We were able to harvest two strawberries this weekend. Yes, two. There were a lot more ripe ones in the garden, but those darn rollie pollies got to them first. Every year we have to fight with them for strawberries, and this year it seems their population is even bigger. I don't use any pesticides in the garden, but I can't find any good organic ways to control them.
We also harvested a couple of carrots, some green garlics, rosemary, and thyme. These were used to make braised lamb shank from this recipe here. The lamb turned out great. The meat was tender and the sauce was very flavorful. I don't usually make fancy dishes like this. It's Randy's birthday next week, so I made it as part of his birthday celebration.
Now, if you get grossed out by bugs, don't look at the pictures below. It doesn't matter how much I work in the garden. I'm still scared of most bugs and worms.
On Saturday, as Randy was digging holes to plant some pepper plants, I found this guy lying on top of the soil from the holes.
It was pretty big. About 2 inches long. It wasn't dead. It looked like it was in "hibernation" since it wasn't moving very fast. Does anyone know the name of this bug? Is it a good guy or a bad guy?
8 comments:
I'm not sure, but when I first looked at the photo I thought "Mormon cricket". see what you think...
http://tinyurl.com/3tg6z9p
I Googled photos of them, and a few did look like this, others not so much.
It looks like a cross between a bee and a grasshopper. Granny is probably right and it is some kind of cricket.
Too bad the pill bugs got your strawberries. I keep wondering what will eat mine. I hope nothing, but it seems that everything likes strawberries.
Mole cricket- and NOT a good bug.
You may want to try planting a coupke of rows of Daffodils surrounding the stuff you want to protect, if you have not tried already. It might work.
Granny and Barbie ~ thanks for helping to id the bug. Looks like it's not a good bug. Too bad I let it go. I hope one of the birds will get it.
Daphne ~ I hope the bugs will leave your strawberries alone. You are right. Everything likes strawberries. I'm still trying to figure out a setup that will work for strawberries. I've tried planting in pots, but the heat keeps killing them.
Uncle SD ~ I didn't know daffodils deter pests! There are some in the garden but not around the vegetable beds.
We only got about half our strawberry harvest too - dang bugs! I've decided not to bother with strawberries again. I can buy them so cheap here in FL when they are in season.
Great looking critter there! I'm always learning about some new bug too. sigh.
Melissa ~ It's a fight getting strawberries from the garden, isn't it? Organic strawberries are expensive here and sometimes they are tasteless. I'm going to try to see if there are better ways to keep bugs off them.
I'm always finding new bugs in the garden every year, too.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerusalem_cricket
Pretty sure they're indifferent-to-good! They just tunnel around and eat bugs. If you really provoke them they'll bite (my introduction to these was sitting on one), but that just feels like a hard pinch.
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