The creature at your feet dismissed as a bug or a weed is a creation in itself. It has a name, a million-year history, and a place in the world. – E. O. Wilson, biologist and naturalist (see Biophilia) It started with the snails. I’ve been remarking for years that the Banded Wood snails (Cepaea …
A post shared by Davin Risk (@langueverte) on Nov 18, 2017 at 11:34am PST Davin shot this ethereal, slow motion video in the garden last weekend. I believe these were the same midges that danced around me one afternoon a few weeks ago as I was constructing a cold frame over this bed in anticipation …
The other day, while walking around, exploring the garden, I happened upon a ladybug sitting on a leaf on the black currant bush. Upon first glance I thought the ladybug was alive, but looking more closely I could see that it was unmoving and probably dead. Next I noticed a bruised, wet spot on its …
Fall is the season of the spider around here. Well, I suppose that’s not exactly accurate. Summer seems to be the season of the spider in my kitchen. Fall is their season in my garden. Every summer a range of smaller species and one female Cross Orbweaver (Araneus diadematus) sets up shop in my kitchen …
This is how it started (sort-of): Three years ago I found Tobacco Hornworms making a meal of some of my tomato plants. I was fascinated and repulsed. I grabbed my camera and took a few pictures, and then, like a good gardener, I immediately killed them. It wasn’t long before I regretted that action. I’ve …
The attendance of pollinators and other insect allies in my garden has blossomed in the five years since I first put spade to the earth and dug up the turf grass that dominated this yard. Over the years, I’ve had many gardens in a range of urban settings, but none have been as alive as …
First things first: I don’t have tomato hornworms (Manduca quinquemaculata) in my own garden. What you see above is a photo that I took a few weekends ago of a Tobacco Hornworm (Manduca sexta) fatting itself up on my tomatoes. The caterpillars of these two distinct species of moth look very much alike and are …
Over the last few years, gardening friends have been warning me about a garden scourge the seems to be new(ish) to my area. The lily beetle (Lilioceris lilii) is a pretty red and black beetle that defoliates just about anything in the Lily family, but seems to focus on Asiatics, Fritillaria, Soloman’s Seal, as well …
Perhaps it is the cold weather that brings them indoors in droves or a last push to procreate before the end times come, but the fruit flies are taking over my kitchen right now as they do every single fall. They are everywhere. They settle on anything that doesn’t move (edible or not) and alight …
We are excited about hosting a wild bee nesting box in our new garden as a part of a study on wild bee populations in urban habitats that is being conducted by Scott McIvor through the Packer Collection (PCYU) at York University. You can see how the nestboxes are constructed here. We can’t wait to …
