Bugs on the Swiss Chard

We’ve been having weird weather. Last weekend was sooooo hot, reaching the low 90s on Sunday. Throughout the week it’s been getting cooler and cooler, then this weekend, we got rain again. It’s actually not bad’ it’s kinda nice not having to water outdoors.

Before it rained today, I was cutting down more of our bolting Swiss Chard (in vegetable bed #1), because I want to fix it up and start my vegetable garden. At the same time, Calli was running around exploring the back yard and my oldest brother came to visit and was pulling out the Peach leaves with Peach Leaf Curl.

As I was pulling up the Swiss Chard, I found a whole bunch of bugs. There was a couple of Ladybird Beetle larvae, which I relocated to our aphid stricken Italian Plum tree.

Swiss Chard   Ladybird Larvae

Soldier Fly?   Unknown Bug

I think the left photo above is a Soldier Fly, but I’m not sure. If you click the photo and view the large version, you can see the details of its purple and blue eyes. It has an interesting pattern.

As for bug on the right… I don’t know what that bug is, but I’ve seen them in our Persimmon Tree. They are slow moving and very very shy. This one was very good at hiding from the camera. I’m surprised I got a photo of it.

I can’t wait to get the lens I ordered on Friday. I also got myself a 10x Macro Lens which I hope will give me more detail with photo like above.

Busy Weekend…

On Saturday, my oldest brother picked me up so I can get some scalloped bricks from his house that he didn’t need.

We got detoured, when my other brother called his mobile phone and told him someone was getting rid of some bamboo poles. The owner grew them in their backyard and got sick of them, so they ripped it all out. OMG! They were long!

Bringing Home the Bamboo

Once we got to my oldest brother’s house, he showed my some of his plants and asked if I knew what this was… and that… etc.

I was surprised to see a couple plants I want… including a yellow Siberian Iris, some Hostas that were growing like weeds… along with the weeds… and some purple velvet-like Salvia. He also had some tadpoles in his inflatable swimming pool and he showed me a nest with two eggs. He said that the parents haven’t come back in a while and he’s wondering if they got injured. We’re unsure if these will hatch.

On Sunday, I cut down the seed stalks of the Swiss Chard in the front yard, they were getting way to tall. We are still harvesting some of the bottom leaves, so I’m leaving those (for now).

My Aunts, Uncle and Grandma came over to take my Mom out, they took some Swiss Chard and took group photos with all the Roses and other flowers. As I was dead heading the spent flowers, I heard my Grandma say that I’m like a woman because I’m good in the garden… I wasn’t offened… I thought that was so funny!… (I think it the way she said it)… If she only knew ;)

It was getting hot so I took a break, but later sorted through all my Coleus and grouped them into groups of 2, 3 or 4… I’m trying to figure how to combine them into a nice combination to plant into pots. I thought that was the hard part… When it came to planting them… Whew!… That took a while… I ended up with at least 12 pots (mostly with three plants). I also mixed in the Plectranthus ‘Zulu Wonder’ and the Taro, here and there.