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We’ve moved!
May 5, 2014If you were wondering why there have been no updates here for a while, it is because the garden blog moved as part of an overall re-design. You can see the new and improved version at http://garden.redwombatstudio.com/
Thrush-Bob Returns!
November 11, 2013Seriously. I did a whole article on it here.
Nice to have a bright spot after that…um…”vacation.”
A Public Service Announcement
October 25, 2013This is not a webcomic. It’s merely a series of related panels with word balloons.
The Mourning Cloak
October 23, 2013Well, okay. One more. (Not a series!)
A Small Field Guide
October 22, 2013
Still exhausted. Have another bug.
October 9, 2013I am tired down to the bones from all this travel and there is still work to do, but today I just played with rocks in the garden and took pictures of caterpillars.
I’m a Banded Tussock Caterpillar! LOOK AT MY AWESOME MUSTACHE!
Some day soon I hope to be back on my normal work schedule.
Still Life With Katydid
October 2, 2013Heading out tomorrow at the crack of godawful, to visit my parents, do a gallery opening, all that good stuff. I am already tired, so this may be the Death March of the Wombat. We’ll see.
I shall leave you with a katydid.
This is called a “Broad-Tipped Conehead Katydid.”
Seriously, check out that face.
You can’t tell me he isn’t plotting something.
Also, I got a barred owl in the backyard last night, and that is just cool beyond all reason. And a life bird. At the moment, I am having enormous fun just finding new species in my yard, but perhaps the wilds of Upper Michigan will have some late migrants for me. Or some interesting ducks.
And then at least I get to be home for a little while, until it’s time to go sign copies of Digger. And then I’m not traveling again for anything less than Disneyworld or an act of God until May.
Spiny Oak Slug
October 1, 2013Dude! Dude! Check this guy out!
I’m a Spiny Oak Slug! If you touch me, you will regret it!
Happened to be looking in exactly the right spot while building my swale and went “Wait a minute, that’s not a normal leaf…”
This is Euclea delphinii. He will turn into a brown moth with big green spots on his wings.
While trying to learn more about him, I ran smack into the wall of our vast ignorance. He probably eats oak. Probably. Maybe some other stuff. Nobody’s sure. And I literally cannot tell you if they are as common as dirt or desperately endangered, because their conservation status has never been evaluated. (My guess is that they are reasonably common because—well, obviously, I’m seeing one! And there are plenty of sightings on the various websites about bugs.)
We do know that they sting, and if you put your hand on one, you will need to use scotch tape to extract the spines from your skin. And if you’re very unlucky, you will have an allergic reaction and need to head to the hospital or at least load up on Benadryl.
Still, this kinda thing honestly freaks me out a little. That there are things so common that they are in my garden—and yet, we know almost nothing about them. Do they need to be protected? Can they live in cities? How far do they travel? What all do they eat?
Well, a new one for the yardlist, anyhow. So that’s something.
Hello, Apatelodes!
September 29, 2013
I’m fluffy!
Unless my Bug-Guide-fu fails me, this is Apatelodes torrefacta. He will turn into a really freaky looking moth, the Spotted Apatelodes moth (seriously, look that thing up! They’re freaky!)
He’s a new one for the yard list, and a weirdly handsome little devil.
Serious Anole Is Very Serious
September 20, 2013You are not serious enough to please Serious Anole.
Do you think that life is all butterflies and delicious slugs? No! SERIOUS ANOLE WILL HAVE NO MORE OF THIS FRIVOLITY.
(That handsome plant, by the by, is Camphor Pluchea, a weirdass native wildflower that I grew on a whim, which reseeds readily, if not frighteningly, and about which pretty much nobody knows nuthin’, beyond the dutiful listings in databases. It is an annual and plops itself into various damp spots around the garden, but doesn’t seem to do much beyond that. Bees don’t even know what to make of it, but teeny little weird pollinator flies think it is AWESOME.)