Mother Nature's Got The Watering Can Out Again!
We've had a pretty wet week here in Lancaster, PA. There have been off-and-on showers regularly with some sun in between. Yesterday (June 18) was the wildest, however. The rain came in torrents driven by high winds for well over an hour in the afternoon. While we didn't suffer any garden or home damage, there were trees down in the neighborhood, some on top of cars, as well as some street flooding. But, we're not complaining! We're saving money on our water bill and for that we're grateful.
Our roses are in full bloom, which can only mean that Japanese Beetles will arrive soon. In addition to roses, Japanese Beetles will also feast on the leaves of many garden plants. There are several things we do to try to thwart these pests. We keep the bird feeders filled to attract as many birds as possible. After sampling the entree of seed, birds will often make beetles their dessert. We thanks the birds for their help! You can try capturing as many as possible by hand and dump them into bucket of water containing dish detergent. Or, you can also use a spray bottle of water, a mild dish detergent, and a nice dose of hot liquid (or dry, well ground) red pepper. Caution: wear rubber gloves if you do this and DON'T rub your eyes or skin until you remove the gloves! I'm sure there are other home beetle remedies, but these are the ones I've used. Finally, you can also purchase organic neem oil at local garden centers and other stores to control beetles.
Japanese Beetle
Our roses are in full bloom, which can only mean that Japanese Beetles will arrive soon. In addition to roses, Japanese Beetles will also feast on the leaves of many garden plants. There are several things we do to try to thwart these pests. We keep the bird feeders filled to attract as many birds as possible. After sampling the entree of seed, birds will often make beetles their dessert. We thanks the birds for their help! You can try capturing as many as possible by hand and dump them into bucket of water containing dish detergent. Or, you can also use a spray bottle of water, a mild dish detergent, and a nice dose of hot liquid (or dry, well ground) red pepper. Caution: wear rubber gloves if you do this and DON'T rub your eyes or skin until you remove the gloves! I'm sure there are other home beetle remedies, but these are the ones I've used. Finally, you can also purchase organic neem oil at local garden centers and other stores to control beetles.
One final caution on Japanese Beetles: Do not purchase commercial beetle lures/traps to control this problem in your home garden. The lures attract not only the current beetles you may have, but also will attract many more beetles from all of the properties around yours. And they do not all just rush into your traps. They stop for plenty of feeding before the may happen to be attracted directly to the trap.
Our garden is coming along well. The strawberries are just about finished and the peas are done. The green beans are in bloom with some small beans beginning to appear. A few stalks of our corn show in the picture, as well.
The cucumbers are full of blooms and the first few are ready to be picked.
And of course the zucchinis have grown immensely and we've picked a few of those in the past several days. As you can see, they are outgrowing the boxes already!
And, finally, I'd like to say "Hello!" to two of our new readers. Jaime is a Lancaster County friend just starting out in gardening and he has introduced his friend Lidiya to our blog. Lidiya is a resident of Bulgaria! Lidiya's family has been gardening in their home town for many years. Welcome Jaime and Lidiya!
Thanks for stopping by. I hope to see you again next week.
Comments? Contact me at chuckscards42@hotmail.com
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