INSECTS IN YOUR YARD

BENIFICAL INSECTS IN YOUR YARD

Butterfly:

Butterflies are the pretties of all the pollinators and they do a great job of improving fruit production, unless you are growing passion fruit. butterflies start out as caterpillars. Caterpillar's just love to eat leaves and passion fruit leaves taste great to the average Caterpillar. I hand pick caterpillar's of my passion fruit and introduce them to my milkweeds

Dragonfly:

Dragonflies in your yard just one of a small list of predators  you will find improving your life style in your garden. if you are lucky to have them visiting you.they eat mosquitoes and moths. Unfortunately they also eat butterflies, which are one of our more productive pollinator's. so, I guess dragonflies are both helpful and harmful if you are trying to retain pollinators.

DRAGONFLY

Bee:

 Bee's are the top pollinators in the world, Honey Bee's are responsible for pollinating the Almond Orchard's in California. Honey Bee's also, pollinate fruit tree's, Herb's and  flowers, beside produce all our honey. Honey Bee's which are not native to the America's and  are not only bee's here. Native to America are the Mason Bee's, which tend to be nicer to home gardener' s as the will not sting unless provoked. 

HoneyBee's

Spider: 

The dreaded Spider, the last thing most gardener's want to see in their yard.  People hate Spider's , yet  he is one of your best friend's. The Spider kills and eats all the other insects that you don't want in your garden without poisoning the world. It is true there are a few that are harmful, but even they help rid your garden from pest's. 

Spider

GOLDEN APPLE

Gold Apple or June Plum (Spondees dulcis) is native to pacific islands where it can grow to 60 feet. I expect mine to grow to 30 or 40 feet in florida.  I planted mine and in less then 6 months it flowered and fruited. This tree with lots of fruit on it is only 2 1/2 feet tall. Can you imagine how much fruit it will hold when it is 10 or 20 feet tall. Some people eat it while still green. they just add a little salt or sugar. I'm inclined to wait until it turns yellow and ripens, at this point it can be made into  a jam or eaten out of hand. the leaves are used to season meat or chicken. I received it as a gift from my friend Du, who has a few acres not far from me in which he plants tropical fruit trees.

Golden Apple Flowering

                         

Golden Apple with Fruit