............[from Maggie] Caro contributes such insightful visits of her home on the land that I have moved her latest update to its very own thread, with lots of room and easy access.

For our new forum visitors,,,,,,
'Caro' aka Carolyn Couch lives on a huge spread in Central Texas and treats us to fascinating digi pics and stories of her home on the range. She is an organic farmer and rancher, Master Composter, Group leader for Texas Organic Growers Assn, member of Covington Organic Gardening Friends and an officer of the Organic Garden Club of Fort Worth.
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Summertime in the Country

Due to all the rain we had over the winter and spring, everything had stayed lush and green out here on the farm. The cows are fat from the spring grasses. The hogs were healthy and happy, being allowed to free-range in the pasture that has a stream running through it. On hot days, the hogs camped out where the stream runs beneath large oak trees, so they were cool and comfortable. We had 2 black angus calves born within this past month. They were both little bull calves, so their fate was determined at birth. Their names reflect their fate: T-Bone and Sir Loin. We didn't do well with the incubating of eggs this year. Not many of the turkey eggs hatched. We think that the tom turkey who was in the pasture with the girls spent all day running up and down the fence taunting the other toms on the other side of the fence, and didn't take care of business. He is now in the freezer.

Robert learned a lesson in re-investing his profits. Robert mostly takes care of the chickens, and his spending money is the "egg money." Since most of the hens will be past their most productive egg laying years by this fall, I told him he needed to order chicks this spring so they would be able to replace the layers this fall. He grudgingly parted with the money to order the chicks. They are doing well, and growing fat on the grasshoppers referred to elsewhere on the forum.

We have 4 baby turkeys and 5 baby guineas that I finally agreed to release in the yard so they can eat grasshoppers. For those who don't know about poultry, while they are great about eating bugs, they also like dust baths, which involves digging holes in dirt. This is not something one appreciates finding in one's flower borders. One solitary hen can destroy a flower bed in about 30 minutes. Turkeys and guineas are not as bad about it as chickens, especially when they are young, so we are hoping the bird release will help slow down the hoppers a bit.

The grasshoppers have taken out mints, salvias, roses, leaves and branches of fruit trees, etc. If there is a plant they haven't touched, its just because they haven't gotten to it yet. The orange mint was untouched, looking beautiful and ready for harvesting. The next morning, it had been eaten down to the stems. Two days ago, I was driving on the highway near the farm, and realized that what I thought was hay all over the road was actually grasshoppers. They had almost completely covered the surface of the road! I have honestly never seen anything like it.

I decided this year to pare down the number of animals we must care for during the summer. All the hogs except for 2 sows have either gone to market or to the butcher. At the auction, the auctioneer always raved about our hogs, as they were healthy looking and muscular rather than just lumps of unexercised fat like most of the others. That comes from the free range method of raising pigs. With just the 2 sows, I can let them out in the pasture, or leave them in their 2 acre pen, water them in the morning and evening, and they are fine. When we had the 40 or 50 pigs last summer, I couldn't even really leave the farm, as I had to refill the water every hour.

The grown turkeys now live in what once was, and hopefully will be again, my veggie garden plot. I'm glad I didn't kill myself trying to put in a veggie garden this year. With the hopper problem, it would have been a wasted effort.

The chickens have their own pasture, and they run around all day eating bugs. Our dog, Bandit, spends most of the day on top of an old broken down picnic table beneath the trees in the chicken pasture. She guards the chickens all day until about 5:30 and then she says, "Well, I'm calling it a day," and she heads for her kennel and waits for us to let her inside. Its really funny to watch.

Hope everyone has a nice summer.

If this wasn't accepting posts earlier, please have another go - it should be behaving now, thanks.

Look on the bright side Carolyn, at least you don't have to do any pruning. Must ask, do lots of hoppers end up in the pool?

Well, Terry. That is certainly one way to look at it. Yes, everything is definitely pruned. Noticed the vitex trees yesterday. The tops are twigs. There are leaves on the lower branches. Apparently, the hoppers go to the top to avoid the turkeys. I took a stick and started knocking the upper branches and the grasshoppers started flying and the turkeys got really busy eating them as they hit the ground.

Actually, I think grasshoppers can swim. The only dead ones are in the skimmer basket. The others seem to float on the surface until they build up their appetite again and return to the flowers.

The phrase 'of Biblical Proportions' comes to mind. Afterall, grasshopper is what the term 'locusts' was referring to!
I think you are braving it well Caro. Have you checked with Tx A&M to see if they have future predictions, or hopefully any other encouraging info?

Carolyn, I feel bad about your roses. I remember the photos you posted last year.

You have my sympathy! (for what that's worth) It's horrible to have plants waste away...An attack of grasshoppers is a real setback.

Is some university or government agency tracking the movement of grasshoppers? I was wondering how fast they are moving across your area. You mentioned that the grasshoppers go to the upper branches of your vitex trees to avoid the turkeys. Will they move on to areas where there are no turkeys?

Thanx for the sympathy, Susan. Its strange about the roses. I've planted quite a few this year. The hoppers seem to be leaving the new ones more or less alone (although there has been some damage), while seriously munching out on the older well-established roses. Of course, there is always the possibility that they just haven't gotten to the new ones yet.

I have no idea whether any governmental agency is tracking the hoppers. The only quick fix for me would be to spray a poison on them, but it would only kill the ones it touched and would have no effect on future generations, who seem to be hatching hourly. Mainly, however, I simply don't use poisons. I use most of the plants I grow for food/tea or medicinal purposes, so poison is not an option.

Yesterday, the baby turkeys were eating hoppers from the plants lining a wall of the garage. I looked up, and the hoppers were almost covering the brick wall. I tried to take a pic, but those little suckers blended in too well with the wall to show up. So, here's one of them lining the branches at the top of the vitex trees.

Just went outside and took these pics.


Grasshoppers on the roses

But, on a brighter note, here is the first bloom of the daylily, Star of David. Isn't it lovely?

Are the hoppers on the vitex resting after their feast? Do they eat any of the woody parts of a plant? Gruesome pics - except for Star of David, which is indeed lovely.

Well, Susan, since you asked........

Here's a pic showing where they have gnawed the stem of the rose bush.


Here's another showing the dangling end of the stem after being gnawed off.


Yes. Gruesome....and sickening....

Ouch! I hope the roses will recover.

Slugs chomp through the main stems of trillium and hosta leaves. I have been leaving the mangled stems on the plant, even though the leaves are lying on the ground and look messy. The plants still seem to get nourishment from those leaves - as long as they are still green).

What will you do with your damaged rose branches?

Carolyn, I can really see the damage the hoppers are doing on these pictures. Ouch!

Your turkeys should be good and fat come Thanksgiving.

Now there's a silver lining in the storm MK !

Trying to understand all this, Caro,
I am thinking that the plague might be explained by remembering how the hoppers ran out of vegetation in the wilds during the past 2 years droughts, causing them to descend upon your cultivated land. Their wild stomping/chomping grounds are lush-enough this year that we wouldn’t expect them to repeat the migration to your ‘greener pastures’, but the last two years immigrants must have left you their offspring – ya think? Or DO they lay eggs that winter-over? Never thought about that one before! bet Gail M could tell us if she drops in.

I bet giant bullfrogs would soon get rid of them Carolyn....lol

In those numbers, I would still worry for the frogs!

I have no idea what's going on, but if anything, its getting worse. I know the local farmers sprayed their crops for grasshoppers. Maybe they all came over here. Most people thought with the rain and cold weather we had this past winter, that there wouldn't be a grasshopper problem this year. Wrong!

The eggs are layed in bare dirt. They overwinter in a sort of gel which is apparently difficult for predators or weather to penetrate. There is no bare soil in the yard area, so the hoppers must have come in from the fields.

I finally covered the rose standards yesterday with garden cloth. The hoppers started in on them 2 days ago. I noticed this morning they are on the clematis (aagh!!!), but no way really to cover that.

Hopefully, at some point, they will go away.

How's your grasshopper herd doing this month Caro?

This used to be an apple tree. Notice the leaves are gone and the hoppers are stripping the bark.


close up of hoppers on something or other


close up of iris

Any questions?

The best advice came from MK who suggested I spend the summer floating in the pool with a nice cool drink in hand.

Let's hope they remain vegetarians.

So books on when to prune are in the bin Carolyn?