Dinner Reservations with the Green Lynx Spider

Dinner Reservations with the Green Lynx Spider in the Garden, Fultondale, Alabama

Green Lynx Spider in the Garden Again

Last year, I encountered a Green Lynx Spider who protected my tomato plants, which I wrote about here. This year another has graced my garden and is standing sentinel...and apparently eating well too. We have a symbiotic relationship - he feeds on fat, juicy little insects, which in turn keeps them from feeding on my fat, juicy little tomatoes.

Harvestman Stopping for a Drink

Harvestmen, commonly called Daddy Longlegs, are arachnids, like spiders, but they differ from spiders in several key areas: they have no venom glands; the have only one body segment, rather than two; and they have two eyes that sit atop the fore front of their bodies, rather than eight. Harvestmen live only one year, dying in the winter when they are beset by cold.

Around my house, harvestmen are a pretty common site. And because of the insects that are drawn to my small vegetable garden, they are a welcome site. I beg them to prey on the six-legged critters to their belly's content (which probably isn't much since harvestmen only grow to be 1/4" long, excluding their legs of course). After watering my peppers the other day, I noticed this fellow stopping for a drink, and who can blame him, with as hot as it's been.

Harvestman Stopping for a Drink :: Fultondale, Alabama

Acanthocephela Declivis, A Giant Leaf-Footed Bug

Acanthocephela declivis is a bug of many names. In searching for information about this insect, I found it to be known as: pumpkin bug, giant leaf-footed bug, giant spine-headed bug, and a "bad dude." They are known to feed on gourds, melons, and tomatoes, so gardeners beware. They are also reported to emit a very bad odor that can be smelled from a couple feet away. Apparently, this species is the least commonly found of the three species that make up the genus.

Giant Leaf-Footed Bug :: Canon Rebel T2i, Tokina AT-X 35mm f/2.8 Macro, f/8 @ 1/60s, ISO 400

Giant Leaf-Footed Bug :: Canon Rebel T2i, Tokina AT-X 35mm f/2.8 Macro, f/8 @ 1/15s, ISO 400

And they almost got a little less commonly found still, when my golden retriever, Darby, spied what I was photographing and, at the time, videoing, and thought it looked like a tasty, crunchy mid-afternoon snack.

Gardening: Already Bearing Fruit

Last week, I posted about having begun my garden (here), which contains two varieties of tomatoes, cubanelle and bell peppers. Well over the course of the week, things were beginning to look a little with both pepper plants. In spite of all the rain, they were just looking wilty and withery; or maybe because of the rain, since peppers and tomatoes like dry, hot weather.

Regardless, I had to do something, since the compost I had amended the soil with in the offseason was clearly lacking some vital mineral. So I did what I was able to avoid doing all of last summer - I applied some Miracle-Gro Tomato Plant Food. And eighteen hours later, the difference really was miraculous. The next morning all four plants were looking spry and healthy, and ready to produce many tasty morsels for me.

Bell Pepper Buds

The first little tomato

Cubanelle Pepper Flower

 Having already begun to see some insect damage to leaves, I decided it was time to bring in something to manage it. Last year, I used Sevin Bug Killer Spray, and I figured if Sevin was good, eight will be better. So I brought in some arachnid help to stave off those dirty devils who are trying to eat my plants.

Well that's all I've got for today, but future developments aren't far off, so keep looking for those updates. And please feel free to offer any suggestions or help; I'm all ears, as I'm still pretty green with all this gardening stuff.

We Have Tomatoes!

This is the greatest day in my short stint as a gardener. After getting up this morning, I (in what has become part of my regular routine) went out to check on my tomato plants, and lo-and-behold there are several tiny little tomatoes, where once there were blooms.

Anna thought it was ridiculous how much joy I was exuding from this small success. She said to me the other day, "I hope you care for our kids as well as you take care of those tomatoes."

...While Eating Homegrown Tomatoes

Well, I'm not eating any homegrown tomatoes just yet, but I have certainly made steps in that direction.

"It's difficult to think anything but pleasant thoughts 

while eating a homegrown tomato."

- Lewis Grizzard

After a little more than a month-and-a-half of tending to my compost, it was time to plant. Over the last couple weeks, I had begun to amend the plot of soil that I had set aside for the tomato garden, with compost. I broke up the soil, got rid of as many rocks as possible (though they seem to have multiplied like a Hydra since I started). But today was planting day.

On the advice of Anna's mother and grandfather, I got Better Boy tomatoes.

According to the University of Illinois, Better Boys are a main crop red tomato, that I can expect to yield 12 oz. fruit in about 72 days.

"A world without tomatoes is like a string quartet without violins." - Laurie Colwin