War Declared on Aphids.

See this beautiful plant? The planter and plant were Chad's gift to me for my birthday. The planter - like a new window - is a small thing that goes a long way to making the house more homey. I guess the aphids in the neighborhood thought it looked homey, too. Because, with lightening-quick speed, the plant was filled with hundreds of aphids. I read that once you can see them, you've lost the war. Wait for some predators to move in. So I did, but the predators weren't coming. So this weekend Chad and I bought a ten dollar bag of 1500(!) lady bugs and released them into the yard at dusk, after watering, as directed on the lady bug package. We spent the rest of the lighted evening watching the ladies wage war on the aphids. I guess they were hungry after being in a mesh package at the garden store. Of course, when we woke up, there were about three lady bugs left on the plant. But there were also a bunch of aphid carcases.

How our Garden Grows

After some success with the toms - around 60 or so cherries and pears with more on the way, we decided to try our hand at zucchini and okra. The zukes are an incredibly satisfying plant to grow. They are fast. The seed packet claims 55 days from germination to stomach. It's not a joke. I look at them before I leave for work, and by the time I've returned, they've grown. I look at them after dinner, and when I wake up in the morning, they've grown. Fast.


The okra are hardy and beautiful. We've had 100+ degree heat now for forever, I mean, for a month, and the okra just keep going. In the heat of the afternoon, the other plants have droopy leaves. The sun oppresses them. But not the okra. Their green leaves and red stalks soak in all the rays they can get.


The zinnias are also doing well in the heat. Their leaves are a favorite snack of some crazy, tiny red and black grasshoppers. The zinnias don't seem to mind too much, and the grasshoppers must have a hard time finding something green to munch on in this drought, so we leave them alone.

Crest Avenue Flora.

Chad and I have been working hard to improve the aesthetics and productivity of the front yard.

Here are some of the first fruits of our labor:



We have six tomato plants (two brandywines, one red cherry, and three yellow pears), two basils, one collard (and oh how the caterpillars love to munch on him), and some okra seedlings. Chad created two raised beds like this one from cinder blocks.



Chad is head gardner in the cinder block plots. I'm in charge of the flower gardens, which are still under construction. We used the old fence posts to hang our burglar bars. We'll be making raised beds like the one in the photo for each burglar bar. Flowers in front, sunflowers, okra, and maybe some pole beans in back. In the winter, we'll switch out the tall stuff for blackberry vines and maybe some antique roses.





We've put all the little succulents and cacti that we've been carrying around in pots for the last five years into this make-shift rock garden. Everybody seems to appreciate the chance to spread their roots.



And our neighbor gave us this little guy, who seems to be enjoying his sunny home with fellow succulents and cacti.

Chad slaves away...

on curtains. He's been working his fingers to the bone, and now the guest room has some lovely green curtains.

The front porch

At long last - a new front porch.

The old one was sinking into the ground because it was only held up by toothpicks. Or rather, 2x4s. 2x4s are similarly unsuitable for holding up porches.

Old toothpicky-sinking porch.



New porch.

And the windows...

We finally replace all the windows. No more water leaking in the house! I assume that also means no more heat/cold leaking in our out, too. At least not as much heat/cold leaking in and out. . . Some other exciting features of the new windows - working locks (good-bye burglar bars!) and screens. (Oh - and Chad made the curtains with our new sewing machine.)

In progress:



Finished:

Friends of Rooster Haus 2

Two developments on the animal friend front:

First - Chad finally got a good picture of the rooster, who has been strangely absent from our lives the past week. I wonder if he became an Easter coq-a-vin? We always threatened him with that, especially when he peered in our kitchen window to cluck at us while we cooked, but we never would have acted on it. So if you see this rooster, please tell him we didn't mean it. He can come back to roost in the tree by the kitchen. We promise not to eat him.



Second - Chad and I briefly fostered a little dachsund whom some friends found roaming the streets. During his brief stay at Rooster Haus, we called him Jerome. He was a perfect gentleman throughout his stay, excepting some amorous overtures toward our friend Chrissy. But allergies finally got the best of us, and Jerome has found a new home where he can be a bed dog, which was pretty much his ambition in life.

Something there is that doesn't love a fence.

And that something, or rather someone, is Chad. . . and me. We disassembled the chain link in front of the house. We plan to create a front yard garden using the fence poles and burglar bars for plants that need a little support to grow. (More pictures when this plan becomes a reality.) We've got some tomato plants, rosemary, okra, and sunflower seeds. We also had some collards, but the aphids enjoyed them before we did.

Here's the before:



And the after: