What Did You Do In The Garden?

[Zeedman]

Sure.

Dill volunteers in my garden, I have a difficult time being willing to pull it - like to have it around. When it shows up in the onions, it fits in well and is usually left. Some, is deliberately planted.
Steve

Dill volunteers every year in a strip around my home, where little else prospers. I use the dill seed for pickles, and for a dill bread.

Funny thing, that strip has 3 things growing in it that just naturally follow each other. First comes a yellow-flowered allium (A. moly); it is pretty in bloom, and the edible flowers are good in salads... they have a honey-garlic flavor. Just when the "Moly" begins to die back, the dill comes up. And as the dill is maturing, Zebrina mallow comnes up, and will bloom until frost.

The "Zebrina" (Malva sylvestris) was intentionally introduced into my gardens years ago to encourage pollinators, and is outstanding for that purpose. It has now naturalized, and I allow plants to grow wherever they will be out of the way. The funny thing is that it has shown up in places where I did not plant it - such as the strip where the dill grows, and a few other places some distance from the garden. I suspect mice have been harvesting the seeds, and moving them around.

 

[so lucky]

I haven't planted dill in several years. It volunteers freely on the west side of the garden. I let it grow. Caterpillars usually find it and I always hope it will last until they pupate, but I can never find them, so they might get eaten before they get a chance to change.

The storm last night blew the garden fence down on the north side. Bent some pretty big metal posts. We just realized it is very heavy with vines that are loaded with grapes. Best crop I have seen, and it is in the way right now.
I'm happy with my choice to plant mostly flowers this year, so far. The bees and butterflies are happy with it, too.

Did I tell you that the zinnia seeds I planted are 14 years old? I have had them in the freezer. I tested the germination in January, and it was about 70%, so I tossed a bunch of seeds in the row and a bunch of plants came up, which most are blooming now.

 

[digitS']

Continuing to set up trellis for the dahlias.

Before I started, I had to kick myself for not bringing Spinosad for the potato beetles. Nearly every plant has the larva although there are only a few adults that I could find. Accidentally turned over a leaf with a glob of eggs . No doubt, there are many such leaves and globs. Squished every insect at whatever stage but I'm sure that I didn't find a very high percentage of them.

Found what I am sure is earwig damage on the dahlias, leaf hoppers and thrips elsewhere, and what might be grasshopper damage to the sunflowers. Grasshoppers bounding about. Maybe the sunflowers can wait but Spinosad could go on everything else. I haven't gone an organic route for the dahlias before -- maybe it is time.

Steve

 

[so lucky]

@digitS' , is the Spinosad still working well for you? Last year it seemed to not work well on stink bugs and squash bugs and some pretty orange and black bug that destroyed my kale. I just sprayed the tomatoes last evening, but now am wondering if it will even make the stink bugs uncomfortable.
Maybe the stuff doesn't last from year to year?

 

[flowerbug]

...
The "Zebrina" (Malva sylvestris) was intentionally introduced into my gardens years ago to encourage pollinators, and is outstanding for that purpose. It has now naturalized, and I allow plants to grow wherever they will be out of the way. The funny thing is that it has shown up in places where I did not plant it - such as the strip where the dill grows, and a few other places some distance from the garden. I suspect mice have been harvesting the seeds, and moving them around.

we call that plant miniature hollyhocks, to me it looks more like a geranium. we have a light colored one and the darker pink/purple one. it spreads like crazy. the deer and japanese beetles like it.

our annual volunteers are poppies and nigella. they grow in the crushed limestone and wander around. chipmunks will jump up to grab the pods to drag them down to eat them. it's fun to watch.

 

[flowerbug]

for grasshoppers a garden friend down south uses something he calls "Nolo" for keeping the population down. says it has to be applied once every few years but otherwise it helps a lot. i've not ever looked into it.

we have some monster grasshoppers around here by the end of the summer but after watching the bluebirds wrestle them in the gravel and finding out they're edible in a pinch i decided to leave them alone.

we don't usually grow potatoes and i'm not sure i'd know what a potato beetle looked like. i'll look it up. oh, ok, don't see those around here.

do you rotate plantings? bury all garden debris deeply enough they can't come back up from that. Bt also is indicated as natural control. nosing around some more i also see ladybugs, spined soldier bugs and lacewing. not sure if slight soapy water spray would take out eggs or not, but hard to get that on the undersides of leaves... hmm... would not want to deal with a major infestation. don't see any here, perhaps because we have a lot of other insects around which feed on them.

i'm not sure if hornets/wasps go after their eggs or larvae, but we have a good population of those around here, they seem to always be on and around plants inspecting for things to feed their young...

this is one site which seems useful, note the bottom part about rows being lined with plastic above a certain angle. they can't get out and croak...

https://www.planetnatural.com/pest-problem-solver/garden-pests/colorado-potato-beetle-control/

 

[Gardening with Rabbits]

That is good news Mary! We know our bodies best and sometimes we just have to do what makes us feel better. I'm sure it helps that you lost all that weight. It is impressive. I just love to hear good things are happening to you. You deserve them and so much more.

Mary

Thank you! I lost 2 more pounds. I got some of the blood work back and the part that’s important was back to normal. The other part could not be done because the sample was mailed frozen and it thawed. I am going back Monday to redo the test. They are not charging me for it. This way I will know everything is back to normal for sure. I never had a clotting problem and there is no reason for it now. I did find out stress will clot your blood and people on Coumadin who have to have INR checks will have their blood get thick because of stress. I know my blood work was not back to normal and then to have all that happened to me it is no wonder. Three years of the most stress ever and DS and I are still trying to recover our health.

 

[Gardening with Rabbits]

Dill volunteers every year in a strip around my home, where little else prospers. I use the dill seed for pickles, and for a dill bread.

You just gave me a good idea. I about forgot about dilly bread. I am going to make some Tuesday! I have not planted dill in the last couple of years, so I do not have any coming up. I usually do and I used to have parsley each year. Curly leave is supposed to come back each year.

 

[Gardening with Rabbits]

Garden is doing pretty good. It is not too late to plant bush beans, is it? I can tell DD is going to start watching for green beans and I think I need to plant more. I usually have enough to last all winter, but I did not plant as much as I usually do. I think now I used to have twice as many rows of pole beans.

 

[digitS']

The Spinosad should (may) kill all the pests I mentioned.

I can imagine that trenches lined with plastic will catch potato beetle adults. They travel, I have seen them heading overland straight towards major attractions - eggplants! Earliest food source seems to be nightshade weeds. Oh, boy. Cleaning out those weeds within walking distance? Of course, the immatures have the most enormous appetites! Meanwhile, adults have reproductive interests.

@digitS' , is the Spinosad still working well for you? Last year it seemed to not work well on stink bugs and squash bugs . ...

Other mobile types! Since Spinosad must be eaten, and can't easily be sprayed under big squash leaves and such, another bug killer may help. Pyrethrum can be effective without being eaten. I've used Spinosad and then returned a week later with the Pyrethrum. Neither has much persistence so they work right away, or they don't.

Steve