I've heard that guineas are the best natural solution for grasshoppers. Aparently they are grasshopper eatin' machines... that is if you can put up with their noises.
BEETS I can't live without beet in my garden. Of coarse strawberrys are always wonderful... and they come back every year so they're a good investment.
But if you can... beets!!!!
Did I mention I like beets?
BEETS
Your beets look SO tasty :) So lucky to have them this early
My beets haven't even come up yet. But I did can some pickled asparagus :) They look so nice I might just enter some into the fair, never entered before.
Mine are starting to come throught the first layer of dirt (first tire). So once they're about 5-6" or so. I'll add the next tire on top (stacking them like a leg on the Michilan tire man) and more dirt. Doing it this way is supose to make potatoes through the whole stack and I won't need to dig...
I'm growing mine in old tires this year. I put 3 eyes per tire and as they grow out the top of the dirt I'll add another tire and more dirt. I'll keep doing this through the summer until it's harvest time then tip the tire stack over and pick out my 'taters.
Granted I've never done this before...
Ok if you really want some I'll keep an eye open. The only water it gets is rain water and we're in "the high desert" here so I bet it'd grow out there.
So here's a picture of the evil thorny plant. Those thorns are about 1.5-2 inches long!!! I've ripped them all out though, we had a nice rain for the whole weekend so I'm hoping that I got all the root, or at least enough to kill the thing.
Ok so now I've tried my hand at approach grafting... and it did seem easier. Here are the pictures of that try:
1. I chose two branches of similar width and cut at matching angles.
2. Snug them together tight and got ready to wrap with electrical tape.
3. All wrapped up tight. We get VERY...
Well I went out to take pictures of the leafs and stems etc and the plant has TONS of 2" long thorns on it now... so I've ripped them all out.
Figures it starts out lovely, then turns evil. Oh well.
Here's a great video, the camera gets nice and upclose so you can REALLY see what's goin on.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jy1Ca8RotRI
I didn't use any grafting wax, probably should have. Just taped up with packaging tape. I'll have to get some pictures this weekend :) I think I might get some...
on my apple tree. I took a branch from a "stray" tree growing along the road that doesn't get pruned or anything (but our horses liked the apples from it last year). Followed the instuctions from a video on YouTube. I used packaging tape so it may not be tight enough, didn't think about...