Creepy Crawly

Ah, the life of a Gardenerd.  The variety of experiences that I have had this year are enough to write a... Well, a very small blog with about 11 followers.  =)  I spent some much-needed time in the garden this weekend, as I have been neglecting to do that since I have been working a lot and in charge of mowing the yard.  (YUCK!  Mowing is not gardening, and I do not enjoy it.) 

First up, the Crawly part.

My cauliflower is huge, and still not showing any signs of cauliflower.  I think that might have to do with the fact that it has been plagued with pests of the crawly variety.

Here is the cauliflower.  You can see the holey leaves.  (No, it doesn't go to church.)  The culprits are crawly killer caterpillars. 

Can you see it?  It's kind of like Where's Waldo with insects.  They blend in very nicely and do a lot of damage in a short amount of time.

These little buggers are my nightmare with an organic garden.  I have to hand pick them off, since I am opposed to using pesticides on something I want to eat!

AND, since some of them can be very tiny, this takes a lot of time!

Now for the creepy part... I saw a spider on our back porch which was unique looking.  I decided to take a picture, since it had a very tiny web.

Have I mentioned that I am really scared of spiders?  They creep me out.  But they are a gardeners friend! AND, they are more scared of you than you are of them.  

Yeah right.  Keep telling yourself that if it helps you sleep at night. 

However, in the name of nature, I decided to try to get a good picture of its coloring.  And since the light was poor, I turned on the flash.

Bad idea.  All of the sudden I could see just how vast this spiders' web was.  I slowly backed away and walked into the house.  Every once in a while, I look out the back door.  I think he's watching me.  CREEPY!