Rite of Passage

Teenage Monkey shaved the black peach fuzz off his upper lip this evening. For some reason that made me cry. Silly mommy.

Help, We Have Been Invaded by Mayflies

Over the last couple of weeks we have been invaded by Mayflies. There are billions of them. I would not mind them if they stayed outside, but the keep getting in our house.

I did a little web reading on these critters and here is what I found. They are of the order Ephemeroptera. The nymphs live from three months to two years. The adults live from thirty minutes to a few days. There are two adult stages first the Dun which molts into a Spinner. The Spinners are the trouble makers at my house. According to Wikipedia, the adult’s sole purpose is to reproduce. The Spinner’s mouth is vestigial and the belly is filled with air. All they do is fly around, mate, lay eggs over a body of water, and die. They are a food source for cat fish and bass.

Now I know a little bit about these flying critters. I still have the unexplained nightmare of why hundreds of them must fly into my house and commit suicide in my kitchen sink and bathtub?

Gorilla Gardening

It has been a weird day here in my garden. I went to the back door to go outside and the little fellow above was sitting on my deck raising cane. Apparently, he was very dissatisfied with my performance as a bird feeder filler. He was mad, I mean, really really mad. After I gave him more seed, he flew off. Now what was that all about. Get mad at me and then don't eat the food you were so determined I provide? A few minutes later he came back with a female. It's always about a girl. I took the picture above through my dirty glass door.

After taking care of the Cardinal, I went out into the garden and noticed something behind my fence. Someone has left me two bags of leaves. Now, I have been known to ask for the neighbors bagged up leaves and I have been known to just swipe them when no one was home to ask. This is part of my gorilla gardening activity. I also sneak seeds into family members' flower beds, plant things while people are on vacation, and collect seeds everywhere I go. Now bags of leaves are being delivered. Odd, but good.

This is a terrible picture, but my Mutabalis is in bloom. See the different colors on the same bush (not the red to the left. That's Martha Gonzales). The booms start off a dark pink/apricot and then fade to a very light yellow. I love this rose bush.

The Sweetest Thing

Remember yesterday when I took worms to school. Look what those sweet kiddies did for me. I have a whole stack of handmade thank you cards.

Here are a few excerpts

Dear Ms. M, than you for comeing to tech us about plants I eprech ate it. It was fun. I like to plant seeds- Dawn

Dear Ms. M. thank you for coming my mom haves a Lot or plans to plans are cool and priti I like to smile them. do you I Do- Halo

Dar Ms M. Than you from coming and sharing a boat your plant your so SWEET - JT

Dear Ms. M., thank you for comeing to oour school and teaching us bout plants and woums come again - Patrick

Ms. M. than you for comeing and showing us the soil in the werms the werms wer rilly cool and how did you holde the werm. Ms. M. I have a qushtin for you how did you hold the werm without it herting you -Ivree

Dear Ms. M. thank you for comining to our school to teach us about plants and leting us see the worms. I really liked the worm eggs - Colby

Ms. M. thank you for coming to tell us stuff about plants. My mom loves all kinds of plants and she love to buy them. -Blayne

do you have bunny if you have two can I have one please check yes or no- J.

Thank you Mom for coming to char with us. We like it my class like it. We wot you to come naks week.

I was drawn with short hair, long hair, pig tails, and blue eye shadow. One little boy even drew the worm bin. I feel pretty good about life right now.

Debbi

Sorry this is all center aligned. Blogger won't let me change it today.

Take Your Worms to School Day.

Today I took a container of worms to school. I spoke to and took questions from sixty second graders. This made Baby Monkey the star for a day.

The topic was soil. Ever tried to keep sixty eight year old children on topic? We talked about composting and organic and inorganic materials in the soil. We talked about what plants do for us. We talked about the longest Night Crawlers they have ever seen. Eight year old kids tell monster fish stories.

One of the teachers had two containers to plant. We added some worm castings to one. The other was just potting mix. They are going to see if the compost makes a difference in the way the plants grow. These are going to be crazy container gardens. She had seeds for Bachelor’s Buttons, tomatoes, wax beans, and pumpkins. I can’t wait to get a look at these in about four weeks.

They looked at the worms with a mix of awe and disgust. One poor little girl got one on her arm and had a complete melt down. She may be scared for life, but she will live. They caught on pretty quick that worm castings = worm poo. I got lucky and was able to find a worm egg to show them.

They asked some really good questions.

“Where is the worms head?“

“How do worms see?“

“Why are there so many worms in that eggshell?”

“What is the biggest worm you have ever seen?”

Here is what cracked the teachers up.

Little Girl, “Where do you get worms?”
Me, “I got my worms from my friend.”

Me, “Any questions?”
Several children at different times, “One time, in my yard….”

The question I dodged, “Where do worm babies come from?” I was not sure how I would get around the fact that there are not girl and boy worms, well not exactly - Yikes!!!

They kept me talking for a full hour. Children are more fun to talk to about gardening than grownups.

Killer Kitty and a Quilt

Something caught my eye in the garden this morning. It was a black and white bouncing fur ball. Tisha was chasing a butterfly as it visited the garden. She's a killer. Luckily, this one got away before she got her claws into him. The butterfly she was after this morning was a Giant Swallowtail. Unfortunately, I didn't get the camera in time to show you our early arrival. I need to get the lemon tree out of the greenhouse so the swallowtail can lay eggs on it. The Giant Swallowtail caterpillars look like bird poo. We have seen Gulf Fritillary butterflies already as well. The passion vine is doomed. The Fritillary caterpillars look like they could sting you. They are red/orange and black striped with spines all along their body. Scary looking. The Black Swallowtails are not here yet. Their caterpillars look like something from a Dr. Seuss book. They have green and black bands with yellow dots and get as big as my thumb.

One time I really embarrassed myself by asking an entomologist coworker if could I put a bell on the cat so the butterflies would hear her and fly away. She looked at me like I look at the "can I grow this in a container people" and said, "insects sense most things chemically. They don't really "hear."

Here, in our little garden, we provide both nectar plants as well as larval food for our butterflies. My monkeys know what to look for. They can spot a tiny caterpillar faster than I can. They should, their eyes are better than mine. The larval food plants we grow are dill and fennel for the Black Swallowtails, citrus for the Giant Swallowtails, and Passion Vine for the Gulf Fritillary. Nectar plants are mostly Zinnia and Salvia. I am not sure what the Sulphers need, but I will find out and try to grow it.

Have you seen any butterflies yet?

Here is the completed quilt. I had to use blue as the binding. I didn't have enough yellow.

The Seminar is Over

Today was the big day. We have been potting up plants for sale, buying roses to resale, and getting our presentations together for weeks in some cases months. We spent last night labeling and pricing plants, moving roses, setting up the silent auction, setting up tables and chairs, and cooking. I then came home and stayed up until 2:00 am baking bread and finishing the quilt. We completed the set up this morning. Then, bring on the gardeners. Turn out was about 100 persons. There were three presentations; New perennial varieties, Square Foot gardening, and Earth Kind gardening to preserve water and reduce pesticide and fertilizer use. We gave out door prizes and sold hundreds of plants. We still do not know how much money our fund raising efforts brought in, but our treasurer seemed to think we did well. We work so hard and put in so many hours, then POOF the whole show is over in three and a half hours.

Here are a few questions I was asked along with the answer that popped into my head. I am pretty sure I didn't say any of them out loud.

Woman hands me a plant in a pot, "Can I grow this in a container?"
Me to myself, "A container like the container it is growing in right now?"

Gardening newby, "How do I plant this?
Me to myself, "In the ground."

Another gardening newby, "How do I plant this?"
Me to myself, "Green side up."

Experienced Gardener, "Do you grow herbs and how do you use them?"
Me to myself, " Huge topic. Please, newby gardener come back with a simple question, hurry, hurry."

Mistake on an evaluation form, " Will you use this information to quit using fertility?"
All the women at my table, "We are pretty sure we will not use our fertility in public, certainly not at a gardening seminar. We will not use our fertility outside, at least not during the day." I think this might have been the point when we all fell into fits of exhausted giggles.

I am going to take a nap.

Have a nice day.