Garden Life is an Experiment

[AMKuska]

The Beatrix pumpkins are for sure going to be a staple in my garden as long as they are available. My husband was so tickled with them he's built me a garden for next year to put them in. I was also impressed by the pickling cucumbers I got this year, but I may try different ones now that I know the trick is to get powdery mildew resistant varieties.

 

[digitS']

Well now, that is interesting about insects and weather.

I have been thinking about posting on insect populations coming and going. This probably isn't nearly as surprising to anyone. Plague of grasshoppers, Mormon crickets and all that ...

The absence of lacewings and ladybugs was noted last year. There are a few ladybugs in 2021 but the only lacewings that I have seen were very early in the season.

Black Aphids showed up in all the neighborhood deciduous trees several years ago. It was terrible with everything anywhere near those trees covered with a sticky mess. Many trees lost leaves and regrew them. Those black bugs were back the next year but I haven't seen them since. You know, I'm not sure if I had ever seen black aphids before - casual observer that I am.

The fruit flies showed up on schedule in 2021. We have so many melons and peaches that they are pesty! A funny thing about them this year. They are tiny. At first, I thought that they were something else. No, I'm not kidding! I had to take a close look at them. It's almost as though they are a different fruit fly species.

Insect populations are probably a complicated phenomenon.

Steve
had a great high school biology class. brought home vestigial winged drosophila (fruit flies), from genetic experiments, to feed his Beta fish

 

[digitS']

The Beatrix pumpkins

AMKuska,

What is this "Beatrice pumpkin" to which you refer? Google doesn't show me anything ...

Steve

 

[flowerbug]

AMKuska,

What is this "Beatrice pumpkin" to which you refer? Google doesn't show me anything ...

Steve

perhaps Bellatrix? F1 hybrid.

 

[AMKuska]

perhaps Bellatrix? F1 hybrid.

Yes! I'm terribly sorry, I didn't have the packet in front of me to recall the name properly. It's Bellatrix F1 Pumpkin.