Possum Destruction

Walking Stick Insect

While I was repairing the possum damage to my deck today I got a good look at the first walking stick insect of the season.  It wasn't doing too good a job of camouflaging itself on the plastic wastebasket, but  maybe it was on it's way to vegetation where it would blend in a little better.  The legs were green and red and the body was a twiggy yellow-brown.  They look like toys to me, and the way they move is sort of slow and clumsy, they seem like artificial bugs somehow.

The possums went on a rampage while I was gone and spent their time feasting on cat food and knocking over and digging through my numerous potted plants on the deck.  I am seriously annoyed with them.  I had planted hazelnuts and English walnuts to grow some seedlings.  They have systematically dug up all the nuts and eaten them.  They also dug up avocado and mango pits as well.  Just my luck, possums with healthy tastes.

"Volunteer" cantaloupe

 

The garden is also in need of more catch up work.  I have replaced the green beans with corn.  I saw the first shoots today.  I also filled in a couple of empty spots with a succession planting of lettuce and some squash.

The melon is a cantaloupe that came up "volunteer" where last years compost pile was.  There is a small peach tree seedling and a tomato or two coming up from the compost as well.

The garlic crop is drying on a screen in the shade in the garden.  I planted two different kinds of garlic last year.  Some regular size cloves and some elephant garlic.  They have both done pretty well.  I am interested in seeing if they taste different after being grown in the same soil.

Harvested Garlic Drying on Screen

 I was able to put the first section of old fencing around the plums last night.  I watered them well in hopes of of another fresh growth of leaves (see previous blog posts).  I really want those little trees to grow.  They look so pathetic without leaves and with many of their twigs nibbled off.  I saw two fawns nearby today.  I am sure we will have a bumper crop of deer if nothing else.

Gardening and agricultural motifs are the most frequently used in the Bible.
It was the most common type of knowledge back in the day.  On rereading my post I see it's wisdom there.  Some of gardening is like Ecclesiastes, coming to terms with the futility of our own efforts and the need to accept that many things are beyond out control.  The volunteer part reminds me of the lilies of the field and also how one plants and another waters, but "God gives the increase".