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:

SGQ said...

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.

Kenton J. Seth said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Kenton J. Seth said...

Here here. Thank you for blessing your children so.

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