Friday, August 3, 2012

An unlikely August


When the anemones stop blooming I'll cut off the flowering stalks and feed them and perhaps they'll bloom again, when they are supposed to. You never know. 


 Nothing I can do about the beautiful Abyssinian gladiolus. When it's over, it's over. 


I have planted more fennel.


My sweet evening moths in the evening agastache have been identified as Mythimna unipuncta  - armyworm egg layers. The caterpillars of famine and drought and climate change. I had not heard the name since my South African childhood, when armyworms were a thing of horror in the Free State, leaving nothing but brown in their wake.

There it is.

11 comments:

  1. Kommando wurms, maw? Hygend hert der jagt ontkomen, soos my Ouma dan sou sug...

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  2. Famine, drought and climate change... seems like we are having two of them this year. Can the third be far behind? Not a good thought. Methinks more family veggie plots are in order.

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  3. Well said. I have new butterflies in my garden--things I have never seen before. When I finally tracked down what they were, it was the mommas of leaf rollers. And, boy, do I have leaf rollers on my beans. The eggs are stacked up in piles, and the rollers, argh, I can kill 50 at a time.

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  4. My mom hates 'The Russians'. White butterflies in Cape Town that produce voracious caterpillars. She stomps.

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  5. I dart out several times a day to pinch Japanese beetles, cabbage worms and whatever else crawls, flies and chomps in my vegetable garden. What amazes me is the very specific camouflage that allows each insect to hide in plain sight on its snack of choice...

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  6. We have the armyworm moths in New Orleans, as well. Oh boy.

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  7. Does anyone else think that gladiolus acidanthera smell like the seaside? Or is that me being 'British'? :)

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  8. Strange days indeed. Way too early for the anemones to conclude. I think the feeding regime may do the trick.

    I've got fennel here and there. I like the mustard yellow flower heads, which puts me in a minority.

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  9. gluttonforlife - indeed. Except cucumber beetles. So spotty, so easy to squash :-)

    cheryl, and today my first grasshopper, ever.

    jelli - hm, a sweet seaside? They smell a little like gardenias, to me.

    Rob - I love the flowers. I wonder why some people don't?

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  10. Oh, yes, armyworms, the bane of gardens in Hawaii as well.

    But those flowers are lovely, whenever they appear.

    Keli'i

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  11. I am loving the fennel flowers that are growing wild in my garden and am trying to use them in whatever dish I can! The smell is intoxicating.

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