Garden Progress

This afternoon, it was raining, but I went outside to bring out the kitchen scraps for the compost bin.

Ready for Compost

I got the to compost bin and noticed tons of Soldier Fly Larvae crawling out of the compost bin. I tried my hardest not to smash any.

Soldier Fly Larvae  Soldier Fly Larvae

The Purple Hyacinths were blooming although slugs and snail have gotten to the flowers.

Hyacinth Blooming

I walked around and noticed the Pink Banana Passiflora (which seemed to have died in the winter) now has tiny buds growing near it’s base.

Pink Banana Passiflora Buds

Next to it, I also noticed that the Hyacinth-like plants (from my friend Howard) are sprouting up, although there were weeds and a Kiwi seedling in the pot.

Hyacinth-like Plants Sprouting

What really made my day, was seeing my Yellow Masdevallia Orchid, which I took outdoors about two years ago, now re-blooming for the first time. This is the first non-Cymbidium Orchid that rebloomed for me… I think I want to get more Masdevallia Orchids now, since they seem to survive outdoors and actually bloom (in the winter)!!!

Yellow Masdevallia Orchid  Yellow Masdevallia Orchid  Yellow Masdevallia Orchid

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.