While I’m not interested in the plants in my garden simply being bug food, I do occasionally make an exception for caterpillars, at least the ones that become beautiful butterflies, beauty to be determined by my own subjective assessment. A couple weeks ago, there were several Black Swallowtails floating around the garden, and now there is a whole batch of caterpillars chubbing up on my rue plant. Each morning I go out to eye the plant to see whether it…

We haven’t seen any traces of Itsy Bitsy in weeks. However, as I was scouring the “Italian Trombetta” squash vines for pests, I was greeted by this green spider, whom I’ve named Jolly. I don’t know if he has a web or not. I’ve only seen him hanging out on the same cluster of leaves for several days now. He is a Green Lynx Spider and is doing a little pest control of his own. The first time I saw…