Why I Oughta...

A couple of weeks ago, I took some steps to head off the annual aphid infestation that has been occuring on our Greenspire Linden trees that leads to them being swarmed by Yellow Jackets who are eating the aphids.  Back in mid-May, I applied a Systemic Soil-Application insecticide and - just to be doubly sure - I also sprayed a persistent contact spray to the leaves just to kill whatever might already be on the leave s.   As a reminder, this is what the underside of the leaves looked like when the Linden Aphids were living on them (back in late Summer 2020).  Doing this check-in on the Lindens (which...are currently espalier'd in a horizontal Cordon, btw), I looked at the underside of the leaves.  And, while I don't see any of the aphids like I did last year, I do see some white, hairy spots at the intersection of the leaf veins.  See below for a zoomed-in shot of the leaves: I've done as close of an inspection as I can on these photos and I can't tell what that hai

A week or so ago, I posted about how our pair of espalier Greenspire Linden trees had come down with an infestation of aphids .  I asked the Master Gardener at the University of Illinois and they confirmed they were Linden Aphids and recommended a synthetic insecticide.  They also pointed me to this post from Colorado State University that lays out the two types . Persistent Contact Insecticide Sprays. And Systemic Insecticide Sprays. First the latter:  systemic.  These are ones that 'move through' the tree and can handle aphids that you can't reach with a topical/contact spray.  From CSU: A few types of insecticides have the ability to move into the plant and move systemically. Because of this mobility these systemic insecticides can provide better plant coverage and often provide better control of aphids than do non-systemic insecticides. Systemic insecticides are also able to kill aphids that are protected within a leaf they have curled. Timing of application is also

Back a few weeks ago, I posted some photos showing how Yellow Jackets covering our espalier'd Greenspire Linden trees due to (based on what I found line) what appeared to be aphids infesting the tree.   Recently, we had a couple of nights of frost (overnight) and that has killed away all the yellow jackets.  So, I could finally get close enough to the tree to inspect what is going on.  My assumption was that the frost likely killed off WHATEVER was eating the leaves and causing the Yellow Jackets to feast.   But, I was pleasantly surprised when I grabbed a leaf and turned it over.  The lace-like leaf had a couple of inhabitants on the underside.  Here's what I saw: See them?  Here's a closer look: Two guys that are yellow and black striped and hanging out on the underside of the leaf. But, what are they?  Pretty sure they are Linden Aphids.  The Bug Guide has a photo that sure looks a lot like these things and, ummm, they're on a Linden tree.  But, what do I do next? 

 For the past two years, I've noticed that some sort of bee 1 has been finding a home on our espalier'd Linden trees.  There has been A LOT of them.  Swarming around the tree, climbing on the leaves, etc.  I If you look closely at the photo, you can see some of them.  Each tree has dozens of them. I figured that they had a nest close or something.  But, I wanted to find out more.  First, I wanted to figure out what they were.  This handy chart from Rescue.com shows difference between wasps and yellow jackets .  Based on that, I'm pretty sure these are Yellow Jackets.  They're short and fat.  So, I went out onto the Web to try to figure out why our Lindens are covered in these things.  And, sure enough, there are a series of posts on Extension.org.  Including this one that was answered by Robert Cox from CSU that tells me that the Yellow Jackets aren't there because they love the Linden . They're there because the tree has aphids is what he suspects. Yellowjacke

Back at the beginning of May, I posted a photo that showed three of the six Canadian Hemlock tiny trees that I bought with a credit from an online nursery .  These things are tiny.   The official name is Tsuga canadensis . Sometimes they're called Canadian Hemlocks. Sometimes Eastern Hemlocks. Maybe 16" tall.  I mentioned in the post that I put the first three in the far back reaches of our yard and that I was planning on putting the other three on the northside. These aren't the first Hemlocks that I've planted, unfortunately.  I bought a tiny one just like these at Menards on a whim and put it in the ground last Summer.  By September, it was gone .  Done.  Not sure what happened to it, but I also lost our little Fraser Fir at the same time .  Guessing it was neglect via limited water? The three trees that are in this post (circled in green in the photo above) are the same trees that are specified in the landscape plan portion that I posted about in June of

Yesterday, I posted a photo of the variety of grapevine that I planted in our container this Summer (Somerset) and mentioned that I did that just because I wanted to post a follow-up.  Today, is that follow-up.  You can see that we have been attacked by some Japanese Beetles.  They've basically skeleton-ized some of the larger leaves.  Unfortunately, they arrived when I was out of town for the better part of a week, so they got a head start.  Since then, I've tried to monitor the plants and remove the beetles everyday by hand.  I tried drowning them in soapy water with mixed results.  Turns out, the Japanese Beetle is a known grapevine.  This piece from My Grape Vine says : The Japanese beetle (Popillia japonica, also known as the jitterbug) is one of the most visible and most destructive feeders of grape vine foliage out there. The Japanese beetle attacks most green parts of the grape vine, but mostly feeds on young leaves in the upper part of the canopy. If you loo

How incredibly frustrating!  These stinkin' mice have decimated our sweet corn crop.  They are so voracious that they eat through the green husks, eat the silk, then just hoss-down on every single kernel of corn.  At this point more than 1/2 of the crop is gone and the rest is getting over-taken by ants.  The mice have pierced enough corn to create a sweet mess - which is attracting the ants - and they're feasting too.  I've tried trapping them and even (gasp!) poisoning them, but the food supply is far too abundant for them to die off.  I'm in real trouble here because once they exhaust the corn, what's next?  Our tomatoes?  Or maybe even the pumpkins that we have growing.  I'm fearful that these little jerks will run the rest of the harvest.