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Saturday, October 6, 2012

Zoo-Rockery

I have been blessed to encounter a great deal of animals in the past fortnight due to horticulture in one way or another; be they attracted into a garden or on the road to a horticultural travel.  Be they a road runner, 21 quail, desert mountain goats, a collared lizard, a scorpion, et cetera.

May they be a reason to garden; the great Austrian Plantsman Fritz Kummert once noted how he sees more lizards in his rock garden.  I have noted more ground-dwelling wasps than I'd see in a normal garden as well as two black widows in my crevice garden.
I welcome them.

 And I thought I might pay homage to them with pictures of a few.


Tiger salamander finds cool refuge in a sunken tree pot.

 Tarantula takes his autumn pilgrimmage for sex. (Southeast Colorado)

(Added later:  This precious fellow is probably an "Oklahoma Brown;" Aphonopelma hentzi.  He will find a mate, then perish into the fall weather, but his tryst will overwinter to lay her eggs in June; her own longevity being a decade.  Further reading from CSU's Whitney Cranshaw: Tarantulas of Colorado)

 This year I have observed both small black and large red ants hauling away Chinese Elm (Ulmus parvfolia) seeds.  God bless their microscopic hearts!  But I have also observed them drilling  into and excavating my eggplant fruit and plant stems...

 Woodhouse Toad was groggily unearthed when I was digging in a crevice to plant. I excused myself and re-covered her.

A bug (technical term- Hemiptera) who is statistically bound to be a plant-sucker, but I'll love him anyway.



3 comments:

  1. I like to see people who respect the natural critters of their garden! I refuse to poison my yard~ as a result we have some rather interesting bugs to observe, including a few "pests". Granted, some do bite~ but my kids are learning to respect the critters in their home.

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  2. Here here. Thank you for blessing your children so.

    I've made a post to include some "biters" in your honour.

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