Garden stories

from our yard. These stories are somewhat amusing and sometimes scary, but are ultimately not very exciting. I've just been having issues with Mother Nature lately. Read at your own risk.

Red Poppies
When we chose this house to buy, I agreed with the stipulation that K clear ivy from the little hillside in back of our house. So it's been cleared off, but grass and weeds still grow there, until we rip that out too. So for the past few years, I've thrown poppy seeds out onto the hillside, and cover them up with some pretty bark mulch. And we usually get some nice orange flowers until the weather turns too hot and burns everything up.

This year, I found some seed packets from last year, and one had Red Poppy seeds in it. So even 'tho they were old seeds, I was hoping to jazz things up a bit with some spicy red color. I was soon disappointed, tho, because days and then weeks later, I was getting NOTHING!! No little sprouts, nada. Sigh.

Then, a few weeks ago, I was surprised to see a delicate red poppy amongst the orange flowers and grass. A red poppy!!! So pretty and delicate, very different from the orange poppies. I looked closer, and noticed that this red poppy's leaves were completely different from the orange poppy's leaves. In fact the leaves on the red poppy looked a lot like dandelion leaves!

I think everyone who works in their yard knows what must immediately be done when one spots a few dandelion leaves - yank them up! So who knows how many pretty little poppies I accidentally pulled up? Poor little babies.

On the flip side of this, I'm now letting everything that looks like a dandelion grow. I don't know what else to do, but if I see any signs of dandelion flowers, that sucker's coming out!

Meanwhile, new poppies have sprung up, that are very yellow! Where did those come from?


Mysterious Tomato Eater
The other day, I was looking at my few tomato plants, wondering why they weren't as big and prolific as the plants in my neighbor's garden next door. As I looked at the biggest plant, I noticed that the top branches were stripped of all their leaves! It was completely eaten, leaving just the stumps of the vine. What the heck was happening here?

The next day I looked at it again, and noted that the plant next to it looked fine. I theorized that perhaps the trellis I'd winded the bigger plant into was some sort of access to the plant for some small tomato-plant-eating animal. So I moved to pull the plant out of the trellis.... and stopped, inches away from the plant.

Because. there. was. a. HUGE!!!! caterpillar. sitting. on. the. vine. Green. Just like the vine. Hard to notice, except it was about 2 inches thick!!! OK, maybe just an inch, but still. It was at least 3 inches long. That's a very big caterpillar!

He'd seen me coming, too, and pulled up his head and sort of tucked his chin, holding on for dear life to that vine. I called for K, who luckily is brave in all things insect related. He pulled it off my plant (he said that sucker was really holding on) and tossed it into the compost pile where hopefully it will lead a long caterpillar life and not get hit on the head by a shovel!

I hate to imagine how big a moth (butterfly) that huge caterpillar is going to turn into someday.

Fish Folly
OK, this isn't really about my yard, but it's wildlife related. It started when The Girl wanted a hamster and we told her no, so she talked us into a fish instead. She got a pretty Beta, and she named him "Jaws."

We have a great two-bowl system for changing the fishes water, and yesterday set about preparing the new water for the changeover. When it was time, I took the little net and tried to scoop him into it. Over time, however, it seems that Jaws has come to appreciate the changeover less and less, and has taken to trying to escape the net.

After a few tries, I successfully landed him in the net, and moved to put him into the new bowl. I was halfway there when he suddenly flipped himself free and landed on the bathroom counter! The Girl started screaming and ran out of the room, while the fish flipped again, and momentarily disappeared. I pulled the other bowl out of the sink, and found him in the sink bowl with the drain wide open! I moved quickly to scoop him up, but even then it took a few tries.

Finally I was able to hold onto him somehow, and toss him into the new bowl. The Girl came back in just in time to see the conclusion of this fiasco.

Who knew having a fish would be this scary?