skeletalization

monsoon-like rain for fifteen or twenty minutes this afternoon...a deluge..then the sun emerged and i went to have a look around the yard...four maize plants in a bucked ( first photo ) are about eight inches tall...not "knee-high by july"...however i was late getting them in...three teosinte plants ( second ) look very corny...he imported wild strawberries ( third and fourth ) are doing fine...ans s o is the bogota market mashua on the trellis ( fifth...the mashua balnca is good as well ) the flowers on the ramps ( sixth ) will , soon enough, come to resemble the ball of onion blooms at the community garden only on a smaller scale...there are many small brussels sprouts ( seventh ) appearing on the plants that survived the winter...the leaf cutter bees have filled another tube in the nesting block ( eighth ) they have been busy...they are, however, not the only busy insects out there...the skeletalized leaves on the yams ( ninth and tenth ) and the grapes in the catalpa tree ( eleventh and twelfth ) could only be the work of one insect...japanese beetles...and i found more than one...so...time for spray bottles of neem oil...but not to day...it just rained/..we will wait...but not for long...time to put a stop to this business.