Recent garden update

There's been some interesting looking insects in the front yard. It's been a while since I've worked in the front garden.  I'm not exactly sure why... perhaps the weather has been warming up a bit more now.  And there's also all these weeds sprouting!  Perhaps I am just trying to avoid weeding.  Ha ha!

So now, what sort of bug is this??!

Okay, just discovered that this is a southern green stink bug (Nezara vindula). Good news is they don't bite or sting, but can do damage to crops.  Although I don't particularly have any "crops" per se in the front yard. I do have some strawberries.  Hmm..., but looks like they love debris and could invade the home for warmth in the late summer and fall.  Yikes, I guess I better weed and clear up those purple Jacaranda flowers!

Okay, next bug that I found:

Alrighty, after some more research, looks like this is the larva of a ladybug.  Supposedly they eat aphids too.  I guess I shouldn't have thrown this one into the green bin. Oops!

And this last one,  I thought it was ladybug look a like.  Well, it seems that it's the pupa stage of a ladybug!

So looks like I've discovered the life cycle of the ladybug.  Ha!  And I guess I need to just leave them be since we still have quite a bit of aphids!

In the meantime, these flowers are slowly making a nice comeback this year.  I guess putting it in the ground helped:

I'm still hoping for it to go up this arbor - eventually, some day.  The tomatoes are doing well too, even after being severely pruned:

And I had not been backyard for a bit and look how tall my celery plant is!  It's flowering!!!

I guess I should really trim it down since I'm not going to save any of those seeds. And I haven't really eaten any of the celery as it's been really bitter!  Maybe I need to pull it out and plant something else. The weather is starting to warm up. Might be time for some more corn this year :-)