Thursday, June 25, 2009

what's 'bugging' me




I had some garden pictures sent to me be a friend who read my garden blog, I thought I would share...
She called this, "The Three Amigos".

She has grapes! I also love the Lillies in the front.




Red leaf lettuce, I wish I had planted some this year.



I'm still trying to deal with the poison ivy. I've tried alcohol (rubbing, I don't drink:-), hydrogen Peroxide, Lanasil, tea tree, hand sanitizer, and I finally found something that kind of stops the itch, it's a natural salve made by Mountain Rose Herbs for hemorrhoids. (left over from child birth!) I went to the web site and found they have something made especially for poison Ivy! I've ordered it, I'll give a report when I get it! Click on the picture to see all the wonderful things they have.
Now to the garden. I have been doing research on how to get pests away naturally. I have read many different suggestions. One was to spray a mixture of ivory (I don't have ivory, does it have to be that?) soap and cayenne pepper diluted in water. It has to sit in the bottle overnight. So I started that yesterday. I also read that if I dusted the plants with flour the bugs who eat will explode from the flour in their system mixing with the liquids, so I did that yesterday too.
I think this little guy is the main culprit.
He is a jumping beetle and I've found him on all the plants that have been chewed on. Some call him a potato beetle. He's as big as a pin head and does hop around. He's not impossible to catch though, so we do a lot of hunting and squishing.

The cabbage may also be suffering from a larva. Although I've only found one so far. It may be through this winged creature. It was described as a small white moth/butterfly.


This morning Bill discovered some welts on our cauliflower plants, I'm wondering if the spray may be causing it. Wouldn't it be nifty if I killed one plant to save another??

We sprayed anyway, just went easy on the cauliflower. As soon as it dried I dusted them with flour. If hand pecking, spraying and dusting doesn't work I may have to spend $25 and try this: (click on pic to see where to buy). Unless anyone else has any ideas.....?
I found a squash this morning that had both a male and a female flower:
I used my finger and tried to use them to cross pollinate the other squashes. I felt kind of 'dirty' doing it, I've never had to artificially inseminate plants before.








These are some of my 'naked' tomato plants, I got pretty agressive in trimming yesterday.






2 comments:

  1. When my husband gets poison ivy, hisonly relief is to get the blow dryer out and point it towards the spots until it almost burns you. He says it takes the itch away for almost 2-3 hours and dries it out quickly.

    Wow, things are looking great. I am taking pictures of my garden today. I am not quick with this technology but I will either post them on my blog or send them to you. HUGS.

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  2. Ummmm....that dog on the left looks JUST LIKE JAZMIN! Did she go on vacation without me?

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