Birds, Bugs, Backyard Bonanza

Round about March when the days began lengthening and morning seemed appreciably earlier, we were amazed at the cacophony of birdsong outside our windows. Some of the calls I had heard before, but not since I had left New England for the West Coast. Some were new. All were delightful to listen to, reminding us of what a songbird-poor environment we had left! Now several months later, I'm beginning to see why so many songbirds can make a living here: bugs.

Gardening in the Northwest is great for a number of reasons: 1.) It never gets so hot that you don't feel like doing it; 2.) Everything grows; 3.) It's in the culture--some people need to buy new toasters or SUVs to keep up with the Joneses, others need a fantastic garden...and until now, I had failed to consider a 4th reason: a relatively pest-free environment. Sure, there were slugs and some cut worms (and many garden-reducing mammals), but nothing that would pepper an entire eggplant plant with bullet holes in one night, rendering its leaves photosynthetically useless (thank you flea beatles!). And there were so many aphids on our sweet peas this weekend, we think we lost the lot of them. Bummer.

I also have had more than one encounter with cockroaches, or in the local parlance, Palmetto Bugs, which just makes 'em sound as sweet as a peach pie! My first ever encounter with Periplaneta americana (or perhaps one of its relatives?) was when I had an apartment in Athens while studying abroad--they were gross and freaked me out--nasty sewer pests. They also were all over the place in Hawaii, but seemed slightly less threatening. Now that they are locally referred to as Palmetto Bugs, they seem even more benign. Admittedly, I do think of rural roaches as just one of the smorgasborgd of bugs, while urban ones have some sort of horribly fetid association. So, Palmetto Bugs it is.


At any rate, I have gone on several smooshing campaigns over the last few weeks, some being more successful than others--must keep up the fight! The bugs here are ruthless! Luckily, we do have some friends to help us out, namely all those birds and many frogs. One smart fellar has taken to sitting on the cross-member of our screen door where escaping light must provide an ample supply of phototactically inclined (or dazed) insects.

It's not all bad news in the garden either! I finished off the arugula harvest and started the basil and sugar snap pea harvest last night--combining the ingredients to make a delicious pesto for some homemade pasta! Yum! It was so green and fresh looking! I highly recommend the arugula/basil combination--the arugula gave the pesto a nice peppery spiciness to conteract the sweet basil!




After a rough start, Fygmalion, our Mission Fig, seems to be off on a blazing growth spurt. We had pretty much given him up for dead and labeled him DOA when the lemon tree we ordered at the same time flowered like mad and there was nothing but a stick of the fig. I guess we learned the lesson there: transplant shock doesn't mean death! Both trees seem to be doing well in their designated locations, the lemon filling the back deck with sweet smelling blossoms and Fygmalion leafing out in all directions.



The beans (green, lima, and scarlet runners) seem to be happy as well, as all are flowering, the scarlet runner beans already having set fruit.

The cucumbers (slicers and lemon cukes) have taken over more than their fair share of the garden space and are flowering like mad. Some of the flowers are even turning into spiky little cucumberlings already!

So, despite the bugs and torrential downpours, things in the garden seem happy and we are pleased to start eating the fruits of our labors. Save for the astronomical amount of hard earned cash we've spent on soil and soil amendments, the plentiful rain has kept our watering bill minimal and the ample sun has proven, once again, that "Through the miracles of photosynthesis, small plants will become large plants" (R.T. 2006).