The Pennyroyal must be destroyed? Just my opinion...

Another pleasant feature of the Pepperwood glades that has to go are the lovely clumps of sweet pennyroyal. We set out to clear this from a few dried-up vernal pools on the western slope of the property; with the backdrop of sweeping views of the hills rising beyond the liano and northward above the Russian River.

We'd of done better a month or two earlier, as the ground was dry and we'd no way to get the roots of this hardy mint. I've been pulling spearmint and catnip out of the fine garden loam of my little garden for years, and it'll never be done. At least we eliminated most of this year's seed crop.

A big bonus was the the dozens of fat golden Orb spiders stationed around these patches. I'd be forgiven for assuming they were there to catch the nectaring insects drawn by the flowers. We worked mostly in the cool and foggy morning; so I couldn't really see what they actually caught... except for a few of the myriad small grasshoppers that fled before our slightest step. Whatever they got, they were some of the fattest I've seen; with numerous egg cases proudly in evidence. I wonder how they'll do absent the pennyroyal.

We also saw more Mantids than I've ever encountered. These with equally yellow-brown or jade green. Most were big females, although I saw the occasional diminutive male. Lots of the girls seemed suspiciously plump--I'd guess gravid-- so possibly the men had already done their service.

Posted on August 1, 2012 04:24 PM by icosahedron