It must be mid August, because the great golden digger wasps have shown up, as usual. They are especially fond of Asclepias fascicularis, the narrow-leaf milkweed, and together the milkweed and wasp make a striking display. There are more of them this year than I have ever seen, probably because we have milkweeds naturalizing all over the farm.
This is just another example of the ecological richness that a diversity of native plants brings to a piece of ground. This farm was grass seed and corn and some tired cherry laurel pots parked on sprayed-out gravel when Sara and I bought it. Now it’s a world full of interesting plants and critters. You just never know what you’ll see next here. And we still manage to make a living. We don’t have to kill everything to have productive farms and nurseries. It just isn’t so.
Both male and female digger wasps are out and about pollinating milkweeds and other late-blooming flowers right now. The males lack stingers and the females are not aggressive. Females capture grasshoppers and katydids to provision their young, which they rear in ground nests. If you want to invite some of these big, beautiful and harmless wasps to your property, order up some narrow-leaf milkweed! We still have about 1500 available.