Gardening and Spiders

gardening

I’ve been really busy working in my gardens lately. I got a bunch of flowers from a friend (she just wants a crepe myrtle in return) plus I ordered about 40 bulbs. What was I thinking?!? I’ve been wanting to expand my garden out front, so all is ok! I also put some rock down for my walkway. I can only do a little at a time, but I will get it done!!

The rock walkway is to help deter water from pooling at the bottom of the deck steps. For the most part it’s working.I started with the brick alongside the house and at the bottom of the steps. This was, initially, to help with mowing. I soon realized I needed more. The mower kept moving the brick. I added some garden rock and a yucca. The yucca died! It was a transplant, so no big loss!

The whole area to the right of the stone and yucca is eventually going to be filled in. I am slowly but surely working on it. My hope is to have it complete before winter sets in. After all, I have been working on it since 2016.

The plant in the white pot is a grape vine. I’m not sure if it’s alive, but it will be a cool Halloween decoration if it’s not.

It wasn’t doing anything where it was planted along my grape arbor. So I bought another one, dug this one up and put the new one in. If this one is alive, I’ll plant it somewhere near the property line. (I have my doubts!)

I’m also working on the front of the house. I’m kinda surprised the strawberries are blooming, but happy! I will have strawberries!!!! I just transplanted them from a different part of the yard. They weren’t doing too well where they were. (the strawberries are right in front) The bell post is to the left, if you’ve read any of my other posts. Again, the area to the right is going to be filled in with flowers and a stepping stone/pebble walkway. It will be to the right of the strawberries and connect to the walkway near and around the bird feeder (top of picture, almost center).

I decided to put logs around the dogwood flower patch. Last year, my boyfriend kept mowing some of them down. His defense was that I have plenty of flowers and they will grow back. Well, he mowed over them enough times that they didn’t come back this year. I’m not too happy, but what can I do?

I had gone to Home Depot (I prefer Lowe’s, but didn’t feel like going to the other side of town) today to get some stone for the deck walkway, and looked at different kind of edging. They didn’t really have anything I liked, and everything was way too expensive so I paid for my rock and came home. I would figure out something. As you can tell, I did. Hopefully, it stays there. My boyfriend says it’s nice, so we will see.

Thought I’d add a picture of some tulips I planted this spring. The rest of the post is about spiders.

spiders

Spiders really aren’t bad creatures. For the most part, like snakes, they just want to survive and be left alone. The only spiders I kill are ones that look like they could be black widows. Those I don’t like, for obvious reasons.

Most spiders eat bugs that we don’t like.

Even ones inside the house I try not to kill. I’ve seen them kill stink bugs, which we had a severe problem with a couple of years ago. (Praying mantis’ and wrens eat stink bugs as well.) So, in my book spiders are good!

Jumping spiders have really good eye sight. The males put on a really good song and dance for the lady spiders. I’ve never heard them sing, or make any kind of noise. I guess humans can’t hear them.

Wolf spiders live in the ground, hunt at night. They don’t spin a web. I couldn’t tell you how many I have dug up when working in one of my gardens. I’ve had them scurry across my hand. This one (above) was about the size of my hand. I know it looks huge, it’s the way I cropped it.

Female wolf spiders are maternal, from what I’ve read. They will carry the egg sak on their backs and even the babies until they are old enough to hunt on their own.

** I’ve picked up some more hours at my day job, so you may not see as many posts, maybe two or three a week.