Every day is an adventure when you live in the country.
Just yesterday morning I was gazing out my bathroom window and saw–in a single glance, mind you–two deer (mommy and baby), a brown bunny, a bunch of crows, bluebirds perched on the purple martin gourds, a red-tailed hawk (circling) and, well, bugs. Stink bugs on my upstairs bathroom window, to be precise.
Since we moved out here to the boonies about eight years ago, I have noticed that bugs come in waves. The first year–just a couple of months after we moved into our newly built home–those nasty, hybrid Korean ladybugs arrived. They aren’t really ladybugs. And they stink to high heavens. They collected INSIDE MY NEW HOUSE in the corners of the windows, oh, about 20 feet from the floor. They formed clumps–several clumps–about the size of a softball. Did I mention that this was INSIDE MY NEW HOUSE? I had to send my husband up a very tall ladder carrying the vacuum cleaner to evict them.
The following year we had thousands, nay, MILLIONS of tiny, shiny black bugs that invaded every space and landed on the ceiling. They came in through the screens. They walked through walls! I could only fight them with the vacuum cleaner. (Again with the vacuum.) Every time the little dogs went out, the bugs would come in and I would have to vacuum the ceiling. Dogs out. Bugs in. Vacuum out…Dogs out. Bugs in. Vacuum out…Dogs out. Bugs in. Vacuum out…
The year after that was the fruit fly plague. Again, the vacuum cleaner was my weapon of choice. I could not sit on the couch and read the newspaper without the vacuum cleaner beside me to occasionally suck the swarm that formed around my head.
And tonight, oh tonight! After a hideously long and frustrating day, I have a BRAND NEW SWARM. I took the little dogs out and the zelkovas in the back yard are COVERED with a new and unheard-of-in-these-parts (at least to me) swarm. Here’s what they look like:
Here’s what they look like having, uh, making whoopie:
I know my friend Carol tells me to “embrace bugs.” But frankly, she doesn’t live here in the country. She lives in a nice, tame neighborhood, with a neighborhood association with rules against plagues, in that nice, sedate state of Indiana. Here in the wilds of Southern Maryland we don’t just have bugs, we have plagues. Lemme see Carol write a post entitled “Embrace Plagues!”
By the way, folks, what the heck is this current plague I need to embrace?
Robin
See these lovely wild blackberries?
We have rows and rows of these bushes all along our very long driveway.
Here’s the problem. I have never, ever been able to pick these berries without contracting a poison ivy rash. I’m not just talk about a “little itching” rash. I am talking about a livid, oozing, burning, put-your-life-on-hold-for-a-month rash that requires medical intervention with strong drugs.
Do the berries still look enticing? Not so much to me.
Aside from thinking of debilitating poison ivy, I also think of the birds. Berries such as these are a major part of the diet of many of the wild birds. Taking food out of the mouths of little birds (while simultaneously carousing with poison ivy) just seems wrong.
So forgive me if I take a pass at these berries. Of course, if you’re my way and want to bring a bucket, you’re more than welcome to help yourself to as many as you want. I’ll even throw in my doctor’s phone number.
Robin
Sometimes it just feels as if I’m on a downhill runaway train!
So if it seems that I have been ignoring my Bumblebee Blog here, it’s not because I haven’t been thinking about it.
As some of my friends know, I am now writing a garden column at Examiner.com, the growing national news service. Learning the Examiner process, developing my editorial calendar and identifying sources and resources has taken time. Little things such as work (I have a job!), other writing projects, family vacations, house guests, family emergencies and nearly cutting off my finger with my uber-sharp Felco pruners–twice–have also been major time suckers.
But the flowers and veggies here at Bumblebee continue to grow, as do the weeds. In fact, I’m still trying to get back on top of the weeds that sought world domination while I had the nerve to go on a week-long family vacation.
In the Colonial theme garden, where I do my most intensive gardening, I decided to experiment with some new veggies this year, including tomatillos, blackeyed peas and a wider variety of heirloom tomatoes, including Paul Robeson, Black Sara, Goose Creek and Cherokee Purple. I’m also growing pattypan and crookneck squash, malabar spinach, strawberries, all kinds of peppers and herbs.
I’m happy with the decision to add more flowers in containers in the theme garden. They add more color than I can squeeze into the beds and it also forces me to head out with the water hose every day since container plants dry out so quickly.
I have started another garden area that we are currently calling the North Garden. It used to be the Poop Garden because that’s where our old dog Winifred used to, well, you know. Winifred has been gone for a few years now, so I figure it’s safe to expand our vegetable growing in a spot that she used for her own production.
Frankly, I’m still struggling with the organization and plant content of the North Garden, so I’m not really ready to post photos. But I will before the end of summer, if only so you can shake your heads and feel sad for how miserably I’ve failed.
Now that I’m writing a column over at Examiner, my posts here in Bumblebee will be largely
Thanks for visiting. Drop me a line or comment and let me know how your garden is doing.
Ciao!
Robin
