Our first Saturday of fall was a rare gift of warm weather and low humidity; everyone was outside enjoying the Indian-summer, busily ignoring the fact that cold weather was right around the corner. I was no exception and decided to take advantage of the beautiful day by heading over to our local nature preserve. I had volunteered by planting some grasses and perennials the last time I was there, and I wanted to see how they were doing. When I got there, I walked up the hill to the little 10 foot by 10 foot plot of land that I had declared as mine and worthy of sweat and toil. Over the summer, I had planted Switchgrass (Panicum virgatum) and Big Bluestem (Andropogon gerardii) which are both native grasses that at one time covered much of Nassau County when it had been the Hempstead Plains, a long, long, time ago. I was surprised to see how well the grasses had taken despite the summer drought. With a little bit of hand-watering from other volunteers, the plants were about a foot tall with lush green foliage. The Switchgrass had filled in nicely and the airy inflorescences or seed heads danced around in the light wind. The Big Bluestem was by no means big yet, but it had grown significantly and the fuzzy blue stems made it look at least somewhat ornamental.
In between the two grasses I had also planted about five individual Swamp Milkweed (Asclepias incarnata) plants. You can probably imagine that SWAMP Milkweed likes wet soil, but I decided to plant it in this drier spot anyway. Surprisingly, it too was doing well! Boy, I was on a roll! Perhaps these little plants might even self-sow if given the opportunity! I stooped down and began to pull out the weeds that had popped up between the grasses and Milkweed. I yanked at the craggy crabgrass, the prostrate spurge, the Kentucky bluegrass, and the other various unidentified weeds that were competing for space, water, light, and nutrients. As I was pulling out a rather tenacious crabgrass, I noticed some tiny orange spots on the stem and leaf undersides of a Milkweed. I checked the four other Milkweeds and they had orange spots too! Could it be the eggs of Monarch butterflies which absolutely love to feed on Milkweed? No, because it wasn’t the right time of year and Monarch eggs are cream colored and are not clustered together….
Well, it turns out that my Milkweeds were under attack by tiny orange bugs called milkweed aphids! Aphids injure plants by sucking out the sweet, nutritious plant juices. And if that wasn’t enough, a black sooty fungus grows on top of the aphids’ excrement which ends up covering the plant and blocking sunlight from reaching the leaves. YUCK I guess next time I will plant my Milkweed in the right spot – one that has nice wet soil. But I didn’t give up on my sorry Milkweeds yet, because I also saw some friendly ladybugs nearby. The ladybugs (really lady beetles) love all kinds of aphids and voraciously eat them, keeping the population in check, and my Milkweeds healthy.
How in the world all these insects found my tiny group of plants is beyond me! They must have a sixth bug-sense or something. After I finished weeding, I walked back down the hill again, glad that the aphids wouldn’t bother the Switchgrass or the Big Bluestem. But I hope that those ladybugs have a big appetite!
