What Unexpected Garden Guest Surprised You This Week? 🌿

[ducks4you]

i have a weed that popped up in a garden that was not there last year, i don't know where these thousands of seeds came from, but i've had to weed the garden many times this season already and i have to do it yet again tomorrow before these current round of growing weeds drop even more seeds.

it is a speedwell and they are aptly named...

i am amazed at how fast it has been able to get to the size it is at now since it seems like i just weeded it, but that was now six weeks ago at least so... well, not that bad.

no pictures, no praises, just words on the page...

I fight this one:

 

[flowerbug]

I fight this one:
View attachment 70714

oh, that's around here too, but not too much, it isn't in the fenced gardens or anyplace near the onion patch (which is also inside the fenced gardens).

i think i finally figured out where the speedwell came from, some old potting soil from a container was mixed in there last year...

 

[ducks4you]

Crummy illegal alien plants!!!!!!!!!!

 

[SPedigrees]

Woolly bear caterpillars (Pyrrharctia isabella) are fuzzy like a bear, black on the ends and reddish-brown in the middle. Since colonial times, people have used it as a predictor of winter weather to come: It is said that if the middle reddish-brown section is long, the winter will be mild; if the middle is short, the winter will be harsh.

Looks like we are expecting a harsh winter according to this caterpillar, or maybe more equal parts brown and red?View attachment 70683

Well yours differs greatly from my woolly bear posted last month (on my purple garden hose):

Supposedly the longer the red band in relation to the surrounding black bands indicates a milder winter, but your woolly bear has almost equal red to black ratio. Perhaps we're going to have a mild winter here in the east, while you in the west are going to have an average winter? Who knows?

 

[SPedigrees]

The deer have been introduced, like the cane toads (brought here to control sugar can beetle, and now they are out of control ... smart AU gvts, not!)
Suprised to hear that you buy meds from AU, when we buy from USA : ) : ) : ) ???

Isn't that the way - that governments import a species expecting it will keep another species in check, the way they do in a different country, and it goes completely haywire. It's never as simple as they think!

May I ask what meds you import from the US? We mostly buy de-worming and heartworm preventative products from Australia (as well as sometimes from England or Canada) because our own regulatory authority made these necessary veterinary medications available only by order of licensed veterinarians.

It's such a racket - we have to pay higher price for a prescription for HW pills each month and/or expensive fecal testing each time a de-wormer is bought. But it seems our govt is giving up on this form of extra revenue (ie extortion) now that so many of us are purchasing drugs that should be over-the-counter from countries where these are OTC, because I'm recently seeing some of these pet meds re-branded and offered for sale w/o a prescription here in the US. Too little too late for me! I'm happy with the service of PetsMegastore in your country after doing business with them for several decades. So much for my rant! lol