Ladybugs and flowers and carrots, oh my!

Debbie and I purchased 2,000 ladybugs and 3 praying mantis egg cases from www.planetnatural.com. The ladybugs were to be released at night, because ladybugs only fly during the day. The goal is to get them to hang around, rather than fly away.  Today, (two days later) I still saw lots of ladybugs on the plants.  I even witnessed several pairs of ladybugs mating. Mating ladybugs = lots of ladybug larvae = lots of dead aphids. The mantis egg cases hatch in 4 to 6 weeks of warm weather. One of them is already up in our pink rose bush. The other two egg cases are going to the big garden on Sunday. I hope they don't hatch before then!

The strawberry plants that are producing ripe berries have  been consistent. Each plant seems to be making one ripe berry every day. We are up to four plants making ripe berries now. There are two more plants at the big garden that are behind the times, and three more at the home garden.  If they all get on the same schedule, we could be eating 9 berries each day.

The snap pea crop is producing steady at 1/4 lb of pods each day. We check every two days and net about 1/2 lb. The spinaches are definitely flowering.  Thats good, and sad at the same time. I'm not quite ready to give up the delicious tender spinach, but I'll be glad to harvest the seeds for an August planting.

I thinned out some more turnips and carrots today. With more space, larger tubers can be produced. The smaller roots we are getting now aren't a waste though. I find the smaller carrots and turnip roots are even better tasting than the big ones.

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Total produce count for the year:

lots of  parsley

lots of peppermint

lots of spearmint

lots of lemon balm

lots of burnet

lots of fennel

lots of thyme

lots of dill

23 strawberries

1 lb carrot roots

2 heads of garlic

1.5 lb sweet/snap peas

11.5 lb assorted dark greens

7/8 lb baby radishes/greens

1/4 lb mature radish roots

34.25 lb assorted lettuce

2 2/3 lb spinach

2 1/3 lb turnip roots

2.63 lb miner's lettuce

3/16 lb mache/corn salad

5/8 lb young dark greens

1/3 lb arugula

3 asparagus spears

3 trays of wheat grass(inside)

3 trays micro  greens(grown inside)