garden. Tomorrow looks like another wonderful day to spend in the garden.  What will it be relaxing or infuriating?

Evicted!

Yesterday we were horrified to find a nest of hornets living in the stone wall just to the right of the southern opening to the square. I gave them a very wide berth. I have had nasty experiences with these mean bees before. It was cool last night and Ed came up with a plan. Early in the morning before the hornets warmed up and left the nest, Ed donned his bee suit and got his propane torch. I remained inside the house observing the eviction behind the safety of the bedroom window. The bees warmed up fast, but Ed seared them with the flame of his torch as they exited from openings in the wall. When the bees stopped coming, he lifted the cap stone.




This is the nest after it had been well seared. We hope none of the bees got away. They seem to be a vindictive variety who carry a grudge, and who wants angry hornets in their garden?



You can see where the nest was attached to the underside of the cap stone. This wall was one of the first constructed here. Now Ed is careful to fill in the gaps between the stones with sand. This cap stone had been carefully placed so that is was level and solid but unfortunately a cavern like space, just perfect for a nest, was created. The space has been filled in with sand now. No new tenants will move in under this stone!

Unwelcome Garden Tenants

Hidden in the small hole in the center of this picture just to the left of the gloriosa daisies is a hornet's nest as big as a basketball. I just happened to notice the parade of bees flying in and out, when Ed and I were touring the garden. After working near to this spot just the other day, I am feeling very lucky indeed. I'm not fond of bee stings. Just writing about this kind of gives me the shivers.

The garden path that passes by this spot is now off limits until we can find a way to evict these ill tempered tenants. Since we won't use the nasty chemical hornet spray ,we need to look for alternative, clever , outside-the-box solutions. Paramount in importance is that no one gets stung. While we ponder this problem the nest will be given a wide berth.

Ed tried placing some hot coals under the nest with little success. I keep thinking about how wonderful it would be if a skunk were to discover the nest.I've had help from them eliminating a yellow jacket nest in the past. Who would think I would be wishing for skunks to visit the garden? Sometimes what seems like a bad thing is really a very a good thing.