Our New Garden Plot!

Hello again!

As you may remember, our little garden at home is approximately 300 square feet.  We've always done well with the space. Last year, we harvested 315 pounds of produce from the plot. We both felt that it was quite a success. One of the crops we grew was butternut squash.  When I bought the seeds, I just assumed it took up only as much space as the summer squash we plant each year.  That was definitely not the case! It pretty much overwhelmed the rest of the garden by its very large size, spreading 20 foot vines in all directions!

BUT, we really liked having that late season butternut squash nearly into November. Which, as dangerous as it may seem (cue up the "scary movie" music), got us to  thinking.

What if.....we had more space? Hmmmm. We'd be able to grow the butternut, or even two of them. And how about some acorn squash! And delicata squash! And pumpkins!  And ornamental gourds! And, if we had enough space, some extra onions and even carrots! All are very space consuming late season items (except the onions and carrots). Always, the wise and practical one, Lois didn't think my idea of annexing our neighbor's backyard would work. But then, like the proverbial "bolt out of the blue", she suggested that we could rent a garden plot at the county park!

So today, we did just that. Our plot will be 20' x 20' which more than doubles our garden space. And for only $20!  (They also have 20' x 40' plots for $25.)  We were quite lucky to get one. The plots become available on March 1 and nearly all of smaller ones were rented. The program allows gardens to begin on April 15th.  The ground has already been plowed. So now the planning begins. 

We rented a plot many years ago. We were both working. Charles was still young and living with us. It was just too much trouble to get there after working all day so we pretty much left it alone. But since time is no longer an issue, we can enjoy the luxury of being able to care for the new plot as is needed. An additional huge plus is that the park is only ten minutes from our home and water is available at the site. You can even park your car in front of the plot!

So those of you who are space challenged, you may want to look into your county and/or other possible sources for community garden plots for rent. In PA, we have counties, and we have townships, and we have boroughs, and we have towns, and we have many school districts - all with their own organizations, rules, ordinances, and services. (Lancaster County PA alone has 60+ separate government or school related entities. It's really awful compared to MD) So, if your property happens to have a herd of browsing deer like someone I know, or you're in an apartment, search your local resources for the opportunity to get out, get some fresh air and grow some of your own food.

I hope to see you here again soon!

This and That

Hi and welcome back!

I'm not much for plugging products, etc., but I can't help it this time. The latest issue of Mother Earth News (April/May 2011) is really excellent. There's loads of good information in it for any gardener. It's $5.99 at a newstand, but you might be able to check it out at your local library.

The lettuce we started in peat pots is progressing nicely, if what seems to be very slowly. They really want to be outside all day in the sun.

The lettuce and spinach planted in the ground is doing well in spite of being heavily covered each evening to ward off the overnight cold. This cold snap has lasted longer than last year's late March cold. Some of the plants are a little flattened by the coverings, but I'm sure they'll bounce back when the blankets come off for good.

And in spite of the cold, things just keep popping up! The sprout below is a "baby" raspberry plant. Raspberries send out runners using their root systems. And they are quite prolific! If all the runners were allowed to survive, this garden area would be a dense briar patch by this time next year. Raspberry runners have even gone under our four inch deep concrete sidewalk and popped up on the other side in the strawberry patch!

The peony sprouts broke through the ground over the past few days. They'll bloom in May.

And the strawberry runners, which spread on top of the ground unlike the habit of raspberries, are responding to the sunshine now.

I'd be very interested in hearing from you regarding topics you'd like me to cover. Email me or leave a comment below with your question or idea.  Thanks & I'll be back later in the week.

Your Garden's Good Guys!

 Thanks so much for dropping in!                                                  

One of the goals of creating or continuing your home garden is to reach, to the extent
possible, an organic or natural  balance which allows you to grow and harvest as much produce as possible without using harmful chemicals. You want to have a garden regimen that avoids chemical residues on fruit and vegetables you don't want your family to ingest and, chemical residue in water runoff you don't want fouling local streams and rivers.  An important factor in that balance is helping nature to balance itself when we've skewed its self regulating processes.  You can help re-create this balance by providing a hospitable environment for "the good garden guys" to counteract the bad guys.

                             Ladybugs - One of the beneficial insects for your garden.

The difficulty here is that the pests are total opportunists exploiting nearly any situation they find themselves in. The "good guys" need a more hospitable environment. In many cases, the dream lawn on one extreme and the trashy vacant lot on the other both favor the opportunists. The first is too sterile to attract the beneficial insects while the weed infested area overwhelmingly encourages pests. Gardeners have to strive for a balance between the two.

                                      Black swallowtail on red giant zinnia.

In my March 23, 2011 post  "Infamous Garden Guests"  I discussed using  pest controls that do not involve spreading chemicals or poisons. Another important factor in pest control is insuring that your vegetable garden has enough attractive plantings to bring in the natural enemies of the pests. Companion plantings in the vegetable garden area should concentrate on the brighter flowers in red, orange and yellow colors. I find that giant zinnias (annuals) are easy to grow, produce large bright blossoms and attract loads of beneficial insects. I also have plantings of bee balm and echinacia (aka coneflower) which are perennials. In addition, I have a variety of other flowering plants such as blanket flower, irises, assorted wildflowers, peonies, etc.

One of the plants I regularly put in the garden is somewhat the opposite of the flowers named above. That plant is the marigold. I plant these for the sole reason that so many pests hate the smell of them and stay away from the area. I generally put marigolds in spots where I might be planting bush beans and snap peas. Marigolds come in both bush and giant varieties.

                                                    Echinacea (aka coneflower)


I often use controls, particularly insecticidal soap (home made: 1 - 2 tablespoons regular dish washing liquid in a quart of water) when the beneficial population is not yet strong enough to help out. Apply with common spray spray bottle when some pest population gets out of control. This allows spot treatments of a non "chemical" product  and/or poisons, rather than indiscriminate blanket spray to control the unwanted visitors and everything else in its path.

                                                               Bee Balm
                                                           
Will you have some damage going this route?  Very probably yes. Will your fruits and vegetables all have  "supermarket" perfect appearance. Probably not.  But, you should derive a great deal of satisfaction that you have grown them and you've done no harm (to borrow a vow from the medical profession).

All that being said, here's a short list of common garden helpers you should encourage to visit your plot:

Bats - They take flight at dusk and have a huge appetite for mosquitoes, which is a good thing in your garden due to the fact that mosquitoes favor sucking your blood rather than hunting aphids. Some folks put bat houses in their yards to attract these guys. Like most old cities with lots of church belfries, my neighborhood seems to have a healthy supply of bats without my providing housing. And, obviously, you don't want them inside your home.

Bumble bees - Very busy pollinators. They can sting, but you really have to agitate them to do so. They are not short tempered like hornets.

Damselflies - Like dragonflies (below), but fold their wings against their bodies rather than keep them outstretched. Have same appetites as dragonflies.

                                      Dragonfly protecting our snap peas last June.

Dragonflies - Feast on ants, gnats, mayflies, midges and more. Attracted to spots with water, so keep a birdbath or two filled with clean water all summer long.

Garden snakes (aka garter snakes, aka gardener snakes) - Like many snakes, they will eat whatever they're big enough to catch. Garden snakes are one of my favorites because the really like slugs! I usually see one or two of these snakes in our garden over the summer.

Honey bees - We see very few here anymore due to colony collapse disease. A much missed pollinator.

Ladybugs - They especially like to feast on aphids. *See note below.

                                                                    Lacewing

Lacewings - Feast on aphids, mealy bugs, mayflies and thrips. The larvae of lacewings are often called "aphid lions" for their love of aphids at breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

                                                    Young praying mantis


Praying mantis - These very patient but lightning fast guys are stone cold killers of nearly any pest that might show up in your garden.

Spiders - Some spiders spin webs to catch prey and others do not. You probably have both in your garden and they should be welcomed. They will pretty much eat whatever insects they can catch, so you have to hope they snag the bad guys.

Syrphid flies - These excellent pollinators are sometimes confused with honey bees. The seem to be much more prevalent than I may have realized in the past, and may be filling the void left by the loss of honey bees.

*A caution on buying "beneficial" insects to control pests in your garden:  In theory, this isn't a bad idea if you have a shortage of ladybugs, etc.. I tried it myself some years ago. The key to trying to increase these populations is timing. If you purchase the insects too early in the season, your new insect buddies will find that your garden doesn't yet have a large enough pest population to support them. If that happens, your purchase will fly off in search of better hunting grounds. In my case, I think I would have fared much better if I had made the purchase in mid June, as opposed to mid May.

I'll see you again soon and I HOPE the weather turns warmer by then!

A Cold Day's Gardening Chores

Hello again!

Yesterday afternoon, I spent time fortifying our already planted beds - peas, spinach and lettuce. In each case, I pulled the blankets off and added a thick layer of newspaper to increase the insulation value. With no warming sun, and a predicted very cold night, the extra heat saved would be very much needed.

Well, we clearly had a hard frost overnight.  This morning, the mulch in the walking areas of the garden were frozen solid as was the soil, at least the first few inches, in the open beds. As you can see above, the birdbath was a cake of ice through-and-through. The good news was that the dark green quilt over the bed of peas held the temperature on the underside to 36 f which was a relief. In peeking under the blankets, I could see that the spinach and lettuce had survived as well.

With a good deal of sun today, I covered some of the protected areas with black plastic trash bags. The sun beating on the dark plastic will raise the temperature in the coverings and soil for another cold night tonight. Today's high temp here was 42 f.. There's no doubt in my mind that it will drop very quickly after sunset. But, as I wrote a few weeks ago, this is the chance a gardener takes when starting early in the spring.  It's definitely a gamble!

It looks like the hyacynths will survive the cold snap, but clearly have some damage.

Taking a break from the cold outside, I remembered that Mike B. started some tomato plants earlier this week. So, I thought I'd get mine done too.  It's definitely time! Just 5 weeks or so until planting time. Shown below are 2 yellow tomatoes, 2 better boy tomatoes, 2 chianti rose tomatoes, 1 each of jade, yellow, and emerald squash; 1 each of red, gold and orange peppers,  2 cucumbers, and 1 catnip. Now I just have to hope for many days of bright sunshine. 

I hope to see you here again soon. Next time: Your Garden's Good Guys!

Infamous Garden Guests, Part 2

Welcome back! 

As promised, here's a list of garden pests that I've gotten to know personally and the remedies I use to TRY to control them. It's certainly not all inclusive. Readers may have experience with pests that I fortunately do not have.  If so, please feel free to use the comments button below to add your favorite pests to the list.

              Our garden June 21, 2010. There's room for plenty of pests out there!

Ants -
I've had very few problems with ants. The one exception is a raised bed where we grow some of our strawberries. The ants have been kind enough to use the top of the lumber as a pathway to the berries. I sprinkle diatomaceous earth (finely ground shells of a sea creature which are deadly sharp edged and slice through the ant's soft body) along their path. They instinctively avoid the stuff and, therefore, the plants needing protection. It can also be spread directly on the soil. Although diatomaceous earth is not likely to cut through human flesh, I would be wary of getting it in eyes or inhaling it through the nose or mouth.  Also, it must be replenished after a rain or on windy days. Although I've never tried it, insecticidal soap would surely work since ants are soft bodied creatures. And, there are commercial ant traps which fool ants into thinking they've found food (bait). They enter the trap, become covered with an insecticide (poison) and return to the colony. The poison rubs off on other ants and kills them as well. I can't comment on the traps as I have never used one, but I don't think they'd be a good idea around curious children or your pets.

Aphids -
A few aphids on a plant wouldn't appear to pose a big problem. The real problem with aphids is that they seem to multiply at the speed of light!  And then they are a problem - hundreds of little mouths sucking the fluids out of your plants. A full blown infestation can easily ruin your garden. These green plant vampires are easy to find, however; although they are small, they gather in large feeding groups.  Make a habit of inspecting plant buds and the under side of flower and vegetable plant leaves (also look for orange spots on the underside of squash leaves & spray them too).  When you find them, spray with a commercial or homemade insecticidal soap. Death is pretty much instantaneous.

Asparagus beetle -
I haven't had a problem with these attacking our asparagus during the season, but I did see them late in August feeding on the wispy asparagus ferns. That probably means I will see them earlier this year tasting the asparagus spears that we will harvest. Insecticidal soap took care of them last year.

Caterpillars -
 The only caterpillars I've paid much attention too are the white butterfly caterpillars. They love nothing more than a nice cabbage plant, but will settle for broccoli as a good substitute. Space considerations made me give up those two vegetables, but I still see them from time-to-time as well as their black droppings at the top of other plants they are feasting on. Insecticidal soap takes care of them. (Also, see cut worms below.)

Cicadas -
I've had a few cicadas every year, but there have never been enough of them to do any large scale damage. I just annoy them so they fly off into my neighbor's yard.

Cucumber beetles -
These little flying critters look very much like a ladybug except they are a bright green. Some have black spots while others sport black stripes. I haven't had a lot of problems with them. When I do find one, I spray it with insecticidal soap.

Cut worms -
These little monsters bring about disappointment and anger among gardeners everywhere year-after-year. It's disheartening to visit the garden the morning after first putting plants in the bed only to find some of them chopped off at the base of the stem....I know!  Cut worms look like white butterfly (cabbage) caterpillars except they are a brown color.  They are the larvae of the cutworm moth, a common, plain brown, and very unattractive night flying moth. The cutworm is a nocturnal creature like its parents. It travels across the ground and bites off the stem of a variety of plants right at ground level. My problem with them has always been my tomato plants. My problems pretty much ended when I began spreading wood ash around the plants. I also fashion collars from plastic cups by cutting out the bottom of the cup and slipping it over the new plant. I then push it an inch or so into the soil. A 3" or 4" collar will do. The combination of the acidic ash and collar seems to have solved the problem.

Japanese beetles -
See my post "Time To Battle Beetles", March 14, 2011

Opossums -
Ah, yes....North Americas only marsupial! I know I had some small amount of possum damage last year. Seems they really like ripe tomatoes! I found out where it was entering the garden, put up a block and didn't suffer any great damage. That being said, I know it has grown into an adult since then (see picture above) and that it can clearly scale a six foot fence! So, once the tomatoes begin to mature, I'll be ringing each plant with some wire fencing. If worse come to worse, it may need to be safely relocated, but that is truly a last resort.  After all, in addition to tomatoes, opossums love eating SLUGS!

Slugs -
 Did someone mention slugs??
 Does anyone like these things? Beside opossums?

On some warm nights, it seems like slugs are everywhere! Never, ever walk barefoot outside on a summer evening! The do plenty of damage in a vegetable garden, that's for sure. I'm not sure if I know any vegetable or fruit that slugs don't like. For many years, I've poured a small amount of salt on slugs. It's a vicarious thrill watching them melt. I've also used beer traps. I have the convenience of a never ending supply of small cat food cans. This type of can is perfect for the slug beer trap. It seems slugs are attracted to the yeast in beer. Fill a small can, such as a tuna or cat food can, with beer and press it lightly into the soil in the evening. If you have slugs or snails in your garden, you will find some who have drowned in the beer overnight. It's not a pretty sight, believe me. Empty and fill again in the evening, continuing as long as needed, or your beer budget holds out.

I've also begun using a pelletized slug bait. It is a natural, but non poisonous (to humans) product, but I wouldn't want toddlers to have access to it. The bait contains an iron phosphate. The slug is attracted to the bait, eats it, and is sickened by the iron phosphate. The slug is unable to eat, goes into hiding and dies within a few days or a week. The pellets are quite small and naturally decay to become part of the soil (as do the victims).


Snails - See Slugs, above.

Squash bugs -
If you've seen Chinese stink bugs in your house over the winter, you know what the squash bug looks like. The nasty thing about the squash bug is the its saliva contains a poison which causes the plant it's feeding on to blacken and die. I've used a non-organic product on them in the past, but spraying them with insecticidal soap will get them. They will lay small orange eggs on the underside of leaves. You should be looking for them and spray them as well. Dusting the leaves with wood ash or garden lime will also help

Squash vine borers -
These guys may be the ones that I dislike the most. That's because you never see them coming! The adult, which looks like a wasp with an orange body and black spots. The adult lays eggs in the garden area. Over the course of the year, the eggs hatch, and through several stages become a grub by the following summer. As July comes around, they become active, leaving the soil to feed on the main vine of squash plants. You will know you have them one day when you go to your garden and the leaves are suddenly drooping in the afternoon. If unchecked, the plant will collapse and die in a few days time.

When you see this first sign, immediately look at the plant stem just where it comes out of the ground. You will probably see a rough looking orange/brown area near the base of the central vine. This rough discolored area consists of "frass", which is spittle the borer leaves behind as it chews its way up the main stem. Now look for a soft spot and an opening in that area. That will be where the borer entered the vine. Gently press up the vine. You will generally be able to tell how far the borer has moved up the inside the vine. When you reach the area that is still hard and green, you've found the likely area where the borer will be found. However, there may be more than one borer in the vine.

The next step is to get a straight pin or sewing needle. Starting at the point where the borer entered the plant vine, begin poking holes through the vine. I've done this numerous times. Jab through several times every inch, from different angles, going up the vine until you reach the unaffected area. If you're lucky, you will see that you've struck the beast by a flow of brown/black fluid running out of the entry point. But, that does not always happpen. (Other gardeners use a razor knife and carefully open the stem by making an incicion lengthways up the stem.) After you feel reasonably sure you've hit your target(s), you will get a bucket of dirt and bury the stem area up to the undamaged point. This soil will now be watered daily for a week, or more, to let the plant establish new roots and begin supplying the plant with water that was cut off by the borer's damaging activity.

As a final note on squash vine borers, the first time they happened to me, I had no idea what was going on. When I pulled the dead plant from the ground five or six grubs tumbled out of the vine.  In addition, I have added beneficial nematodes to the soil since I seem prone to this problem. These guys feed on the borers. Last season I had a problem with two plants, but not all four. The two plants survived, after sewing needle surgery, until the end of the season.

I hope to see you again soon!

Infamous Garden Visitors, Part 1

Thanks for coming by. I appreciate it!

It's very easy to dislike some of the visitors that make their appearances in our gardens every growing season. They start dropping in just as soon as the weather provides even a tiny hint of warmth. After all, many of them have been in or on  the very cold soil all winter. They really aren't too different than me in that respect! They just want to get out of their shelters and bask in the sun. Well, most of them anyway - some will only come out to bask in the moonlight, or on overcast damp days as seen in the picture below.

   Soft bodied snail (center) looking for a snack 3/21/11 - temperature 44 f and light rain.

Unfortunately, these pests will visit whether we welcome them or not. I've realized over the years that they cannot be avoided completely. It's like having a wonderful relative who visits from time-to-time and, on some of those occasions, drags the forever cranky, negative aunt Tulip along with her. We learn to live with the situation in the spirit of harmony. Our gardens are the same. We must learn to live with the bad guys as well as the good friends who visit our little plot. The key is to keep the situation in balance.

Over the past 70 years or so, the chemical industry has provided an ongoing flood of both dry and liquid compounds designed to kill farm and garden pests. The trouble with many or most of these products is that they were non-selective. They killed pretty nearly all the insects in the area, both good and bad. And, among the worst of them, DDT not only killed insects, it also nearly wiped out the bald eagle population of the United States.

                About 33% of the arsenic available in the world is a 100% natural product.


More recently, I've seen a host of "natural" and "organic" products enter the market. That is a good thing, but not necessarily all good. Poison ivy is all natural, but I'm not going to stick my arm in a patch of it. The simple fact is that some poisons are really quite natural and used in commercial insecticides. Pyrethrum based insecticides are a good example. Pyrethrums are a poisonous, but natural substance derived from certain varieties of chrysanthemums. They are, however, harmful to humans and highly toxic to cats. Some forms of these substances linger where they are applied for as long as 30 days after application. You may not want to apply them directly on your garden's fruit or vegetables. One container I read also warned to not allow this natural product to get into ponds or waterways containing fish. And, of course, they do an effective job of killing bugs.  So what are gardeners to do when the pest guests arrive?  Use these products very judiciously or find alternatives that do not contain poisons.

In my next post, I'll list the common garden pests I'm most familiar with and detail what I do to combat them.

See you soon!

An Experiment

In my post regarding cloches, I mentioned that I also keep some old blankets to protect beds from frost damage early in the spring. Although I've covered plants to protect them from a frost in years past, I've never tracked the temperature differential between the "outside" world and the cozy world under the blanket. So last night, with the threat of frost overnight in Lancaster, I tracked the temperature movement for a few hours in the bed of peas Lois planted on the 17th. 

The peas were covered before dark last night as the temps began to drop.The old quilt is folded over into a pad four thicknesses deep. After dark, I took a thermometer out to the garden and let it run down to the outside temperature. As you can see, at 8:50 p.m. it was 43.2 degrees outside the blanket.

I then tucked the thermometer under the blanket. I left it in place until 9:40....

and it registered a temp of 49.5.  I continued recording the temperatures until 11:45 p.m. They looked like this:
10:04 - 39.6 outside the blanket
10:50 - 45.7 under the blanket
11:13 - 37.1 outside
11:45 - 45.4 under

This morning, I went out just after 9:00 a.m. which is before the sun has reached the garden. There was a light coating of frost on top of the blanket testifying to a 32 degree or lower point overnight. The temperature under the blanket was 39.6

So the blanket seems to maintain a roughly 7 degree higher temperature over the seeded bed.

Keep those old blankets handy if you've got seeds out. They clearly perform well at keeping the stored heat over seeds and seedlings.

I can't make up my mind if I want to talk about garden "good guys" and pests or building a compost heap next. Anyone have a preference?  See you again soon. Thanks for stopping by!

Sure & Begorrah It Was A Day For the Plantin o' the Peas!

Hello again! I hope you all survived your St. Patty's Day shenanigans!

I had originally thought we'd plant the sugar snap peas this coming weekend, but the weather was just too perfect today (3/17).   I couldn't help myself. The early temps were moving toward the fifties and the sun was shining brightly. After a morning of cleaning up the irises and lots of other debris, I had to get the peas in the ground. That wasn't as simple as it sounds, but after turning the soil and top dressing with a few inches of new soil, it was ready. We actually planted the seeds in 2 beds totalling 15 feet. Peas are planted at 2" intervals, so there will be 48 plants in the 8' row and another 42 in the 7' row. Lois is finished planting the 8' row in the picture above. This variety grows to about 5' tall so the rows will be trellised in some fashion to support the vines as they grow. Last year's snap pea planting provided 8.5 pounds of peas.

The weather will hold for about a week, but there promises to be some frost late next week, so the rows will need to be protected. We had the same situation last year (we planted peas on March 16, 2010) and on the 26th and 27th we had frosts that the peas survived with the help of old blankets. The blankets are ready if needed again this year.

Today (3/18), we received the dwarf blueberry bushes we ordered in January. I picked up 2 bags (40 lbs each) of topsoil and 2 new containers. After filling the containers and planting the bushes, I topped them off with a mulch of oak leaves and Alberta Spruce needles. This will help in two ways: the plants like to stay moist (but not wet). The oak leaves and regular light watering will provide that. And they like an acidic soil which the spruce needles, in addition to the oak leaves, will provide as they break down in the moist environment. (There was about 25 pounds of soil leftover which I used to dress another bed.) This variety is a mid sized dwarf bush, not the smallest of dwarf varieties. I'll have to look at it next year to see if they need larger pots.

And late in the morning, I noticed that some of the yellow crocus plants are beginning to bloom!

Mike B. sent a message telling me he has started peat pots with some Big Red and Bulgarian tomato seeds saved from last year's garden. It's his first attempt at starting tomatoes from seed. I wonder if they have cross pollinated into a Big Red Bulgarian? Good luck with that Mike! So, what are the rest of the gardener readers doing? I really enjoy hearing that kind of news!

Have a great weekend!  I'll see you again on Sunday or Monday.

Odds 'n' Ends

Thanks for stopping back!

I was outside in the garden early in the week cleaning up winter debris when I noticed a small flock of geese flying north over Lancaster. Simultaneously, a little one engine airplane came into view flying south over the city. Three of the geese broke from the flock, banked,  and started to follow the plane. I watched, and for as long as I could see them, the three geese were still flying several hundred feet behind the plane!

                                                         ******
                                 
Helleborus is among the first plants to bloom in the new year. This plant is a little strained this year. It doesn't seem to have cared very much for my moving it last year to make way for some strawberry plants. In the past, it bloomed in late February, so it's at least two weeks late this year. The new location isn't as sunny as the previous spot so I'm sure that caused the fall off in both foliage and flowers as well as bloom time.

                                                          Helleborus

                                                              *****
If you happen to be cleaning up or pruning shrubs or berry bushes in the fall or spring, and stumble on something that looks like icky brown cotton candy (except it's dried), don't toss it in the compost heap or trash. See the picture below. This is a praying mantis egg case just waiting for warm weather to hatch out as many as a hundred baby mantises to help you control pests in your garden.

                                      Praying mantis egg case, center.
                                                         
                                                        ******

The garden centers had the first "cold weather" plants out for sale yesterday, March 15.....right on time! So between yesterday and today, I've planted the first 8 foot row of spinach, leaf lettuce and romaine lettuce, 16 plants in all. The lettuce and spinach I started from seed earlier this month is taking its time getting to a stage where I'd put it in the ground.

                                              
                                                              ******

Mica, the Semi Stray Cat, got quite bored watching me putting in the lettuce and spinach. He sauntered over to the rose bed, and in 40 degree weather took an hour long nap.  He's no help whatsoever!

                                      MTSSC naps in the garden mulch

                                                          ******

With the weather entering a warming phase over the next few days, I'll be planting sugar pod peas directly into the garden bed, probably this weekend. And, it wont be too many days now before I start some seeds for the summer vegetable garden....squash and tomatoes. I'm using peat pots again this year. Last year, the plants I started in  fiber (coconut?) pots seemed to experience stunted growth due to roots struggling to pass through the fiber. Did anyone else have this problem?

                            Some of the fiber pots I used to start seeds last year.

Happy St. Pactrick's Day to all of you of Irish descent, and also to those of you who just pretend to be Irish for the day. What the heck! I pretend to be Mexican on Cinco de Mayo!

Now's The Time To Battle Beetles!

I know it's only March and spring hasn't arrived quite yet, but the time to strike against Japanese beetles is now....or really soon. The first time each year we usually think of beetles is that day in mid  July when they arrive in hordes to attack our roses and any other living green thing we may have in our gardens. They seem to appear out of nowhere, a living dark cloud of ravenous creatures right out of some 1950's horror movie. That, however, is not the case.

                                      Japanese beetle doing what it does best!
                         (Photo credit: Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station)

As it turns out, they've been in your lawn and garden all along since last summer. The life cycle goes something like this: mom beetle digs tunnels in soil and lays numerous batches of as many as 50 eggs per batch; the eggs hatch and over the course of the next twelve months the beetle-to-be goes through various stages. The entire time they are underground, except when the ground is frozen, they are feeding on live  roots and debris, such as leaves.

                        Japanese beetle grub. (Photo credit Safer Brand organic products.)

The process of feeding begins as soon as the eggs hatch which is why you may see brown patches on your lawn beginning in late August. If you pull up the patches, you will find they come out easily because the roots are gone. Underneath, you may find the grubs which are causing the damage and have the satisfaction of destroying them. Japanese beetle grubs can be found in vegetable and flower gardens, as well as on lawns.

As adults, Japanese beetles will feed on your flowers, your rose bushes, and your vegetable plants. Your war on beetles should be two phased: one phase now and one when they make their appearance over the summer. Phase one is to treat your lawn and garden soil with milky spore, a natural organic product. Other products can be found by searching "beneficial nematodes" which work in a similar manner. When applied, the live spores feed on grubs and multiply themselves in the process. The grubs die after a week or so. When the grubs die, they release more of the spores. It apparently takes up to three years for the treatment to become fully effective, but it may have some immediate impact as well.

                            We had a nearly beetle free summer last year!

Phase two will occur when they adults arrive to feed on your garden plants. You will need to spend time actively killing the adult beetles you find on your plants. This will certainly keep them from reproducing. Some gardeners fill a small bucket with soapy water (liquid dish detergent will do quite well) hand pick the critters off the plants and toss them in the soapy water which kills the beetles. Or, you can purchase a spray bottle of insecticidal soap and just spray the bugs and watch them drop to the ground. You can also make your own insecticidal soap - just buy a cheap spray bottle, add 1 or 2 tablespoons of dish detergent to a quart of water, fill the bottle and use as needed. Do not use a larger amount of soap. Doing so will kill the beetles, but also damage your plant. These soaps are also quite useful on all sorts of soft body garden pests, such as aphids, snails, slugs and more.

One final note:  Beetle traps, which use pheromones to attract beetles are only useful if everyone in your neighborhood is using them. If that is not the case, all you will be doing is attracting beetles from your neighbors' yards into yours and they will probably stop for lunch in your rose garden before the lure attracts them.

So how bad were the Japanese beetles in your yard and garden last year? I'm curious to know since I had so few.  It will help me to know what you experienced.

I hope to see you back here in a few days!

Grow Some Herbs This Season

Spring just keeps getting closer & closer!  Just 8 more days! It's time to make that garden center shopping list. Various herbs will be on my list and I hope yours, too. With Buffet possibly looking at buying the McCormick spice company, we definitely need to find the secret source for Old Bay seeds, right? Hopefully, Buffet wont take the whole operation to Margaritaville....never mind. I've got my Buffets mixed up.

Lavender (shown above) can be used to make a cup of tea, sachets, soap, potpourris, and  many home remedies.

Last year, we grew a nice variety of herbs which we were able to cut and dry in the fall. (see post of March 3, 2011) The lineup went like this:  basil, bee balm, catnip, chives, cilantro, dill, echinacea, lavender, lemon balm, marjoram, oregano, parsley, peppermint, rosemary, sage, french tarragon, and thyme.

         Echinacea, above, attracts lots of pollinators. It's root also has home remedy uses.

Whether you start your herbs from seed or buy single plants, you will find that they thrive in a sunny spot with just average soil and require little care except for watering as needed. They will do well in a corner of a garden plot or do just as well in a flower pot or other container. Nearly all of ours are grown in pots or containers. Only the lavender plant (6 years old now) is in the garden itself.

                                  Bee balm attracts lots of pollinators, too.

I've always had difficulty starting some herbs from seed and found it easier and more successful to buy plants at the garden center. Basil has always defeated my attempts to grow it from seed. I've given up trying & just buy two plants which is all we need anyway. Marjoram seed is so minutely tiny that I think I've planted it too deep in the past and it failed to grow. The same can be said of french tarragon and thyme.

These chives have just popped back up in the past two weeks. They wintered over outside in the container.

The herbs I've started from seed are catnip, chives, cilantro, dill, oregano, and parsley. They start easily and grow quickly. I buy the following herbs as small plants in the spring and all are in a containers of some type except the lavender: lavender (a one time only purchase) lemon balm, marjoram, peppermint (unless it pops back up this spring), rosemary (same plant has been in a container for at least 3 years), sage (same plant in a pot for 2 years), french tarragon, and thyme. The chives in the picture above are in their second year. I bought bee balm and echinacea as plants but use them only to attract bees and butterflies. They are perennials returning each year so there's only a need to buy them one time.

                       Herbs growing in containers on a back stairway to our house.

Some of the above, are definitely invasive plants best suited to be grown on a porch or patio, rather than in a garden bed, or in pots/containers which might be placed on a lawn area. Peppermint sends out roots into the area surrounding it which sprout and continually increase its area. Chives and lemon balm spread huge numbers of seeds which pop up nearly everywhere. Catnip easily re-seeds itself - it's a member of the mint family. Oregano spreads by its roots in much the same way as peppermint, but maybe not as aggressively. Sage does not spread so much as it just gets really BIG in several years unless contained in a pot.

A note on the chives: they seem to change in their third year from a grassy  looking plant to a plant with flat, wide leaves/stems. The plant also becomes much stronger as it gets into the third year. I remove it at that point and start a new plant.

If you're interested in culinary or home remedy uses of any of these herbs, just go to your favorite search engine. You'll find tons of material on them. If you have any questions on growing herbs (NOT herb!), let me know.  I'll be back here soon and I hope you stop by again!

Cloches For Your Garden

Cloches???

I know what all of you fashion conscious folks are thinking after seeing the title.  Women's hats in the garden???  Well, not really. Cloche is a French word (right, Meg?) for a glass bell jar. It later ( the 1920's)came to be used for hats of that shape. But, in the world of gardening, it originated as a glass jar placed over plants when cold weather threatened. You can buy garden cloches online or at garden centers. (The one pictured below is featured online by English Creek Gardens.) Some are plain jars and some are fancy. White plastic sheet material stretched over heavy curved wire is also marketed as a type of cloche. Or you can create your own using recycled materials.

If you're planning on putting plants out early in the garden and you live in US hardiness zone 2 through 7, you are always taking a chance that frost will occur in March, April and even May depending on your zone. Those of you in eastern Virginia (zone 7), Maryland and much of south and central Pennsylvania (zone 6), should  take care. Watching daily temperature forecasts is a must.

If you'd like to make some cloches to have available just in case you need them in the future, you can probably do so with things you already have in your home.  The cheapest and simplest homemade cloches are those made from clear two liter soda bottles. Simply trim off the bottom of the bottle with a pair of scissors. Keep the cap.  You'll also need to find sticks that are long enough and thin enough to place inside the bottle and into the ground below the bottle.

Last year (2010), we had a very mild March at least until the last week (March 26 & 27) when temperatures dropped well below freezing for several nights in a row and the days were cold but sunny. My cloches were a lifesaver for the individual plants I needed to protect. I also had several old blankets which I rolled into a thick cover for several beds that needed to be protected. You probably wont have enough cloches to cover 48 individual sugar pea seedlings in an eight foot bed so old blankets or tarps come in handy.

So save those 2 liter bottles (we rarely have soda bottles, but gallon plastic jugs serve the same purpose) and some dowel like sticks for the emergency. When the temperature is going to drop, you'll be prepared. Place the bottomless bottle over the plant during the day. Run the stick through the top to keep it in place and from blowing away in a breeze. The sun will warm the soil around the plant during the day. As dark approaches, push the stick down to just below the bottle top threads. Place the cap on the bottle. This will help retain the warmth stored in the soil during the overnight period. If the temperatures are not going to rise into the 40's, you can leave the bottle top on during the day as well. But higher temperatures in bright sun could very well cook your plants....another time to be cautious.

On a final note, if you have a prolonged period of severe cold, even the cloches will be hard pressed to save the plants. It's the risk we take when starting a garden early in the season.

I'll see you later in the week. Keep those umbrellas nearby!