Everything was planned. Winterizing the house, yard, and garden. Putting the garden to bed meant pulling up all the spent plants, clearing the beds of as many weeds as possible, spreading compost, and, finally, planting garlic cloves and then covering them with a hefty layer of leaves and straw. The first week in November is the perfect time, or so I thought, to tackle these depressing-because-the-growing-season-is-over chores. Gaia, however, had plans of her own.
The first day would be spent pulling up the plants that helped nourish us throughout the summer months, as well as yanking weeds from the soil. This detail would be done carefully. Knowing that several praying mantises called our garden home and had already begun creating eggs, I wanted to be attentive of what my hands and feet were coming into contact with. No mantid murder or harming of their eggs is allowed at Wright Gardens. No, Sir!
I thought it possible, too, that I could come across a dead praying mantis. It had certainly been cold enough in the evenings to cause death. Call it creepy but I was kind of hoping to find a lifeless mantid body so I could inspect it under our illuminated magnifying lamp. To my surprise, I found a live male mantis! He was moving very slowly and even allowed me to take him in my hand. I suspect that he was near death and too weak to protest or simply flee. After sharing the discovery with my beloved, who was equally excited to see this leggy creature, I placed him on a yarrow bush that was well out of harms way.
Returning to the garden, I continued pulling out "volunteer" dill and chives. A handful of chives came out of the ground and with the removal, a dead praying mantis fell to the ground. Initially, I didn't realize that it was dead and was fearful that I had harmed it. But once I saw that it was dead, in my hand it went. My instinct told me that it had not been dead for long. Its body still felt soft rather than rigid. All garden duties left my mind. Marching toward the front door, I handed the mantid to John and asked him to put it somewhere safe from our cats.
A bit more work was done in the garden but it was beginning to get dark and I was tired, cold, and hungry. Done for the day, I was satisfied with what had been accomplished.
Once inside and stripped of my dirty work clothes, I put a pot of soup on the stove for myself. While the soup heated up I turned my attention to the praying mantis. "Wow!" I kept saying to myself as I inspected its magnified body in complete awe.
Turning the mantid over in my hand so he was belly up, his rear legs, under the control of gravity, opened widely. It crossed my mind again how pliable his body seemed and wondered how long the creature had been dead. While fingering the the tail end of his wings, I noticed two slender antennae-like parts on either side of the mantid's body. Rudders to help during flight? I ran my index finger gently along one of them and it moved ever so slightly! No, it must be my imagination, I thought. Turning the mantid to one side to look more closely at his raptor forearms, one of them slowly started to open from a closed position, its abdomen flexed slightly, and then the other forearm began to flex. The praying mantis was beginning to reanimate! Whoa. The warmth of the house, my hand, and the lamplight was helping to bring life back into this little fellow. Cool!
Grateful to have had the opportunity to look at him more closely, I immediately brought him back outside to leave him in peace next to his companion on the yarrow bush.
Although my intention was to continue in the garden where I had left off the following day, Mother Nature decided then to begin ushering in winter weather. It was windy, rainy, and the rain soon turned to snow! Nooooo, there's garlic yet to plant! Thankfully, by that same evening, the bit of snow that fell had melted. Thunderstorms and high winds followed up the snowy weather for the next two days. (sigh) The first day it wasn't raining, cold as it was, I suited up and managed to plant approximately 25-30 cloves of garlic. Phew!
To our delight, our predatory garden dwellers created many eggs in the garden. Seven eggs in all were discovered. One was even found attached to the side of a ripening tomato, and another attached to a stalk of celery. The backyard is going to be filled with praying mantises next summer! Perfect.
Stay warm, have fun shopping for seeds, and planning for next year's garden.
