garden pests

The white foam on garden stems is a spittlebug nursery

June 10, 2026

On a June morning, a garden can seem to have developed a strange habit. White froth appears around a lavender stem, in the fold of a strawberry leaf, or where a blade of grass meets its sheath. It looks freshly blown. Rain does not wash it into streaks, and no snail trail explains how it arrived halfway up a plant.…

The silver tunnels inside leaves

June 8, 2024

By June, a spinach leaf can begin to look as if something has been writing inside it. The surface is still mostly green, still cool from morning watering, but pale lines wander through the tissue in loose loops and narrow bends. They are too clean to be slug damage, too internal to be chewing, and too deliberate-looking to feel random.…