Harvest!

Yesterday I picked the 1st ear of the bucket sweet corn.
Last night I boiled it and we ate buttered corn on the cob, it was pretty tasty, can't believe I grew that in a 5-gallon bucket!




























Sadly the watermelon that grew to the size of a junior football started to shrivel at one end, made an icky spot. We cut it open and it was mostly rind with a red star-shaped center and some tiny brownish seeds. Oh well.... since I picked it off the vine, a few more tiny melons have started to increase but the vine itself is dying off due to the season/weather, so I don't expect anything from them.
Also, the female flower has shriveled and dropped off the pumpkin vine before blooming, just like the last one.
I totally have to get an earlier start in the garden next year and hopefully it won't be so darn dry!

How does the garden grow?

The garden is growing very well now that the weather has cooled off a bit and it rains sometimes.







The bucket sweet corn is getting big and has a lot of ears.










I can't help but think this tuft of corn silk looks like Wembley Fraggle is hiding in the stalk.
































The watermelon is slowly expanding and the vine has made two more attempts at melons - one appears to be shriveling and the other looks to be growing. I'll start monitoring that one more closely.













Beautiful watermelon flower.




A female pumpkin flower starting to form. I'll have to watch and when it opens I'll need to polinate it with one of the male flowers. This is only the second one I've seen on the vine and I didn't try to polinate the other one and it shriveled up.

Caterpillar season

It's caterpillar time again! I found the usual gulf fritillaries on my passion vines and have discovered some caterpillars that are new to me - tomato hornworms:

Three of them were working on decimating my scant bell pepper plants. I never got around to googling them until today and I only did that because, upon checking their status this morning, I discovered 2 were gone and the 3rd was forming a cocoon so I figured I better find out what is it.




At 11:30am, tomato hornworm was doing this. Kinda looks like in Men in Black II where the alien takes over the guy's body & the skin doesn't fit right, heheh.

I got all excited & thought I'd be in for a chance to watch the transformation up close, it's hard to time these things right so I usually miss them.
When I checked on the caterpillar at 1pm sadly the hornworm's typical enemy, the wasp, had found it and eaten most of it. Perhaps that is what happened to the other 2 caterpillars as well...... A shame, the hummingbird moths are so beautiful. Anyway, it is always interesting to witness part of the cycle of nature.

New Blog

Not that I keep up with this one so great! But I started a new blog that is specifically for basic records of future hikes. If only I'd kept totals during our whole hiking career..... I know we have done over a thousand miles, it would be interesting to know just how much. Maybe I'll get a chance to look back through my pictures and add some more totals from past hikes.
http://outposttraillog.blogspot.com/

Garden again

Seems like all I do is talk about the garden!
Here I go again :-)


I'm growing corn in 5-gallon buckets on the back patio. The tassels are emerging and I'm excited! I currently have 10 healthy stalks, been having to water them like crazy due to the small-ish containers and the super-dry weather. They're pretty happy so far.





This morning I picked the second cucumber to grow on the vine in the front flowerbed. It's a fatty!

I think one of the shadier vines has a cuke the size/shape of a golf ball, will have to crawl under the elephant ears to find out.


Behold: Baby watermelon.
Cute!
It's about 3/4 inch (2cm) long.













Lastly, the mango tree growing by the patio door. It is thriving and periodically puts out a new segment of leaves.

Garden Update

I'm busy busy busy, so here's just a quick update on what's happening around the garden:
The new hydrangea is adjusting nicely, no longer drooping over terribly in the heat of the afternoon. Its blooms are so big and beautiful considering how small the shrub is yet. I think it is beginning to shift from blue to purple.















Ahhhh, the sunflowers.... so bright and cheerful :-)
There's about 8 of them and 3 have begun to bloom. They are getting about 4-5 feet tall now.










A nice, juicy cucumber in the front flowerbed. They sure are spiky when they're little! A few more tiny ones are under the leaves, but it looks like all the vine's energy is going into this particular cuke.

I've got corn sprouting in a couple 5-gallon buckets, and some watermelon vines and red peppers plants in the works, more pics later. Happy gardening!

Mothra!

Ok, not Mothra. But still....... a multitude of moths.
I see them around quite a lot and am amazed how many there are. It's pretty cool how they can blend in seamlessly to some surroundings but stand out radically in others.




I found a fat Spiny Oakworm Moth (Anisota stigma) hanging in the shrubs while I was pruning them. It did a very convincing job of looking like a dead leaf. But on a totally green, non-leafy plant.... yeah, that kinda stood out.




So fuzzy! I wanna rub rub rub that abdomen.















This Lesser Maple Spanworm Moth (Speranza pustularia) was on the side of the garage one morning. I love the delicate coloring, almost like inkblot stains of coffee on a piece of white paper.








This is a Large Lace- Border Moth (Scopula limboundata). It looked like an angel resting on the stonecrop in the front flowerbed.



The Clymene Moth (Haploa clymene), on the garage siding.
I see a sword, or an arrow, or a fleur de lis. Or maybe an ear of corn.





So, last night, while I was googling to id these moths, I lamented the fact that I had not yet seen one with (as I think of it) 'a curly butt'. This morning I was treated to one. Yay! On the side of the garage where there is usually one sort of moth or another, there it was - Spotted Apatelodes (Apatelodes torrefacta)

Love the wing structure and coloring, not to mention the curled-up tuchus!

Here's my very favorite view of this moth:




omg.
beyond.
cute.
The legs!!