Thursday, September 30, 2010

Rain, Grasshoppers and Vermont

fall broccoli 2
I can't decide whether it feels more like summer or fall. One thing's for sure, we've had a lot more rain recently. The cherry tomatoes are splitting like crazy and attracting all sorts of insects. I should probably rip them out this weekend.

Grasshopper
This might sound strange but this is the first time I've ever seen a grasshopper in my garden. Raised Roman Catholic and having seen the movie "The Ten Commandments" a dozen times, I can't help but wonder if this is somehow an ominous sign of things to come. (Will next year be the summer of hungry grasshoppers?) But this is probably just the paranoid gardener inside of me talking.

turnips
In unrelated news, the fall turnips are starting to fatten up. I think some of these will be ready in a week or so. Or maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised when I return from Vermont. I'm traveling up to Burlington this morning for work. This will be the first time I'm visiting northern Vermont. Hopefully, I'll get to see plenty of farmland, fall foliage and some of the things "the healthiest city" in America has to offer. If you has any suggestions on where I should go, let me know!

10 comments:

  1. A beautiful picture of the grasshopper! All grasshoppers I see in my garden are brown, this one is so pretty!
    I wouldn't worry about it too much. I have never seen any damage caused by grasshoppers in my garden.

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  2. I usually see grasshoppers in my garden every year. But only one or two. Not the plagues they get out west. They were a real issue for my mother in Colorado. Swarm of them could really devastate the crops. She surrounded her garden on three sides with birds. That probably helped a lot.

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  3. explore the intervale! AMAZING place! you will love it.

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  4. The turnips look so pretty growing there. Enjoy your trip. There is quite a bit to do in Burlington. I like to spend my time driving looking at all the lovely veggie gardens.

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  5. When I was living and gardening in central Washington (dry and hot there) we would have years where the grasshoppers were so bad they would strip the young fruit trees of all their leaves. An occassional hopper is not bad - but that was awful.

    Turnips look beautiful. I had a summer crop of them but they ended up being fed to the chickens as treats and never made it into my harvest pics or tally!

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  6. Well I have not been to Burlington in many, many years, but I always loved it up there. People are kind, it is safe, and the air just smells good. Have a great, safe trip!

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  7. I agree, it's a "grasshopper year", we haven't seen them in several years but they are out in numbers this fall! I wonder if it's just us on the East Coast?

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  8. I've been seeing a lot of grasshoppers in our yard. Those broccoli plants are gorgeous.

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  9. We've had a couple of very small grasshoppers who haven't done any damage - I'm more worried about the invasion of Harlequin Ladybirds from Asia as we don't have any predators for them and they're wiping out our native ladybirds! They're moving north and I spotted them in my garden in July :(

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  10. Thomas, grasshoppers! we have had tons in our garden this year, a most unusual event, and I blame them for eating our green beans just as they begin to form on the plant. Caution on your part I believe is justified. Have a great weekend.

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