Not a seed/bug story but this is kind of funny. My grandfather had a large farm and one time out in the woods picking blackberries, I came face to face with one of those HUGE yellow and black orb weaver spiders. I *never* saw it until my face hit the web and I started screaming to get it off my head. Everyone back at the house said they could hear me screaming but mom said she could tell the difference between a "spider scream" and a "getting-murdered-in-the-woods-by-an-axe-murderer" scream or a "getting-attacked-and-eaten-by-a-wild-animal" scream so nobody was too worried. LOL!!

I know it has been two years since the last post, but I feel this is the most relevant to my situation. I have a compost bin in an old garbage can, however, I didn't have a lid for it, so obviously it became soaked. Soon after, the maggots appeared. (I have absolutely no BSF larvae, so don't start on that.) The first step I took in attempting to get rid of them was drying them out. I found a lid, and turned the pile until it was at a normal/dry level. But the maggots stayed. I have no problem with them as they do contribute to breaking down produce quickly, but I didn't want to be contributing to a growth in the population of a pathogen-carrying insect. Finally I found a solution. I took clear painter's tarp and laid it over the can, then secured it so there was absolutely no air exchange. Then, I put it in the sun. I watched as temperatures climbed to 180 degrees for two days, then I removed the tarp and stirred...no maggots!! Even the ones that are presumably dead have already begun to decompose. I just wanted to share that my solution wasn't found in the mix, as once they infested, they stayed, but rather, it was found in changing the temperature. Happy composting!

Covering new plants with floating row covers has been something that has been discussed since the 1980's at least, nothing new, but something that is very slow to gain acceptance, even among organic gardeners/farmers.

Nice pic, Sherry! I think I have the same type of fennel that you have. It's not totally bronze but there is some bronze on parts of the plant. It has been coming up every year for at least the past five years. I love the smell of it, and we have black swallowtails lay on it here. They've laid/ovisposited on that this year and on the parsley and the rue. I had taken out the rue a few years ago because I was allergic to it, but then I had some rue plants come up later and somehow I couldn't bring myself to rip them out. So now I have rue again. Now my daughter gets cats off the rue and brings in rue cuttings for the BST and GST cats so I don't have to touch it. She has mostly taken over doing almost all of the butterfly raising. I'm still confused about what kind of fennel this is at our place but I call it bronze fennel. All I know is that if I don't deadhead it each year, I would end up with lots of fennel plants coming up the following spring. I have mine in pretty much shade and that seems to work well to keep it from konking out earlier than I want it to. I like the plant but because the rue has more substantial foliage than the fennel, we/she usually end up raising the blacks on the rue. I wanted to raise the giants on the wafer ash trees that I planted for them here, but that doesn't last long because those darn potato leaf hoppers decimate the leaves even before the middle of summer. They're unusable now for the past couple of months because of those pests. So the giants are raised on the rue, but it's no problem for me since DD raises them. The giants prefer to lay their eggs on the wafer ash though, so maybe it would be okay to raise them on it, I don't know. Those trees are really unsightly though. I wish you much success at your new place. It looks like you don't need me to say that though. ;-) Cathy