a plague of grasshoppers
a plague of grasshoppers
We’ve been having a veritable plague of grasshoppers this summer. The heat and dry are part of it, i am sure, but it probably hasn’t helped that I haven’t kept up on mowing the lawn much. Oh, and since I have been the one home, I haven’t bothered to water it much. Blame it on reading “Dune” too much.
But nearly all the garden plants we put in are stripped nearly bare. Tomatoes, green peppers.. even the cucumbers, which I expect to take over the yard, but i guess it needs more water to do that.
Our wormwood has been doing well, but even that has been stripped of leaves from ground to about 24”. I have harvested it and it’s drying out in the garage - so far the only success. Now if I would only get around to getting the rest of the gear together for distillation…
Even our mint plants, which came back on its own for once, has been stripped bare of nothing but seeds. Maybe next year. Assuming there is a next year. I keep hearing horror stories about the cost of fuel, that it will “double by December”. As it was, last winter we spent twice as much for propane as we did for rent in January. Of course, I am not making any real plans to move anywhere, other than trying to get my house into some semblance of order. I have about 50 “flapper” bins (the kind where the lids are attached to the bottom) stacked on my unused porch. At least they’ll be easy to move when the time comes.