Potatoes and the praying mantis

Well the potato plants, which had grown massive and fulminant in June and July, look pretty sparse by now. Last night it dipped down into the cool 50s, so I figured I would start the tearing-down process, an arc of activity that ends in mid-late October, about six weeks from now.

The soil surprised me by how cool it was and even more surprising was my puny crop of potatoes. Lots of good soil, lots of great green growth, not a lotta potatoes. 

Well I'm always writing about how diverse my garden is so I guess I'll shrug off the understated potato performance and brag about our praying mantis. It was tiny when we first saw it in the garden a couple of months ago. Now all grown up and strange looking, the mantis is a success story. 

With so many plants and such diverse spaces, we host a real plethora of insects. The abundance and diversity of the insect community here on Cottage Street is underscored by the praying mantis. A consummate predator of insects, the voracious mantis proves again that there are plenty of good snacks that grow in this garden. It's just that not all of them are for us. So what if our potatoes didn't turn out so wonderfully? There are lots of Jerusalem artichokes, still not yet in bloom, growing under the soil.