Its a "grubby" job but...

Enough of this crazy weather!   I want my garden!  The winter weather is just going to have to leave since I spent hours upon hours planting my garden!  The coldframe or hotbed has been turned into a beautiful, raised herb garden where most of the seedlings can stay for the remainder of the coming summer.  Other seedlings will be transferred to the regular garden or to more raised beds depending on space.  Squash, radishes and green beans take up the rows in the garden while cantaloupes, watermelons and cucumbers will climb (hopefully!) on fences.  My garden space is severely limited and I am required to make use of any areas I can!  Still, the seeds are in the ground and I can breathe a bit easier now.  Michael is planning to dig some more ground as soon as the weather permits and a few other vegetables will be seeded.  For now, I sit wistfully looking at the seed packets with dreams of a lush garden.

While digging around in the dirt, I came across a fat grubworm!  I hear pros and cons about these critters and do not know whether to eliminate them or not.  Just how many grubworms are too many?  First of all, these are not actually worms but rather the larval stage of a beetle.  Some can do severe damage to lawns and gardens but then others are merely there doing their own thing.  I am hoping my grubs are the latter.  Anyway, I decided it was time to see if and what needed to be done about my grubworms.  The City of Fort Worth website has some great information about the critters!  The pictures there identified my grub as the larva of a June Bug.  Now, I like June Bugs!  Yep, I know they can be a nuisance when they fly into the house in the late evening but at least they do not harm anything.  Well..being a June Bug baby really helped this little guy!  He was already ahead of the game of life!  I read down further and found my answer about how many is too many.  The website said that if you find more than four to ten per square foot of sod..GET HELP!  Four to ten per square foot?  I found one in the entire garden!  I feel I am safe from the dreaded Grub Infestation.  My one lonely grubworm was set free to grow into a wonderful June Bug!  I know I will perhaps regret this action later this summer when I am pelted in the head by a June Bug but for now, I can feel like I did my good deed!  Plus, I know that I feel a bit of smug satisfaction over the fact that I did not dump masses of harmful chemicals in my ground trying to eradicate the grubs..or in this case..the grub.