Over the weekend the Man and I spent more time working on our soon-to-be apple tree beds.
The soil on our block of land is not very plant friendly, it is sloping and mostly composed of clay doing its best to mimic concrete. NOT helpful when all you want to do is dig a hole and stick a tree in.
For some reason, which seemed very logical at the time, the Man and I decided that the steepest part of the garden that runs along one fenceline would be the best place to put our new fruit garden. Hmmmm… that means lots of pine sleepers, heavy-duty uprights (expensive!) and stump digging. Did I mention that there are already a handful of bedraggled old ti-trees growing there?
Well, after two full weekends of work we aren’t anywhere near finished but have two high beds built and between them a low bed for other things like strawberries (we haven’t decided what will go in there yet). My arms are also very tired from digging in fertilizer!
While we were grubbing around we disturbed heaps of different critters. Some that made me say eeek!, and there was one scarily long hole that would have easily fit a broomstick in. My digging followed it along for about six feet and I was very glad that I didn’t need to keep on digging and find out who was living in it.
After coming across these critters alongside the beetle which they will morph into I couldn’t resist taking a photo. Thanks to Number 1 for holding them for me and only dropping the beetle once. 🙂
I think these guys are the larvae of Passalid beetles but we call them curl grubs. They have large pincers at the front of their face that look like they could give you a nasty nip, but the worst they will do is have a gentle taste of your hand. If you were a piece of rotting wood you would be in danger but clearly they don’t have the taste for flesh… 😉 Anytime we are digging here we constantly come across them, most people have worms, we have grubs!
I wish they were worms!
I’ve seen grubs like ths before, I thought they were witchetty grubs, and I never knew they became a cool looking beetle. I don;t know that I’d want to hold a grub, the bettle is ok. We have hard clay soil at TA too, but only a thin layer… over ridge gravel. The landscape looks so verdant but its just on the surface. Luckily trees and plants are tougher than we think they are.
The grubs do feel strange, they aren’t slimy just unpleasantly dry and fleshy.
Your clay is over gravel? Ugh, even harder to dig holes in. The Man bought a hole digger ages ago after digging one too many holes by hand and deciding he would avoid it altogether in the future. 😀
You’re right, plants are very resilient aren’t they.
Big lads!
The chooks love the big fat ones too….. 🙂
We get these too. I’ve often found them in pot plants. Now I know what they are. Thanks 🙂
They seem incapable of anything other than lying there curled up don’t they? It amazes me how they can actually even eat, their faces seem like they are permanently pressed against their bottoms! 🙂
Lol, I never thought of it that way 🙂
Six feet along a broomstick tunnel sounds scary – I wouldn’t have been to upset to find it swerved away either! 🙂
I was a little afraid of what I would disturb with my shovel. I expect it was just an ambitious land yabbie but….. Number 1 was digging with me at the time and I told him “If I shout run, just run”. 😀
I swear I don’t know how anything survives around here. I find the odd worm in my garden beds coz they are sort of moist but you won’t find many worms doing their thing in Warrandyte. Haven’t seen any of those grubs though. That’s probably why we don’t get many beetles. We do have a lot of spiders and bullants though. -sigh-
Worms are so precious here that I keep a container with me when I dig in case I come across one. It is carefully placed in the container and then moved to a needy veg garden! I have though about buying some to see if that helps.
Spiders and bull ants, Grrrrr…. The apple beds are right near a jumping jack nest so the first bit of digging was slow going with one of us keeping lookout with a pointy stick.
Yuck, yuck, yuck. Very un-pc of me but you couldn’t get rid of the jumping jacks?
Don’t think we haven’t tried!! All of the other types of ants have taken the hint and moved a decent distance from the house. The chemical warfare goes on against the jumping jacks, one day we will win. Either that, or a giant mutant ant will erupt from under ground and kill us all just like a scene from Starship Troopers. 😀
lmao – Don’t you send that giant mutant ant over here! I’ve suffered far too many rashes from small critters in my garden to want a big one!
Don’t worry, if it starts coming your way you’ll know all about it! This is my mental picture of what will happen on that fateful day. 😀
Ugh. *gags* I was munching on my breakfast when I seen your photo in my feed. 😉
😀 sorry about that!