More bug news.
Our backyard habitat is just booming with wildlife. Most of our new outdoor friends have at least four feet, some as many as eight. I’m finally starting to understand this “hands off” policy my wife, Val, introduced this year. By spraying large quantities of chemicals on our yard over the last few years, we managed to get rid of the fleas and nasties left behind by the previous yard-dwellers — two rotweilers kept for “safety” reasons by the previous tenants. (When we bought the house, we knew we’d have to do some major damage control where the dogs dug half into the foundation trying to escape the heat. What we didn’t think about were fleas. It’s a losing war — the Fleas Over the Pamlico Constant Battle — too many feral cats in the historic district being one of the main reasons.)
Now we have the fleas somewhat under control (meaning we wash our 3 dogs more often, have less lawn area and lots more flowers) we can sit back and watch what visits our sanctuary. The butterflies are all over the place, flitting (that’s Val’s word) about on the Mexican sunflowers and geraniums. I’m going to try to grab some photos this weekend and get identification of what’s cool and what’s gross out there. Hummingbirds, catbirds, nests of screeching baby birds…
Apparently, Val tells me, the Japanese beetles decided to live in the town’s crepe myrtles this year and are leaving our yard alone (for the most part). The orb spiders really like them, too.
Guess I’m going to have to educate myself on the wonders of the yard. Val’s got some kind of plan and since I have to maintain it — I’ll be learning weed from perennial, no wait, weeds are perennials, aren’t they? they come back every year? Isn’t a weed just a flower I didn’t plant?
stay tuned…
