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Gardening Blog (Archive): August 2003
A gardening blog, generally organic.
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Thursday, August 14, 2003
Japanese Beetle Control-
Milky Spore on the lawn in the spring, kills the grubs before they turn into adults.
Botanical sprays- (these are made from plants) to kill the adult beetles:
Pyrethrum-made from chrysanthemum flowers
Neem- from an African tree
Rotenone- from the roots of a tropical plant.
Plants that help deter adult beetles-garlic, larkspur, tansy, rue, geranium
I also found various homemade recipes for sprays containing garlic, onion, hot red pepper and liquid soap.
While one can wage the battle with them upon ones own property, beetles are no respecters of boundary lines. Even if I could control them in my own yard the ones from my neighbors property can and probably will make their way to my garden. *sigh*
~carol m.
posted by TheBroadroom.Net at 11:34 AM (Pacific)
Thursday, August 07, 2003
Hummm...this is the first year (we've been here six) that I've been able to eat the apples from the trees. They've always been too sour and really small.
Well, we've been pruning back the apple trees all along. I've a mind to really cut the dang thing but it'll have to be after it's finished fruiting.
This year I felt sorry for the deer. I don't, usually. I know they're cute in a Disney sort of way, but anyone who's actually had deer, does not like them. They're pests. They eat everything--except weeds, of course. No one can have flowers in their front yard on my street!
Okay, I take that back. They don't seem to eat azaleas or camellias. That's about it though.
This year, they were really hungry.
I'd throw all the tiny apples over the fence and they'd come right up and eat them. Given the amount of chutzpah that California deer normally have, it's not that spectacular, but typically they'd wait until later to eat.
This rose was completely mildewed. We figured it was dead and cut it down to the ground. The following year it came back. So do cut, but don't dig out and throw away until you know for sure.
--Josephine
posted by TheBroadroom.Net at 4:38 PM (Pacific)
Monday, August 04, 2003
Hummm...my grandparents had an organic farm. I was young at the time...my sister and I spent our summers there when we were kids. So I don't remember the specifics. But I do remember the japanese beetles and what a plague they were.
I remember them putting up traps...like a big funnel with a jar on the bottom. The beetles hit the funnel, fell in, and couldn't get out again. There were millions of them inside the traps.
And sometimes they'd go out and handpick the dang things off the plants. (We kids did too; it didn't bother me, but it was labor intensive!)
I remember them using kelp as a fertilizer...it was watery and smelled a bit fishy, not unpleasant.
Now it seems to me that Leslie used hot peppers as a spray in her garden. I'm not sure how...I'll have to ask.
I've had some luck using paraffin spray, but I don't know if that qualifies as organic. There are warnings on the label about using it on edible plants. But the idea is that the paraffin smothers the insects rather than killing them with poison. It's kind of clunky to use, also. You attach a sprayer to your hose and mix the stuff with water inside it.
This has worked, at least somewhat, on some scale and mildew we have on these ficus plants. Wondering if it would do anything on non-edible plants.
Vinegar sounds interesting. I have salted slugs too. They do die but it takes forever! Does beer work? Do they really drink it, get drunk and drown?
"Chuckie" is still around. Well I should give him a name, it's the same old pocket gopher we had last year and the year before that. I know him. He's big and has endless chutzpah. I've thrown rocks right at him and it doesn't bother him at all.
I read that you have to be patient and keep putting out the gum. It takes some weeks for the critters to eat it and die. Well I'm patient. And I bought a big pack of gum!
--Josephine
posted by TheBroadroom.Net at 12:37 PM (Pacific)
Sunday, August 03, 2003
The local sunday paper had a decent article in it today about organic gardening.
Heres some of the interesting info I gleaned from it:
White vinegar kills slugs. Spray it on them.
(I didn't know this. I know salt kills them, we've watched many die a horrible looking death as they melted away. I've baited them with beer too.)
Nicotine kills aphids and many chewing insects. Soak cigarettes in water and spray.
(I wonder if this works on those damn japanese beetles. I hate those suckers, they're devouring our roses and our basil)
Hot peppers soaked in water to deter chewing insects. the hotter the pepper the better it works.
(However, they didn't say how to apply or use this. Spray the water on them? Spread the soaked pepper on the plants? I have no idea.)
~carol m.~
posted by TheBroadroom.Net at 6:11 PM (Pacific)
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