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And lots of good things are happening. Despite my recent fears the vegetables are not being decimated by hungry insects. Instead, my companion plantings and other strategies to bring in and retain beneficial insects are working.
What other strategies? Not spraying with indiscriminate pesticides that kill everything. Not over fertilizing so that the plants are excessively lush and tasty. Encouraging birds in the garden with shrubby habitats, water, and native berried plants. And finding and moving praying mantis egg cases.
I mentioned the egg cases in an earlier post. There were a half dozen in my bed of grasses last fall, and I clipped the twigs attached to four of them and stuck them into the strawberry bed, where they would be protected from harsh weather when young.
Mantis eggs hatch in late May, so I've been watching for them. And I found the first young mantis a couple of days ago while picking strawberries. We were eye to eye, and he (or she) tilted his tiny triangular head to look at me. I stared back, and noticed he was clutching a fat green aphid. My hero! Here's a picture of him (or a sibling) I saw tonight on the red romaine:
Meanwhile, the June crops are coming in. Tom Thumb lettuce is forming perfect one meal lettuce heads on the deck:
My short and tall peas are full of fattening pods:
On the deck the Brown Turkey Fig (new this year) is finally leafing out:
And all the summer crops from seed are sprouting -- including five kinds of squash, all planted with radishes next to them as a repellant for cucumber beetles.
And both pole and bush beans, including these Masai filet beans.
Note the living pole-- a privet branch from a recent pruning which rooted and started growing when I used it to hold this fence in place.
Finally, there are lots of strawberries ripening. Sol doesn't like strawberries unless they are mixed with yogurt, despite the hopeful look he's giving me in this photo!
