Cool Pathway, Pack of Sunflower Seeds, Toads, and The Life of a Hornworm

Welcome to 

July. 

 

I love this....

I can see this in my front yard going

up inside of an amazing garden.

Talking about gardens, I loved my

tour and seeing all the different

kinds of plants, blooms and beauty.

The one thing I did notice, not 

a lot of random items in 

the gardens. Not like I prefer

to put in mine.

No baby bed springs, 

no actual beds, no lanterns...

give me a few years and 

I am going to have a whopping

garden with lots of things in it.

Speaking of which, I purchased

some sunflower seeds from the 

wedding venue we toured.

It has a mix of sunflowers

in it. 

Pics from internet

Chocolate Cherry

Autumn Beauty 

Lemon Queen

Peredovik

Velvet Queen

So excited to plant these next

year and see what I come up with.

YAY.

I love Sunflowers.

So, you all know that I have toads.

No silly, I don't raise them!

I failed to tell you the other 

day while working on the dry creek bed

I was digging, ran into a root and I

took the shovel to chop up the root...

looked down, before I lowered the pointed

part of the shovel and right where

I was chopping, a baby toad.

I scooped him/her up and lifted her

out of the way so I could continue.

I found it so interesting that my

once upon a time, a tad over 3 yrs ago my

home did not sit her and this area was just 

land covered with lots and lots of trees.

With that I have found that 

apparently, toads love this type of

area. You know me and the internet, I 

had to look up if there was a meaning 

to toads and frogs in your yard.

This is what I found.

What It Means When Toads Are in Your Yard

If you’ve noticed toads in your yard, it’s usually a sign that your outdoor space is meeting their basic needs — moisture, shelter, and food — and that your local environment is relatively healthy foreveryard.com+1.

Ecological indicators
Toads are amphibians with permeable skin, making them highly sensitive to pollutants, pesticides, and habitat changes. Their presence often means your yard and surrounding area have clean water, fertile soil, and a balanced ecosystem scienceinsights.org. Conversely, a decline in toad numbers can signal environmental stress.

Why they’re drawn to your yard

• Moisture: Toads absorb water through their skin, so they’re attracted to damp soil, shallow puddles, or even pet water dishes scienceinsights.org.

• Shelter: They hide under rocks, logs, leaf litter, or dense vegetation to avoid predators and extreme weather foreveryard.com+1.

• Food: A rich insect population (slugs, snails, beetles, grubs, mosquitoes) makes your yard a prime hunting ground foreveryard.com+1.

• Light sources: Outdoor lights can attract flying insects, which toads follow at night scienceinsights.org.

Benefits of having toads

• Pest control: A single toad can eat thousands of insects in its lifetime, helping reduce garden pests without pesticides foreveryard.com+1.

• Ecosystem balance: By controlling insect populations, they help maintain biodiversity foreveryard.com+1.

• Environmental health: Their presence is a positive sign of a thriving, unpolluted habitat scienceinsights.org.

Potential drawbacks

• Some species (like the cane toad) are toxic and can harm pets or wildlife if ingested thepoolandlawn.com.

• In certain conditions, they may compete with other wildlife for resources.

Living with them
If you want to keep toads in your yard, provide water sources, hiding spots, and avoid chemical pesticides. If you prefer fewer toads, you can reduce moisture retention, remove hiding spots, or limit insect populations Pest Pointers+1.

In short, toads in your yard are a sign of a healthy, biodiverse environment and a natural ally in pest control — unless you have toxic species or pets that might be at risk. 

Now I am not a collector of frogs

or toads, alive or made of wood, glass,

or whatever. But I love having little

whimsical type things in the yard and 

somehow, I realized I had several frog

pieces. They are looking good around the 

water wagon.  Hoping that with the dry creek

run off from the gutter system and the water

wagon, the frogs and toads continue to hang

in my yard.

Just hoping they stay out of reach

of the weed eater.

RIP Tod the little toad.

Speaking of the gutter system,

I have bags of egg rocks for that

area. I ventured out yesterday morning before

it got really hot and headed to get my

allergy shot, which I did not get,

and to get rocks.

It was already a tad warm when 

I got back so they are still in the 

truck of my car.

Shot, I forgot I had taken

the epipen out of my purse

so not shot yesterday.

As you all know, I love my flowers 

outside. I do not keep plants inside,

cause they tend to kick the 

side of the bucket they are planted in.

Also, I am not a veggie, grow your

own food type of person. I do however,

love good tomatoes.

I explained about how miserable my

mater plants were looking between the 

Japanese beetle and the mix I read about

and tried...

MISERABLE.

More so now after I found this..

A HORNWORM.

He was just chilling yesterday morning.

I came back in with the intent of 

going back and removing him but I 

wanted to see the best way to do that.

I got in the house, started on something

and forgot about the worm.

When I headed out for the shot, he 

was on a totally different 

stem. He moves fast for a fat

guy. When i got back from my running,

the whole stem was gone and he 

was working on another. 

He had eaten into two maters,

I picked my somewhat ripe one 

before he got there.

I was going to remove him and 

put him in the birdfeeder but he jumped

at me (my story and I am sticking to it), 

so, I did the next best thing that the 

internet said. He took a warm soapy bath.

Wow, that was done, hoping my

next four maters have a chance, but

then, OH NO, I spotted another one.

He took a bath also.

I never see these strange looking things

anywhere but on tomato plants so I had

to know how they get there.

Oh course, I should have figured that

out. 

pic from internet

This is a Hawk Moth AKA a sphinx moth.

These moth lay their lava on the flowering

plants of tomato, potato, peppers or eggplant.

You don't even notice them and then they hatch.

The large on you saw the pic of blended

in so nicely with the plant, I did not see it. 

Even more interesting, a braconid wasp will pierce

the backs of these worms laying eggs inside the worm.

 

As the egg grows, it feeds off the insides of the

worm and as the worm eats MY tomato

plants and grows, the wasp egg is 

slowly killing it.

Circle of Life.

On Friday there will be a quiz

on the life of a hornworm if it is allowed

to live and eat and not take a soap bath.

Thanks for stopping by,

Pam

 Years ago I had one in the wasp

lava growing stage. 

SO STRANGE!