Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Demons and Angels

What I would like to see is this guy (maybe you'll need to click on the picture to spy one of the gardener's best buddies)....
policing (...hear the miniature siren?) these Colorado potato beetle larvae.
These beetles are amazing.  In just a few days they grow from little red-orange specks to fat reddish brown larvae and then overnight into this...
adult egg layer, and the cycle repeats.  They will systematically demolish a bed of potato leaves if left uncontrolled.  So I apply my squish theory and turn my fingers yellow yuck.

At the same time, good things are happening.  Karen transplanted these irises from shaded areas where they had languished for years...
and this poppy's parents from a neighbor's yard.
Radical rains have reduced our peonies to trails of tears.
The cute cornichon of a few days ago (see "Cucumbers and Peas Approaching," May 20) has joined the juveniles.
"And the California babe?" asks Virginia.

"She's a teenager, too," I say.  "Should we let her bloom or devour her?"

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