Mar 18 2022 - Giant Jumping Worms

 

I got to thinking about how green Ireland is. Ireland receives easterly trade winds across the Atlantic Ocean.  The name for this phenomenon - an atmospheric lake.  It transports moisture from the Mexico Gulf to the Irish shores to deliver all that misty moisture that constantly keeps things green. Our Garden Alerts have begun.  They are like weather alerts, but don't have the flashing red banners on the Weather Network.   We are under notice that there's an invasive worm called the giant jumping worm. Did you know that earth worms are an invasive species and are consuming the forest floor faster than it can replenish itself for native species.  That accounts for some of the dwindling Trillium woods we used to enjoy. The latest is the giant jumping worm. Their distinction is their means of self-defence - writhing like a snake and ejecting a piece of their tail.  They can jump out of a bowl, so generally give us the creeps.  They live at the surface among the leaves and eats the fallen organic material right at the surface.  So they are ruining the top soil where plants live and seedlings get started.  How to spot them? The place to start to look is potted plants and gardening and landscaping materials in the spring for their little cocoons.  They've been spotted in the GTA and as far west as Windsor. Another invader this year with cocoons is the box tree moth. It eats boxwood plant leaves.  It has decimated boxwood plants in Europe - the home of topiary gardens.  The sign they are on your plants is webbing among chewed leaves.  There has previously been sightings in St. Catharines and Niagara-on-the-Lake.  Here are Box Tree Moth Tips Box Tree Moth can be a significant pest if left unmanaged. Spread the word about box tree moth to your local horticultural networking group and encourage others to monitor boxwood for this pest. However, box tree moth can be easily controlled if it is sprayed at the right time. You can still have confidence in planting boxwood in your landscapes. Continue to monitor boxwood plants for signs of active larval stages, especially during the periods of May 30 to June 15, July 15 to Aug. 10 and Sept. 1 to 15. Avoid transplanting boxwood plants from residential gardens within the GTA. Always plant healthy, pest-free, nursery grown boxwood. When removing plants (or clippings): first place a black plastic bag over the plant, cut the main stem at ground level and carefully contain the entire plant inside the bag, tying it off securely. Where air temperatures are 20 C or greater, place bagged plant in the sun for two days to kill any box tree moth inside. (Or bury or burn bagged infested plants, where permitted). That's our Garden Alert of the Week!  It is pussy willow season.  You will see them for sale at florists and garden centres.  I get to purchase mine from the grower Mark Houtby - where Brian has his Lilycrest Gardens hybridizing field.

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Toad of Toad Hall

There's a little toad who regularly is on the back porch first thing in the morning and seems to survey the patio and yard.  Hop, hop down the stairs, and then across the patio and into the lawn and garden.  I watched the toad jump three times its length in each hop.  The average human's jump isn't anywhere near this. I wondered about the comparison of of the planet's great jumpers.  The top highest jumping animals, according to onekindplanet.org are: Jumping Spider Froghopper Kangaroo Rat Grasshopper Klipspringer Bharal Red Kangaroo. Red Kangaroos are the fastest jumpers among all mammals. They are the longest as well - 43 feet is the record. I did wonder about fleas?  Don't we think of them as leaping masters?  Fleas can launch themselves up to 200 times their body length.  So yes, they are leaping masters. They could be the furthest jumpers. To conclude, here's an excerpt from Toad of Toad Hall: The world has held great heroes, As history books have showed; But never a name went down to fame Compared with that of Toad! The clever men at Oxford Know all there is to be knowed. But none of them know half as much As intelligent Mr. Toad! I took this picture of the garden toad a week ago.

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There's Nothing for you, really

Is 'nothing' a negative?  Don't we think of 'anything' as positive?  That seems so interesting to me.  The definition of nothing is:  not anything, no single thing. However, when I compare these two sentences: "There is nothing for you".  vs.  "There isn't anything for you". There seems to be a subtle difference.  The first sentence could be continued with "and don't check with me again", while the second sentence could be continued with "and check with me again later". Can you imagine learning a new language such as English with these kinds of distinctions? Here is a quote from Richard Rodgers: "There isn't anything I wanted to do that I haven't.  At the same time there isn't anything I've ever done that I didn't want to do better".   So on to the opposite of nothing - something.   Here are two funny sights from my Toronto trip a few weeks ago.  First the delivery truck of parking machines.  The second shows two men doing some measuring with what looked like a camera, but is an instrument to measure speed.  I noticed them because of the running, jumping and various athletic activities.