More garden events

[lolaraincoat]

So far this year nearly everything seems to have survived that difficult winter except for the one hapless peach tree, and some things are thriving that never, ever thrive.

Comments

[twistedchick]

Ecologically safe insect deterrent that will wash off the veggies and herbs: garlic juice (press the garlic, or smash it well, then put the whole thing in the jar or sprayer bottle), hot pepper sauce (from your local ethnic store), water, a few drops of biodegradable soap. Combine, put in bottom of sprayer bottle, shake and apply. If the garlic ferments a little, it's still good.

[lolaraincoat]

I usually just use a very dilute soap spray to keep off most insects and hope for ladybugs for the aphids. I'd worry about pepper spray bothering the bees and other pollinators, and then we don't lose much to insects, or at least we haven't so far. The worst problems are all raccoons, squirrels (there are some very aggressive squirrels around here, believe it or not) and fungii.

[twistedchick]

I have never sprayed it on the flowers, just the leaves and the ground around the base of the plants, and it has deterred squirrels, rabbits and mice as well as chewing bugs (sucking bugs tend to ignore most things.) We used to use it all the time when I was a kid and we were growing veggies for the family restaurant, and I don't recall any problems with the bees.

Silly way to deal with raccoons: put out gallon (or larger) glass jugs full of water, near the plants. The raccoons look at the jugs and see the reflection of a larger (because of the shape) raccoon, and go away. We used to do that for the corn, and it generally helped.

[lolaraincoat]

Oh good. I'll try adding cayenne and garlic to the soap spray, then.

I've gotten very cautious - some might say paranoid - about bees (and pollinators generally) because of the collapse in population, which is just starting to hit around here, after having been a serious issue farther south for a few years now.

[fledgist]

You should get a nice tea from the lindens when they bloom. And camomile is a very tenacious plant (it's a weed, in fact) so taking some to make tea is hardly going to damage your garden.

As for rue, well I'm not sure about that day.

[lolaraincoat]

Oh yes, the chamomile is a weed, all right. But it's a pretty weed, so I only pull it out where it threatens to strangle the other plants. Same with fennel, which if I'm not ruthless with it when it's small, would actually take over the whole entire world. But pretty, you know, and it's not like I have to put any effort into growing it - more like not growing it. We've gotten to that point with parsley and Boston lettuce, too, and less usefully with blue coneflower, and thistles.

[fledgist]

Back when I was young and thin, and living in Jamaica, we had camomile growing wild and made tea from that (and black mint growing under the veranda as well, another fine weed). I like the flowers of camomile a lot.

Our garden is my mother-in-law's preserve and she has a lot of hope for the tomatoes she has in the back. But much depends on how much rain we get this spring, and we are in year two of a drought.

[lolaraincoat]

Oh yes, we have mint too, it's unstoppable! and lemon balm as well, which is far less useful than mint.

[isiscolo]

OMGYAY apricots! *covets*

[lolaraincoat]

I KNOW. YAYYAYYAY!!!

I can't figure out how the tree got pollinated this year, but it did!

[amelia_eve]

I just love reading about your garden. I don't think I would like weeding all of it, but I do appreciate the pleasures of growing your own food.

[lolaraincoat]

Eh, weeding's only a bother if you really insist on having no weeds at all, and you define weed broadly to mean "everything I didn't plan on being there." I just pull out that which is likely to out-compete the plants I do intend to be there, and try to look at the whole exercise as a meditation - out in the sunshine (or the rain) contemplating the tenacity of the dandelion, the gentle strength of the blue coneflower, the cleverness of the false mustard, the shooting pains in my lower back ... And that is where the zen aspects of the whole enterprise have their limit point for me, alas.

[idlerat]

I told youse - apricots is on a 3-year cycle.

I was watching a bit of a nature show yesterday (feeling depressed) where spring was coming to a gorgeous northern wonderland- snow melting, alpine blossoms blossoming - and this marmot came up out of the ground, tossing aside snow and mud, with flowers in front of it, & I said, Look! It's Lola!

[lolaraincoat]

You did tell me! And then I forgot! But you were so very right!

And hah! Marmot - yep, that's me.

How are you doing?

From one rodent to another...

[idlerat]

Um - I might have MS. I hope not. But it's pretty much all I can think about. I am going to the neurologist on Tuesday, & hopefully bloodwork will come back this week showing something innocuous like, I don't know, A B-12 DEFICIENCY (seriously, that's like my most likely hopeful option.) Anyway, I'm doing a little crappy, hence the watching of daytime PBS on a Saturday...

meep.

Re: From one rodent to another...

[lolaraincoat]

Holy crap! Ai ai ai! Yeah, that would definitely make it hard to concentrate on anything else. I hope you are now taking sublingual B12 just in case. Can we talk after your neuro visit on Tuesday? Or before for that matter.