Green lynx spider

Today our Travis County Master Gardener volunteers were working in our demonstration garden to tidy things up.  I always love when they come out as I get to interact with them directly with hands-on teaching moments.  Today, I was not disappointed.  One of them came in to see if I could tell them about a spider she found.  You can look at the title to figure out what it was....

Green lynx spiders are large, bright green spiders with slightly elongated abdomens and spiny legs.  They are usually found on shrubs and low-lying vegetation where they wait for insects to come in so they can ambush them and eat them.  Lynx spiders are generalist predators, which means that they do not specifically eat one type of food item, but a wide variety- generally whatever they can catch.  While they are considered to be beneficial, they will eat pollinators (food is food!).

The spiders that we found were mommas with babies...in this case, spiderlings.  You can see in the photos webbing that encases part of the plant also holds and protects offspring.  The female spider guards her spiderlings until they can fend for themselves. 

Spiderlings remain near the egg sac for a little over a week and then they disperse to new locations by ballooning.  Ballooning is where spiderlings throw up a strand of silk to catch the wind which carries them to a new location.  I hope that I am here when this happens as I found four lynx mommas with babies (that could be about 800 spiderlings!!).

Webworms invading Austin

I've been receiving calls on webworms that are in trees surrounding Ladybird Lake.  we also have webworms in a tree at the Demonstration Garden.  Since it's a demonstration garden, I'm using the webworms as a....you guessed it!....demonstration.

I'm sure that you have been told (even possibly by me) that you can manage webworms by removing webs and knocking them out the tree with a stick.  I decided to see how well it actually works.  So far, it's going pretty well.  I started two weeks ago when we had a pretty good covering of webs on the tree.  I took a metal pole (actually the handle of an insect net which I had in my office) and removed as much of the webbing as I could from the branches.  I made a pile of webbing and caterpillars on the ground while removing the webs and that got taken to the garbage when I was finished.  I also whacked on the tree branches a few times after removing as much of the webbing as I could to dislodge any caterpillars.  I repeated the process every Monday and Friday.  Today when I checked on the webworms, there was only one small new web spun very close to a small branch.  The rest of the area has dead leaves and some loose webbing clinging to the branches, but the webworms aren't actively there anymore.  I removed the small section of webbing I found today and whacked the branch.  I'll check the situation again on Monday.  While I'm not completely done with the demonstration, so far it is looking pretty good.
 

Webworms on 6/13/14

Webworms on 6/20/14

Webworms on 6/27/14



Inside Austin Gardens- Demonstration Garden

Remember how I told you about the upcoming garden tour?  Well, it happens this Saturday.  I wanted to give you a peek of a garden on the tour that I get to see each time I go to work.  It's the demonstration garden at 1600-B Smith Road Austin, TX. 

This garden is planned and created by our Master Gardener volunteers and they have been working really hard to get it ready for the tour.  I think their hard work has paid off because it looks fantastic!  Not only is it wonderful to wander through to look at the plants, but you also get the wonderful smells from blooming roses and, when I'm lucky, someone brings in some goodies for me to take home.  They are growing a bunch of produce out there as well.  I've been eyeballing the cantaloupes for awhile since I can never seem to get them to grow.  I found out recently that they were volunteers!  Wish my garden would magically grow cantaloupes.

They have a really cool wicking bed that they installed a little over a month ago.  It was really neat to see how they set it up.  If you don't know what a wicking bed is, stop by and you can learn all about how to create your own.  I also really like how many of the food-producing plants are intermixed within the landscape.  It's almost like you can forage as you stroll leisurely through the area.

The other feature I love about the demo garden is the insects that can be found.  It is a certified Wildlife Habitat, so it allows me to wander through with my camera to get shots of various insects- beneficials and pests.  They have milkweed and passion vine, so I can find monarchs, queens and gulf fritillaries each year.  I usually can track down swallowtails, skippers, blues and sulphurs at certain times as well. 

Please consider adding the demo garden to your schedule.  Daphne Richards, horticulturalist extraordinaire, will be here all day to answer any questions on plants.  This location will also be KID-FRIENDLY with activities for kids with our Junior Master Gardener group.  Patty Leander will be presenting on Vegetable Gardens and Roz Garrett will be doing two presentations on Eating Like a Rainbow.

Saturday, October 20, 2012
9AM- 4PM
www.insideaustingardens.org
Tickets are $15 in advance (purchased at the website above); $20 the day of the tour or $5 per individual garden (purchase at the individual gardens)