Lots of Ladybugs, and one Neighbor Boy to Garden With

This first photo, showing a ladybug larva on a potato plant in my garden at the neighbors', is from June 4th.

The rest of the photos were taken today, some this morning, and some in the evening.  The neighbor boy, who lives where I garden and I have been seeing lots of the larvae.  Lately there have been changes in the little creatures.  I did some research online, and re-learned that the larvae latch onto a plant and turn into pupa, and in a few weeks emerge as ladybugs.

I was amazed today at how many there were, and not all were at the same stage.  They were on all kinds of plants, mostly weeds, but also the potatoes, and even a couple onions!

This evening, when we were going to weed, we even saw a bunch on fences!  I don't think I've seen any here in my yard.  I guess there are benefits of having weeds.  (Last year, it was overgrown with sumac and other volunteer trees and weeds.  They are attempting a return, but I am winning the battle so far.)

I had read where a person should build their stick pile in a criss cross pattern, so we did that this evening.

We decided to put a "roof" on the pile, from a couple branches my husband had trimmed from the tree in the front, where I have some tomatoes and marigolds.  (That's our yard across the street.  My (other) vegetable garden is behind the fence.)

We did pull some weeds, but were careful not to pick the ones the ladybugs were on.  When they are finished with them, we'll get the rest pulled.

I loved the look of anticipation as he was checking the onions to see if they were ready.

My husband carried the alfalfa hay over that I had purchased after remembering to look at the link in my sidebar to Marnie's post about using alfalfa tea on her blog, Lilacs and Roses.  I may have gotten the wrong thing, as this was dehydrated alfalfa hay.  It was to feed horses, though. It should still be good for the plants. 

We just spread it around the pepper and tomato plants so far.  When I said something about people making a tea from the alfalfa, my friend said he could make a "T".  Can you see it?  LOL  It was a fun evening, even if the ladybugs prevented us from getting many of the weeds out.