Garden Alive!

"She sat down in a weed patch, her elbows on her knees, and kept her eyes on the small sterious world of the ground. In the shade and sun of grass blade forests, small living things had their metropolis."   

- Nancy Price

When I really look at, I mean really PAY ATTENTION TO, the creatures in my yard, I am astonished. I equate the feeling to finding myself in a dark, remote area and observing hundreds of thousands of stars glowing in the night sky. I ask myself: Is there all of a sudden a huge increase in the number of stars up there, or were they always there and I just didn't see them, or pay attention to them?

When I really began to look at, I mean really PAY ATTENTION TO, the creatures in my small, urban yard, this is what I have observed:

Squirrels, and whole lot of them

Carpenter bees

Bumblebees 

Honeybees

Ants of many sorts

Crickets

Leafminers

Praying mantids

Rabbits 

 Lady bugs and their larvae

Cardinals

Moths

Butterflies

Grasshoppers

 Mites of several sorts

 Leafhoppers

Flies of many sorts

Earwigs

Raccoons

Slugs

Robins

Aphids

Blue jays

Wasps

 June beetles

Japanese beetles

Pill bugs

Wireworms

Dragonflies

Starlings

Chipmunks

Wrens
Woodpeckers

Mosquitos

Gnats

Garden webworms

Goldfinches

Nightcrawlers

Millipedes

Cabbage worms

Spiders of many sorts

Soldier bugs

Neighborhood cats
White-breasted nuthatches

My garden is alive! I have personally seen every one of the above in the last three months--that's an ACTIVE, garden party kind of yard.

Is this good, bad, normal? I don't know, but it is astonishing to me.

Humans are physically larger than any one creature on the list, yet we are grossly outnumbered. That fact is a bit unsettling to me--several month's worth of work in the garden could be completely obliterated in a few buggy nights ...  if not for the awesome balance of nature.

When have you last paid attention to what's alive in your yard?

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

Lookie who I found, nicely disguised against my green cabbage plant. What the heck?! I had these plants outdoors for only a few hours this week. How did this guy hunt down my plants so quickly?

Research tells me that this is the bloody CABBAGE WORM! And he brought friends--I found three others so far. With nearly 200 cabbage seedlings in the works, this aint a good sign. Cripes. Caterpillars are cute in kids' books, but not so much on my heirloom plants.

OUT YOU GO ... to the birds! Before you're pecked to death, tell your friends to GETOUTTAMYYARD.

In the meantime, I understand that caterpillars loathe white flour. Upon eating it, they bloat and die. So our Cabbages and Brussels will get a flour dusting this week.

It's getting closer to outdoor transplant time ... I have a feeling that insects are soon to become my worst enemy. This means that it's also almost Jerry Baker tonic time. Do you have other natural bug control recommendations?