Back to Eden Gardening

[thistlebloom]

I would consider contacting your Land Grant College Veg. Crops Dept. and/ or your Ag. Extention Office to get a feel as to what is actually going on with Veg. crops in your area and specifically your back to eden gardening this year. Get and follow their advice.

Whom are you talking to?

 

[bobm]

Thistle...when I wrote my post, it was no other post directly under Beekissed's post. How yours showed up before mine , I don't know. So, for Beekissed . However, since you said that your garden is a discouraging failure and then the grasshoppers are eating the little that was there, so maybe it could apply to you too.

 

[thistlebloom]

I have talked to an entomologist who teaches at the university about the grasshopper problem. He was not too encouraging about there being a solution since they vector in from all over.
But I've used nosema locustae bait before and it might have been my imagination, but it seemed to reduce the numbers of them significantly. I'm also going to broadcast some poison in the area outside the garden fence.
I'm open to other ideas too.

 

[Beekissed]

Chickens. Mine aren't allowed in the garden but they do patrol the area outside of the garden and those grasshoppers can't seem to fly far without landing. I've seen one in the garden but I startled it and it flew....right over the fence and down in front of the flock. Gone in the wink of an eye, poor feller.

Bob, what the local ag office would suggest I'd not likely follow, as their solutions always seem to involve chemical this or that which I'm not prone to putting on the land. I'll wait...things eventually right themselves when out of balance. Takes time for this BTE to compost down and get neutral.

The rest of the gardens in the area and even those clear across the state that I saw as I traveled this weekend weren't any better than mine~mine was actually better than most...saw a bare few that looked half way decent. I'd say it's just a bad year for certain things and that happens to every area now and again.

 

[thistlebloom]

The chickens would be a great solution and I'd love to employ them in grasshopper catching. Unfortunately it's not workable where this garden is located, and where the hoppers are the worst. For whatever reason they concentrate in the front part of the property in the cleared areas by the road, and across the road in our neighbors field. Waves of them take off when you drive down the gravel road, or walk down the driveway.

 

[baymule]

Bee, it might not be the fault of the deep mulch if other gardens in the area aren't doing that great either. While half my garden was in failure, last year with NO mulch, ALL of it was in failure.

@thistlebloom the answer to your grasshopper problems is raw milk. The ratio is 3 gallons raw milk to 17 gallons water. Spray the garden. What is does is to raise the sugar levels in your plants and the grasshoppers don't like it and they will leave.

 

[thistlebloom]

@thistlebloom the answer to your grasshopper problems is raw milk. The ratio is 3 gallons raw milk to 17 gallons water. Spray the garden. What is does is to raise the sugar levels in your plants and the grasshoppers don't like it and they will leave.

Wow! Really? That would be awesome!! I will definitely do that. Thanks so much Bay!

 

[baymule]

Wow! Really? That would be awesome!! I will definitely do that. Thanks so much Bay!

And no poisons.....

 

[Beekissed]

That's good to know!

I think you are right, Bay...I don't think it has much to do with the BTE method, as there are folks on my other forum that are trying it along with me and their garden is going gangbusters.

Will pick some corn tomorrow for a cookout and will grill some other veggies out of the garden like squash and taties. Killing 4 cockerels in the morning for grilling that evening, so will marinate them in some goodness until then.

 

[digitS']

If we go way back to early TEG postings on the video, we don't find some of the posters following through with information as they went along. You have done great with the follow through. Understand however that other gardeners have their own standards of evaluating their own gardens and performance. Some are quite happy with any plants that tolerate their efforts and different techniques work in different environments.

@Durgan, briefly here on the forum, has not been around for years. Although he put some pictures of a nicely mulched garden on his blog in 2012, it has no entries past 2010.

It reminds me. Years ago, Nichols Garden Nursery was an important proponent of strawbale gardens. They had magazine articles and set up displays at garden shows. None of that remains on their website.

For a gardener, there’s no hiding from a long, intense gardening campaign. The garden reveals its character. Pictures don't show much more than what the photographer wants the viewer to see. In ways large and small, the true nature of a garden is only revealed – in person and over time.

Steve