JUSTIFICATION FOR A ‘MESSY’ YARD

This post is inspired by the praying mantis sitting on the screen of the kitchen window again. I have no way of being absolutely sure it is the same individual (short of splashing some of my paintwork that way), but there has been a mantis in that exact spot several mornings of late. I suspect it is hanging out in the virginia creeper that we have allowed to climb the south wall of the house and feasting on everything else that likes to hide there. The first time I saw one up close was many years ago, but memorable. It was eating a roach it held in both front legs and munching from end to end like a person eating ribs.

While moving the remaining old strawberries from the overgrown patch to a new plot this spring, Maria found a whole caseful of newly hatched mantises and at least a few have stuck around. I have become used to making sure what I am about to pick is actually a green bean and not a green mantid abdomen.

When the dill gets tall and leggy, the black swallowtail caterpillars come. They have the most hilarious defense mechanism wherein they curl their heads back and shoot out a forked, fleshy protuberance called an osmeterium (there’s a vocabulary word for you, Adam.) It is supposed to be foul and stinky and repel whatever might be attcking it. Unfortunately for the caterpillar, I do not find it repellent and cannot help but play with the first one I see each season. The milkweed caterpillars are just as pretty if not as entertaining. They are often not big enough for a busy person to notice until after the milkweed has bloomed its loveliest and looks like maybe it should be cut down. My best patch of milkweed volunteered right outside the living room window- convenient for easy viewing.

The third picture is of a Common Pondhawk dragonfly. I had to look that up. I had not seen one of these before. Apparently the emerald green color means it is either a female or a young male because the mature males develop to a dusky blue. It is sitting in the barn bedding I dump on the garden in a desperate attempt to not so much control weeds as keep them from eating my vegetables before I can.

And then, as my final justification for not being always on top of everything going on in the yard, I give you… whatever is going on here: