Well the sun came out!
Blue skies and 72 degrees. At least the bench is getting dried out. The bees and butterflies were out in full force. Not so thrilled with the later, as their caterpillars like to leave holes in my plants.
This beauty is a green sweat bee, native to California. Something in the genus Agapostemon. I really have to cut back my African blue basil- but… oh is it ever attracting nice local bees. It is kinda growing into the fennel. The fennel is having a bit of a moment- due to the minor aphid issues it was having. It looked kinda grody. But the carrots in the rectangle planter…
Look VERY grody.
I didn’t even bother spraying with mineral oil- I brought out the hose and power washed those assholes. I was going to turn the hose on the other carrot planter:
Mama ladybug is on the case.
I don’t even want to talk about the tomato. The three little green baby tomatoes are hanging on but who knows if they will ever ripen. It’s nice that it finally got warm but… I’m not filled with hope.
The bi-colored Shiso is flowering- and that’s just gorgeous. The triffids continue to attract their buzzing friends:
The fava beans are mostly aphid free and this point- a few of the runtier plants needed to be sprayed with mineral oil- largely to prevent the few aphids left from spreading to the healthier specimens.
Hey! Dog in the back! Can you be trained to eat aphids?
“No- but I can dig under the lemon tree for voles!”
At least she stopped eating bees. For a while, anything that buzzed in her face ended up in her stomach. This was hilarious- buzz buzz buzz *chomp*- until she got really sick and we had to rush her to the emergency vet because it turns out she’s allergic to bees.
So maybe it’s a good thing she wont eat aphids.
I have to fertilize today- the once a week tomato, twice a month pepper, and once a month carrots/sunny herbs schedule has converged on today.
I used to use fish emulsion but the smell is- so bad. Just… so bad. So I’m using the seaweed based stuff. Still the good good stuff from the sea- much less stinky.
Here’s one more picture of a silly bee-eater.
The Neanderthal Gardens 