Welcome to the Rusty Patch Garden, a small lot in a small town dedicated to native flora and fauna. Our yard abuts that of a neighbour, and it’s through that patch that the deer and other animals stroll through – though not before meandering through the Rusty Patch and helping themselves to the snack plants their deer ancestors told them about from a time before.
Without menopause, many mammals live short lives and die after a few rounds of birthing. Did you know deer almost always have twins? This deer looks like she has had a long life. I’ve never seen white on the face like that. She had a large black thing on her shoulder that I thought might have been an engorged tick, but it was gone next time I saw her.
She was scratching her eye like a dog does. Her offspring was very cautious of me, stamping a hoof and signalling to mother deer, but she merely kept an eye on me – while her other eye was trained on the delicious ferns that she stripped to bare stalks.
The birds are eating all my fucking bugs.
I understand that’s a sign of a healthy ecosystem and it’s the inevitable conclusion of planting native plants, but… feels aggressive.
Our mallard couple is back almost daily.. He watches over while she eats – I respect that even though one time while trying to mate her, he chased her into traffic.
Couldn’t capture it in a photo, but this woodpecker was absolutely launching tree debris out of its way while gobbling up some buggos.
The turkey vulture was the top predator around, until…
This hawk ate one of the new black squirrel babies. And then there were two. No photos of the live ones this week.
They look so smoooooooth. Forbidden pets.
Oh no! The mosquitoes are so bad this year! Should we decimate the ecosystem with toxins? Or… hear me out… what if we invited some super predators to the party? Yes, it takes time to establish a garden that welcomes such a diverse array of dragonflies, but the time will pass anyway.
Damselflies are not dragonflies. And that’s okay!
Not a day goes by that I don’t think about the legs of flower flies when they hover, like the photo with the buttercup. Outrageous. Painfully adorable. Existentially precious. Yeah I have a lot of flies in my garden – THANK GOODNESS.
Like… my heart literally hurts from how much I love this fly’s feets.
The honey garlic is a local fave (non native but very pleasing).
Wood roaches? Yes please! Thank you for breaking down the duff in the garden. These are shy little creatures who sense the world around them with their long antennae. They can fly but usually just short jaunts.
Tiny sweat bee on the native spiderwort. When I started native plant gardening, I knew I was doing it for the bees. What I did not know was how many types of bees there are. Bumble and carpenter and (invasive!) honeybees I knew, but also? Sweat bees, mining bees, furrow bees, long-horned bees, mason bees, leaf-cutter bees!
Most native bees are solitary. It is hive-insects like honeybees and paper wasps and yellowjackets that are known to sting and be aggressive. They simply have a different mentality – protect the hive. (At first I used the phrase ‘different instinct’ but I think we do insects a disservice when we ascribe all their behaviour to instinct. They are much smarter than we usually credit them. I believe they do have a ‘mentality’.)
Solitary bees and wasps are chill creatures. They only need to protect themselves, not a hive, so if they feel endangered, they will simply remove themselves from the situation.
This bee is a new observation in the Rusty Patch. Inconclusively IDed as a nomad bee!
Red clover is so nostalgic to me. I love the plants that I first learned were edible. Red clover and chives were my childhood discoveries that the earth is offering us things we love. And we aren’t the only ones who love them!
Monarchs enjoying the last of the invasive phlox while the milkweed works on its blooms.
Have you ever seen anything so lovely as this Tortoise Beetle?
Okay, time to crawl to the top of a tall stalk of grass, shoot a web from my ass, and take off! Hope you enjoyed this week in the Rusty Patch Garden. What was your favourite creature?
kathleen may 
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