Oh My!!!!.......

after i sprayed the one apple branch with the lemon juice and water i thought i'd better go have a lookie-loo and see if i'd killed any of the dastardly aphids.. and look what i found!!!  not only those 2 frisky ladybird beetles but some other multiple legged critters...

below is a rather hairy little fellow, don't you think!!

and this wee spider seemed to mimic the wee honey ants that were tending to the aphids.....

this larger ladybird beetle had tucked himself/herself into this leaf...nothing like nature's own 'fly-in restaurant' !!!

while i was shooting pictures of the other critters these two little ladybugs wandered all over the one branch and ended up in this coiled aphid filled  leaf... i'm hoping that copious amounts of eggs will be deposited here...and my aphid issue will be eaten away...  i'm not going to spray the apple tree branch again but will keep a watchful eye for more tent caterpillars and carefully dispose of them....

as for the aphids which i'd sprayed earlier, they did seem to be less but the ants were busy busy milking them so we shall see....

i found this great short video on aphid farming...

and in my hunt for ladybug 'stuff' i found this very cute website page, with a poem i like.. i'm not sure who wrote the poem but it so fits my thoughts on Ladybugs... 

Lovely little ladybug,

sent from heaven above,

please watch over my garden,

and fill it up with love.

Bugs in the Basil...

there are a TON of aphids that hatched, waiting to be eaten by ladybugs, squished, drowned... whatever manner works the best!!!  was doing well for awhile, but always suspected this was going to be a buggy year, lack of cold winter combined with wet spring... mmmm buggy season!!!  my poor little greenhouse plants got swarmed, i think i've gotten rid of most of them but they are now sitting in my basil... grrrrr...

i found a website ( Ramona's Basil Garden  Love your Basil ) a few months ago and received an email with a recipe for 'possible removal' of aphids using a lemon juice cocktail ( 1 lemon to 3 cups water )

Ramona has a video clip of how to make the spray... am going to make some today and give my basil a good go with it... wish me luck!!!

unfortunately the aphids have attacked one of my apple trees too... with great gusto they've mulitplied and are causing the poor little tree great stress... yesterday i was inspecting the leaves and was horrified to find....... apple tent caterpillars.... babies but hundreds of them... out came the clippers and off with the branches that were hosting the hungry little critters... as much as i hated to interfer with nature.. they are now in a very large bucket of water... hopefully all have all gone to buggy heaven....

i have my fingers crossed and will be watching closely to see if any more of the dreaded critters hatch... 'they' have predicted a tent caterpiller year because of last winter's mildness.. guess we'll see... this will be the first year that this little tree has had more than 3 apples on it.. i may end up removing the apples so the tree can heal itself... i only have 2 apple trees, both Gravenstein , in my opinion, one of the best varieties of apples..when i think of Gravenstein i think of Grandma's big old apple tree that was in the front yard, down by the river... ahhhh fond memories... 

The Living Room....

2 posts back i mentioned that my friends lost their house to fire... they've since moved into their trailer and thank goodness it's 'late spring' and not winter... thought i'd share the view from their outdoor living room ....

the clothes on the line... rescued from their washing machine... sometimes small things are miracles!!

our dear friend Shadow who has coped very well in his new home...

notice the hail!!!  as we were sitting there a thunderstorm unleashed hail and copious amounts of rain.... such is life in the country!!!

Speechless......

well almost..... these  three lovely tomatoes, medium sized.. organically grown..... $5.12



















my tomatoes that i bought as plants.... $1.50 each ... on sale....




















and i have a ton of ones i raised from seeds, at $1.99 a pkg. ......
if you look closely you can see a small tomato.... i can't wait for that first tomato to ripen, smell like a tomato and taste like a tomato... mmmmm thank you creator...

June is here........

but except for the fact that its about 60 degrees, it might as well be march!! Rain rain and more rain.....my garden looks lush.. the parsnips in their second year are 4ft high already... the peas finally awakened with their first bloom...  when the sun does come out.. ahhhhhh you can almost feel the relief... on a good note, i've not been short of water yet!!!
yesterday we found this little alligator lizard... looks as if it's been in battle already, seems to be blind, the tail already been lopped off... so 'allie' went home to my daughter's.. she got out a spare tank and settled allie into the new home... i'm sure allie will get the best care possible and grow healthy and strong.... in case your wondering, she raises lizards so has an endless supply of crickets, slugs and other assorted goodies... mmmmm aphid snackies... sounds good huh!!   speaking of aphids, they've arrived... in my apple trees, the parsnips, the kale... where are the ladybird beetles!!!

back tracking a week..

my friends were burned out of their home and as we watched in disbelief we were reminded of how precious life is.. they came out of it with life, limb and Shadow their dog.. friends and neighbours (of whom some they'd never met) rallied together, supplied them with clothing, shoes, blankets, pillows and whatever else they needed... for at least 4 months they will be living in their travel trailer and as the Phoenix, they will rise out of the ashes...   life is good....

also had a visitor a few days ago.. a very large black hairy visitor!!  was a rather scary few minutes!!!  my dog sampson was outside and got to meet his very first bear... i looked up in time to see sampson get up and move very slowly, i looked towards where he was looking and my first thought was 'who's big black dog is that' and then suddenly realized that it was no dog at all... my heart was pounding asi raced to the door and tried calling sampson back.. fortunately after a few frantic screaming calls he came....and the bear sauntered across the field and into the woods.....  whewwwwwww is all i can say... dog and bear 40-50 feet away from each other could have had a very bad ending...  

Urtica dioica....... how your leaves caress my arms... my legs..

and ouch ouch........ the stinging starts..... the local cure??? Mr. Burdock!!! 

i'd actually planned this post awhile ago.. got busy, other things came up.. you know how it goes... then i read a great previous post from Moj Vrt on Stinging Nettles... my post idea wasn't for the tea/fertilizer but for the cure for the nasty stinging that comes from being in contact with them and other uses for Stinging Nettles..

i might add, not all of us are affected by them... my grandson can run through them, touch them, grab them and any other manner of abuse by them and not be affected... at all!!!  but me... noooooo thanks... it's an ouch... for many years i was unaware of the 'cure' for it, then one of my daughter's friends told me to scrunch up a Burdock leaf and rub it where the stinging was... guess what--- it works!!!   now i've discovered that the lowly (low growing ;)  ) Plaintain is also handy for the remedy... i once read  that for every not so nice plant there was a remedy plant growing nearby...Creator was kind, we just need to observe and pay attention to whats growing around us!!!   There are other great uses for Stinging Nettle too.... it's a great spring tonic plant.... i actually have fond memories as a child, eating steamed stinging nettles and drinking the broth.. it tastes much like beef broth... my parents and aunt and uncle were well grounded folks, we picked all manner of wilds.. but Auntie Nina and Uncle Jim were into herbs and wild greens... thanks to them, i've had a life long affair with wild edibles!! 

Ahem...back to the Stinging Nettle..i've seen recipes for it, such as stinging nettle quiche,  here is a link to some recipes via Mariquita Farms , you might want to peruse through their website... it's a goodie.. at least i think so!!!
Nettles can be made into clothing and rope, it's just an all round good plant to have 'handy' in quantity!!  
i know that dried nettle leaves are good fodder for poultry and other livestock but found another website Vitality Magazine  that had a few other uses... including wine...... hmmmmmmmmm nettle wine... would be good with beef i'll bet... and here is a link for a Dandelion and Nettle Beer  the ingredients also call for other wild goodies, like Burdock!! 
as for growing Nettles.. they absolutely LOVE manure... richer the soil the better... at one time our barn was utilized by horses, cows, chickens etc., and the 'wastage' has now been transferred to a very healthy crop of
Nettles... a whole field of it as a matter of fact....they are well loved by many different species of butterflies and moths, as you can see from this photo..

the Nettle has been revered by generations past and hopefully for future generations to come... mmmmbeer anyone??

Happy Mother's Day....

to Mother Nature.... thank you for your tireless efforts and putting up with us humans.....