September 25, 2012

I found a bumble bee that had died on a flower of the bean vine. Unable to resist, I broke out the infrared camera and took some shots. I'm always fascinated by how living things look under infrared. Plants, quite often, lose all of their color; which reminds me, I need to find the infrared pictures of the sunflowers before they died. In this case, the bee looks exactly the same under infrared. To me, that's just as fascinating.

This image is exposed for the bee. What do I mean by that? I adjusted the camera to get as much detail in the bee as possible. Unfortunately, the flower gets over-exposed. I love infrared, because it brings out so much detail. Look at the sharpness of the bee's hair.

 This image was exposed for the flower. Notice how much darker the bee has become. But, look at the detail in the flower. Another insect can be seen just above the bee's hind legs. Both images were taken with a 90mm macro lens, which beautifully blurs out the background.

 Final image. I believe that that is another insect that has landed on the bee's wing. I love nature.

Suburban Hermit of Fayetteville, signing off.

September 20, 2012

Just a quick photo post.

Found a couple more dead watermelons. Really would like to find out what's causing this.

The radishes are coming along nicely. I've never seen a type that grows above the ground. Takes all types, I guess.

I trimmed some watermelon vines to help stimulate growth in the fruit and to clear some space for walking. I buried the cuttings in the compost pile and found them a few days later actually growing. If this were at least mid-summer, I would let them grow just to see the results.

Holy crap, that's a big leaf!

I'm not sure how many gourds are growing all over the sunflower stalks. At last count, I think that there were seven. I wonder how long it will take for them to pull down the stalks.

Suburban Hermit of Fayetteville, signing off.

September 16, 2012

Finally, I've gotten smart and documented the yard in panoramic images from several points in the yard. Please, excuse the distortion. Can't be helped. As you can see, the watermelons and gourds have taken over the yard. My work has simply stopped because of this invasion.

This watermelon is hiding in the mass in the above image.

Gourds.

 Squash.

 Another squash.

Volunteer tomatoes. I think that there about 12 plants growing around the tall one in the middle. I buried a bucket of kitchen scraps here. 

My red okra is still producing. After doing nothing most of the summer, the bean suddenly went into a growth spurt and wrapped itself around the okra.

 This one is over by the ramp in front of the main gate.

 Yeah, more gourds.

 They've climbed all over the dead sunflower stalks. Glad I kept them around.

 Something is killing some of my watermelons. If anyone knows what this is, please, let me know.

 Last panoramic. A simple overlay was more effective than the heavily distorted photomerge. 

Suburban Hermit of Fayetteville, signing off.

September 13, 2012

Not much work going on with the creeping vines slowly consuming the yard. A horn worm has attacked my tomatoes. I can't believe just how much that thing ate. EVERY stem was eaten. Oh, well, not as if I were using it as a food source this season. Next season, though, it will be a different story.

 The jerk.

It slowly creeps towards the house. Is it there to produce food for me or distract me and eventually consume its environment? Found a watermelon just hanging out on a ledge. Hope that it doesn't grow itself off the ledge. Camouflage fascinates me. One has to wonder how the watermelon evolved to have camouflage in the first place. Considering that many fruiting plants spread because their fruits get eaten by animals, who, in turn, deposit the eaten seeds in a big ole pile of manure, it seems counterproductive to hide so well. Yet, the watermelon has done quite well in terms of long-term survival. It's grown throughout the southeast every year, and I believe it will continue to be grown in the near future.

September 04, 2012

I'm STUNNED by how quickly watermelon vines grow. It almost has a science fiction/horror movie feel to it as they creep across the yard; the attack is so slow that I don't see it as a threat, then, suddenly, it's too late.

As seen in the background, the reader should note that the final layers of the last retaining wall are in place. Woohoo! Ummm, now what do I do? Anyone need some digging done?

If someone could tell me what killed my sunflowers, please, let me know. All of the flowers died catastrophically in a matter of days. The stalks are still living...for now.

Suburban Hermit of Fayetteville, signing off.

August 25, 2012

Well, I went from welding student to welding teacher. I think I'm really going to enjoy it. The hours are almost perfect for taking care of my grandfather. What a relief. We don't have to make any changes to his nurse's schedule, and I get to work regular hours. Most of my life, I've worked irregular hours, mostly 2nd shift type hours; you know, restaurants and bars. The last five years in Las Vegas, that's ALL I did. Now that I'm working a normal day shift, I've become aware of how much those night hours were negatively affecting me. I'll try to never go back to them.

So, about the garden. As can be seen in the top image, the final wall is almost complete. I've run out of urbanite. Fortunately, my supplier has PLENTY. I'm starting to have problems with the gourd vines, though. They are starting to take over their portion of the yard, as can be seen in the middle left. I can't work around them without damaging them...the jerks.

If you remember, the image below is from when I first moved back.

Apparently, the watermelon vine is in cahoots with the gourd.

But I did find some babies.

Finally got the area to the right of the storage shed cleaned up. I like the look of that little retaining wall. Found a use for the ruined concrete bags, which I mentioned in a previous post. Unfortunately, the concrete in the bags, although hardened, were fragile. They broke in half. No matter. I was still able to use the ends.

 When seen up close, they almost look like pillows. Even in the image below, they still have a deceptively organic shape.

As I was cleaning out the overgrowth, I noticed these plants. I liked the way they looked and didn't bother them. They were growing naturally and had nice flowers. Fits right into my plan, let nature's beauty work for me. Even better, I happened to pass a seed rack several days later and noticed that the flowers on one of the packets were exactly the same. Garlic chives, it turns out. Looks like a chive, tastes like garlic. No one knows how these got here. 

Suburban Hermit of Fayetteville, signing off.