Not sure why, But this is both interesting, and hilarious.

Growing up in the 80s, we trashed our garden hose and we didn't have to replace it for years. The amount of garden hoses I've hard to replace within the last 10 years or so is ridiculous. And I barely use them i even bought a reel. Nope, still wants to kink and leak at connections. I've tried ones from Ace Hardware and Home Depot and they seem to be all trash.

Hanging onto it for dear life 😅 Has this ever happened to you? The only thing I can think of is that we had some storms around the time this happened that may have delivered the stick to it.

I'm guessing it's either the cricket hunter, but I want it to be the Mexican blue tarantula hawk

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Here's the first one

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/369461348

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Sorry for the poor quality, I was try to zoom without scaring it off. I've been trying to make my yard attractive to them but I don't seem to have enough (any) Tarantulas, and the neighbor's prickly pears are way outcompeting my Milkweed. It's pretty big for a mud dauber.

EDIT:

additional information: Chandler, AZ (Sonoran Desert) around 7:15 pm.

Front yard isn't very diverse. Just loads of gravel. Backyard has a lot of sunflowers squash, melons, tomatoes, peppers, and various natives. On the weekends I do deep water via sprays/mists to give local critters a water and bath station.

I think she was either scouting under my driveway for prey, or a burrow site. About 1.5"-2" (38-50mm)

I went to turn it and it slipped off the vine... 🫩

I guess it's fine. It's enough for one.

I live in Chandler, Arizona and we just started the real summer heat this week. Usually the first few days of temperatures over 105°F I give the garden a cooldown spray in the late afternoon to help with acclamation, and to give wildlife a boost. (Also it's fun.) I was actually starting to get really hot and wanted to go inside but I saw her zip in and then she started taking a bath and I thought it would be kind of a jerk move if I turned the water off just as she was showing up to cool down.

A potentially briefer Garden tour

1. I'm trying to figure out what this C Pepo is, because it's making me hungry.

2. This is my second tallest sunflower right now at about 9 and 1/2 ft tall

3. I think this is a longhorn bee, specifically an oblique longhorn bee. I'm still awaiting confirmation from the iNaturalist community.

4. Here's something you don't see everyday. Probably. I don't know your life.

5. Cat tax.

6. I wanted to dig a ditch one day and I didn't really know what to do with it so I just kind of filled it with rocks and seeds and I introduced my tortoise to it for the first time while I had the soaker hose going and it was filling with water and she thought it was fantastic. She went on a rampage drinking water and chomping on fresh sprouts of some of her favorite plants I tried to take a video of it but it was literally just 5 minutes of her drinking water. Not that it isn't cute but, she just literally buries her face in the water and doesn't move much for 5 straight minutes.

7. I often forget to zoom out and take a picture of everything. Every time I go outside I usually hone in on a plant from across the yard and go check on it, then check its neighbor and then check its neighbor. I checked the trees and forget there's a forest and people like to see the forest.

8-10. I had trouble with inaturalist and even Gemini identifying whether she's a common mud dauber, or if it was a species of tarantula hawk. Today I also learned that there are at least three species of tarantula hawk and one of them looks a lot like a mud dauber. So this is another one that I'm waiting for confirmation from the iNaturalist community on. I'll also take input from Reddit but you got to promise me you actually know your bugs, I don't do guesses, feelings, or emotions when it comes to identifying species. 😅

I was cooling off the plants with the cone setting on my sprayer and lots of little bees and insects were coming in and having their sips and as I was getting ready to move on or she came in and perched on that block wall ladder.

When I noticed she was taking a bath, I thought two things. The first thing was "I gotta show the people on Reddit." The second thing was "I haven't put anything on YouTube in a while so I should probably make it a short also."

I was also thinking it's really hot and I'd like to go be inside but this is a really unique moment and this hummingbird is looking really happy.

Very long post. Tldr June sucks, eat what you can, Don't prune. Don't fertilize. Water, but don't over water, and don't expect a watermelon, probably.

Long post coming - I just started a late shift job and got shingles right smack at the same time so I'm home sick but keeping my sleep schedule, and boredom busting.

Browse some night-sight shots of my garden or some perspectives I found interesting.

Our goal this month is to water, maintain the mulch, and keep everything alive till July. Secondary goals can include habitat and water for wildlife, indoor seed starting (which I don't have much patience or space for), and planting a few of those heat lovers that'll germinate and shoot up while everything else is burning to a crisp.

Important don'ts

No fertilizer this month, most plants aren't trying to grow, they're trying to go dormant. Fertilizer triggers growth which stresses plants.

Pruning: plants hold onto scorched leaves as shade! Don't panic if you start seeing plants turning yellow, brown, or just kinda pale. The plant probably withdrew nutrients, cholorphyll, and water from those leaves and is keeping them just how they need to be to cool the plant and prevent water loss. Pruning, like fertilizer, can trigger new growth. Wait until mid July or consistent monsoon rains and look for new growth, then you can prune what the plant doesn't drop.

Wilty leaves don't always mean add water! This one borders the do and don't. Do pay attention to the plant, don't overwater it. When it's hot out a lot of plants will their leaves to reduce water loss. A lot of melons and squash do it (or do it more noticeably because of their huge leaves). When the sun gets lower, or they get some shade and cool off they'll pump water back to their leaves. But why don't we water the poor hot plants they make me feel bad! Because we can drown them with love... or water. When they're not using their leaves they're breathing through their roots, or at least trying to. We do water the poor hot plants later! If it's past sunset, or the plant has been in shade for a few hours in a cooler part of the garden, and is still wilted 🥀 check the leaves and green stems. Floppy is alive-leaf, crunchy is dead-leaf. Check the soil if it's soggy try exposing it so it can evaporate off. If it's dry so that slow deep water. If you're not sure what's up with the plant, or know it's a drama queen, then wait until morning, some plants want more recovery time, but that could be an indication it needs shade, or more or less water.

Do:

Learn your pests. Spend some time on YouTube - growing in the garden has some good videos on identifying bugs, fungi, bacteria, and other garden pests, so does Epic Gardening, and both have some good tips and tricks to control without reaching for a can of RAID. I will say that the most effective roach control I've ever used has been Advion bait gel - it specifically targets cockroach physiology, and is food-chain safe. Look it up, I've already written a small epic here. I got it because I had an aging cat who's primary form of exercise was chasing bugs and I wanted to make sure she didn't eat a bug with a gaster full of some poisonous to her.

Do harvest away! I put plants in familiar with here but beans might be coming in and some others that I hadn't considered.

As soon as tomatoes blush, they're usually ready to come inside. They continue to ripen and develop flavor off the vine. You can also eat them green. Letting them get fully red outside will attract birds look for water, they'll peck at the top of the tomato and eat some of the insides including some seeds when water is hard to come by. Cherry tomatoes seem to be a favorite. Small peppers, and strawberries use the same strategy - have a hydrating snack, and spread my seeds. Sometimes small red berries are just called "bird berries." Keep tomatoes in a room temperature area to allow them to ripen. They last longer in the fridge, but it slows or stops the ripening.

Peppers are ready to eat pretty much right away, and can usually stay on the plant for a long time. Unlike tomatoes, peppers stop developing flavor when harvested even if they continue to change colors. If you don't like the flavor of green peppers, you gotta let them turn red. Store with or similar to tomatoes, don't refrigerate until you know it'll be a while before you get to eat it. Bell peppers have a hard time here because the plants need to grow very large and then produce some very big fruit, but it goes from too cold, to too hot, too quickly most years. Very few pepper varieties have pollen that stays fertile above 90°ish so just expect to keep them alive without much fruit during the summer. I usually get a lot structural growth during this time, which is highly desirable for supporting the fall crop - stuff the turkey with stuffed peppers? Don't mind if I do!

Squash winter squash should already be in the ground! We harvest and eat it in winter, we don't plant it in winter. So, if you're trying to grow a giant pumpkin and don't have a freak of nature like I did (26lbs in about as many days!) you might be thinking I don't want my giant pumpkin vine to divide its attention to all these other tiny fruits, what can be done! Well, eat your winter squash like a summer squash. The flavor, in my experience is between a zucchini and a pumpkin, sometimes kinda cantaloupe-y, and that's pretty much what you're eating (the melon notes cook out for a pretty standard orange squash flavor). Pumpkins and other winter squash (butternut, acorn, Lakota, Seminole pumpkin) are edible right away, even as flowers. Stuffed squash flowers are apparently high dining in France, and we're over here like "but the bees are being obscene in there." Long story short - if you're hungry eat some squash, and keeping up with your summer squash harvests will help keep them producing.

Muskmelons/cantaloupe: you might get your first full size fruits this month if they germinated early. Do make sure they're supported from below - they slip right off the vine. Do reduce watering about two weeks from when you think it's harvest time, so the plant puts sugar from photosynthesis into the fruit and not as much water. Do monitor for any signs of cracking, especially if there's a big storm. Do be prepared with lots of vertical climbing space for the plant! Doubly so if you don't have a lot of space on the ground. They will explode and climb trees, trellisis, pots, small children, ANYTHING to get closer to the sun! They'll easily cover 15+ in multiple directions in a single summer (conservative estimate, not including vertical and diagonal growth)

Watermelon - you probably won't see any unless you had early germination and growth from a small variety like sugar baby. The vines might stall or look dead this month. Just keep them watered, Arizona has a weird watermelon growing cycle, I got exactly one last year (my tortoise ate lot of the vines) and it took it from February or March, clear to September or October to grow ONE melon. I'm still learning this plant. I know plenty of people have a much better time with it, but also that it's a trick to grow here, lots of fits and stalls when temperatures aren't just perfect.

I think that's enough. Hope it's coherent. You get a sticker if you read the whole thing. I don't know how I'm going to get it to you, but you can think about how cool stickers are.

I tried to find as many pictures as I could of the beast from day one of noticing it... I'll say at least April 25 it was the size of an orange. So 1 April 30th, 2-4 May 16, 5 May 18, then the rest are just the last 5 days and today.

#10 is possibly the last American Legion poppy of the season surrounded by seed heads. For my fellow veterans, and for everyone else remembering someone(s) today. May we celebrate the costs and gifts of freedom.