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Gardening during the heat wave
Jul. 17th, 2013 07:35 amThe prudent girl gets out and waters her garden by 7:30, which is what I did yesterday.
While doing so, I found two mosquito farms and dealt with them.
I also noticed that the Four Caterpillars of the Apocalypse, gorgeous black swallowtail larvae, had stripped much of the parsley. I put up a grumpy post about it on Facebook, and a neighbor offered to adopt two of them (her kids are avid bug-watchers). So she came over this afternoon with a bug box full of parsley and has promised me pictures if they fledge successfully. I believe she took these two:
I have three robustly green Hippeastrum seedlings, one determined-looking sprout, and one just-buried seed, so I am hopeful. I started to water plants on that windowsill and was appalled to find a cloud of fungus gnats rising from a Nopalxochia cutting I'd just brought upstairs. Die, foul insects, said I, and I hit them with a contact insecticide. Then I went rummaging for my Bacillus thuringensis granules and discovered I'd kept the sales literature but not the sheet with the doses on it. So I guessed, and drenched everyone on that windowsill. Die, vile fungus-gnats. I don't think they'd started to migrate yet, based on how weakly they flew, so I can hope the infestation is restricted to one plant, which should probably be quarantined but....light levels.
While doing so, I found two mosquito farms and dealt with them.
I also noticed that the Four Caterpillars of the Apocalypse, gorgeous black swallowtail larvae, had stripped much of the parsley. I put up a grumpy post about it on Facebook, and a neighbor offered to adopt two of them (her kids are avid bug-watchers). So she came over this afternoon with a bug box full of parsley and has promised me pictures if they fledge successfully. I believe she took these two:
I have three robustly green Hippeastrum seedlings, one determined-looking sprout, and one just-buried seed, so I am hopeful. I started to water plants on that windowsill and was appalled to find a cloud of fungus gnats rising from a Nopalxochia cutting I'd just brought upstairs. Die, foul insects, said I, and I hit them with a contact insecticide. Then I went rummaging for my Bacillus thuringensis granules and discovered I'd kept the sales literature but not the sheet with the doses on it. So I guessed, and drenched everyone on that windowsill. Die, vile fungus-gnats. I don't think they'd started to migrate yet, based on how weakly they flew, so I can hope the infestation is restricted to one plant, which should probably be quarantined but....light levels.
