Friday, October 17, 2008

Under Cover

Hey it's been a looong time since we've posted. What have the Wenches been up to you ask?

Well, we've been working under cover...

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Since our last post we got our first wind storm of the season--complete with 50 mph winds. We also heard the dreaded words "frost" and "snow in the mountains" mentioned on the weather forecast. Two weeks ago, we tidied up the garden, loosened up the soil, added lime, and sewed two cover crops -- crimson clover and faba beans. We might be a little late on the clover, but should still be okay on the faba beans.  We'll see.

Today we peaked under the cover and found these!

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A lovely earthworm also appeared.  We hope he has many friends and family in the garden.

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This is another visitor to our garden.  Any ideas who this is?

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-- Wing Nut

10 comments:

Aunt Debbi/kurts mom said...

looks like some kind of sheild bug to me. Much like the ones that cat face my tomatoes.

Anonymous said...

Excited to hear how your cover crops fare, and how it helps for next year. I've never managed to sow one myself, although I always think about it. Wacky bug! Did you try looking on whatsthatbug.com?

Libbys Blog said...

Look likes something from 'Bugs Life'!!! lol!!!

Anonymous said...

AAAAHHHH!!!! That looks exactly like one of our dreaded stink bugs, except it's green instead of "marmorated"! YAAAHHHH!!! Love your brave little earthworm, though! I hope he has many cold-hardy friends!---Silence

Curmudgeon said...

Hey Aunt Debbi! I just had a visit with google and it said that another name for shield bug is STINK bug. I think I need to go talk to Silence. She's an expert on stink bugs. But first I'm going to go hide under the covers for a while...

Hi Karen. Well, we got the cover crop in because it seemed easier than deciding what veggies to plant for fall/winter and getting the cloche put back together--the wind did quite a number on it last spring. I should have known there would be a web site called whatsthatbug.com!

Curmudgeon said...

Hi Libby! It's very very green, isn't it? And it flys too! Rumor has it that it's a stink bug. Eeeewwww!

Hi Silence! I'm still hiding under the covers. Not sure when I'll come out again. Mr. Stinky Winky is the first one we've seen--but I'm sure he's got lots of friends. At what point do they go away???

CanadianGardenJoy said...

That "stink" bug should be proud of what a gorgeous picture you took of him/her ? .. should be in his/her family portraits ? LOL
I'd hide under the covers too !
Joy

Viooltje said...

It indeed is the green stink bug. Euuhhh! At this time of year, they invade our houses. I feel sorry for them so I leave them be, but they don't survive the feline attacks.
I had a friend who pressed it by accident (it got stuck on her drapes), anyway, it sprayed something hideously smelly into her eye, first she couldn't see, then had blurry vision and literally had a black eye for days, as if visited by Tyson rather then a bloody stink bug. So generally speaking, when threatened, stink bug 'pisses' acid. Cheeky lil bugger!

Annie in Austin said...

We get related brown-colored, leaf-footed bugs, WWWenches - and when I see them on the tomatoes and squish them - they sure do stink!

Maybe they're hiding under the covers like you? Row cover, that is!

Annie at the Transplantable Rose

Curmudgeon said...

Hi GardenJoy! it was quite a balancing act keeping it on the little white marker long enough to get its picture!

Eeeewwww Viooltje! Just when I thought it was safe to come out from under the covers!

Hi Annie! So these little stinkers are EVERYWHERE! PA, TX, WA and Croatia. I'd never noticed them before but then when it comes to bugs I usually squish first and ask questions later . Wing Nut is more the I-don't-want-no-bad-karma kind.