Mumsy's Romantic Garden Advice

[aoxa]

All my talk about our first organic veggie garden.. I am embarrassed to say I only have tomatoes. That's it. One entire bed of tomatoes.

No peppers, cucumbers, zucchini, potatoes, beans, peas or anything other than tomatoes. I feel defeated.

I will do better next year..

On the plus side, we will have lots of salsa, and the tomatoes are healthy, and fruiting now.

 

[MumsyII]

I went out after dark with my flashlight and checked the bottom of the leaves and didn't see any squash bugs just one cluster of eggs I removed. Fingers crossed!

We are finally getting much needed rain. I can see the plants soaking up all that good water. A soaking rain is more beneficial for watering plants than the sprinkler any day.

Mumsy I would love to to find the info on beneficial plants that attracts good bugs to eat bad bugs. I've read praying mantis and lady bugs are good choices. I have only seen a praying mantis once here at my house. And we have lady bugs but it seems I didn't see a lot of those either this year. Apparently you can buy them to put in your garden?

Salamanders and frogs need moisture. I have a small garden pool that is kept in water and algae year round. Even when covered in ice, Salamanders and frogs will be hibernating near it. I have left rotting logs in moist damp corners of my property for their habitat. I encourage fungus and mushrooms in these areas as well. My husband and children are instructed not to disturb them. We have discussed micro climates on this thread a number of times. Micro climates are not just for plants but the beneficial creatures and organisms too. Fungus is food and habitat for many types of beneficial insects. Centipedes are carnivorous. They eat other insects spiders and worms. Part of the balance I want to achieve means keeping even the beneficial insects in check. Centipedes creep me out but then I creep them out too. Centipedes don't want to be caught out in the open in daylight. They are fierce night time hunters. They like to live in decay.

I encourage bees by planting flowers around the perimeter of the fenced in garden. So far it has worked. They have been busy in the small sunflowers plants and in the blossoms of the veggies.

Do you think zucchini and watermelon that has blooms now will produce fruit by the first frost? Usually that's late September if we are lucky.

Your window of opportunity is shrinking it would seem. Zucchini maybe. Watermelon is an unknown for me. My growing season is too short here.

And by varieties that survive do you include vegetable plants? I tend to keep the plastic tags with the plants. More so I remember what I planted where but I can use these to decide what had powdery mold, squash bugs etc?

Yes. Vegetable varieties that do not perform well rarely get a second chance. Last year I planted a purple type of heritage carrot. I got small carrots after poor germination. This year I planted Calliope Blend and they are performing magnificently. This year the Acorn squash plants can't compete with the Cinderella Pumpkin. All the fruits are rotting. I will give them a second chance next year far away from the Pumpkin. If they rot again, I will no longer plant them. I can buy acorn squash at the farmers market for fifty cents a piece in the fall. I save my plant tags too. It has become harder for me to remember year to year what I planted without them. I also save my seed packets.

 

[armorfirelady]

I loved the look of the different colored carrots. I planted some I purchased from the auction. I keep peeking at the tops to see if they are orange yet. Still green but Stella was enjoying snacking on their green tops

I wish I could just let the hens in the garden to eat the squash bugs and other bugs. It would be so much easier and they do a great job of scratching and leaving great manure. For now they get supervised visits. I have to cover my pumpkins as they have decided green ones taste good.

This morning while in the kitchen I looked out and saw hens in the veggie garden. Edie stands out being white. They must of pushed against the coop door and it opened so out they came. They were bribed back into their run with fish. They were not happy to realize they were tricked. Apparently the rain brought out more bugs they wanted to find. And a first.....they ate a tomato still on the plant. They usually ignore them but this morning they were to tempted. Usually Edie follows ,e around knowing I will pick a couple cherry tomatoes for her

I'm going to try and be good and keep the tags with notes of how the plants did this year so next year I can take the notebook with me to auction when I but more plants. I want to do some research as well to see if our local Cornell extension has info on what varieties are more resilient to bugs and disease as well

 

[Jessica Lynn]

@Sally: I understand.

@Jessica: I went out today and snooped around. Collected quite a bit of seed. Some I thought would be in abundance had already dispersed! Some I didn't think of had quite a few full seed pods. And there are many others yet to ripen. Got all my bags labelled and set aside. I forgot how much fun saving seed can be!

@Punk: Thank you. Truly. We can be in touch.

It's a warm one today. I harvested baby carrots early and got them blanched and into the freezer. I should go back out when the sun starts to set and pull some more for dinner.

Baby Calliope carrots.

Some of the chickens are waiting to lay later in the day. Not sure what's up with that. Another pullet Silkie laid her first egg this week. That always makes me happy.

While I was harvesting some seed, quite a bit self sowed. I'm thinking the Potager garden is going to be swimming in poppies and calendulas next year. Must remember to save Larkspur and Cosmos too. I love those for late summer color. The great thing about many of these seeds is how they thrive with neglect. Poor soil and little watering is best for wild type flower plantings. I try hard to keep the weeds thin in the beginning but then can just forget about it once the flowers starting taking off. Weeds actually help support the wildflowers. If soil is too rich or moist the wild flowers get too lanky and then fall over in the first rain.


Sweet Peas, Glads, and Nastursiums all growing in a tangle.

I am always amazed as how beautiful your plants look! Saving seed can be so much fun!

Jessica, I googled chinese evergreen and the photos that came up were different so I think that must a local name used for it. I did some looking around for the first plant and I think it is a weeping red bud. Love red buds so I am sure that is why it caught my eye.

Those carrots are beautiful! I can't wait to grow carrots like those one day!

I have heard about using beneficial sprays similar to LABs on tomatoes before with good results. I also heard comfrey soaked in water and then spray in a dilution on things works well also. I have also heard stories about others who had very healthy soil like Mumsy that grew excellent plants with little to no problems because their plants were so healthy. They didn't need sprays so they didn't kill any beneficial bugs so what bad bugs that came got eaten by the good bugs.

Try Chinese Privet. The name "Chinese Evergreen Hedge" was the name they gave it in the catalog.


There are more pictures here: http://plants.usda.gov/core/profile?symbol=lisi# under the images tab.

I loved the look of the different colored carrots. I planted some I purchased from the auction. I keep peeking at the tops to see if they are orange yet. Still green but Stella was enjoying snacking on their green tops

I wish I could just let the hens in the garden to eat the squash bugs and other bugs. It would be so much easier and they do a great job of scratching and leaving great manure. For now they get supervised visits. I have to cover my pumpkins as they have decided green ones taste good.

This morning while in the kitchen I looked out and saw hens in the veggie garden. Edie stands out being white. They must of pushed against the coop door and it opened so out they came. They were bribed back into their run with fish. They were not happy to realize they were tricked. Apparently the rain brought out more bugs they wanted to find. And a first.....they ate a tomato still on the plant. They usually ignore them but this morning they were to tempted. Usually Edie follows ,e around knowing I will pick a couple cherry tomatoes for her

I'm going to try and be good and keep the tags with notes of how the plants did this year so next year I can take the notebook with me to auction when I but more plants. I want to do some research as well to see if our local Cornell extension has info on what varieties are more resilient to bugs and disease as well

I love those carrots too! I have a hard time convincing my daughters that the chickens really shouldn't be scratching around in the garden since we just planted the fall one. I told them they will scratch up all the seedlings. My youngest just shrugged her shoulders and said they were her little farmers!

 

[midnightroo]

Jessica, it does look similar.

I need to get my fall garden started. Hopefully next week since I have two beds that are pretty much ready to go. The chickens found two onions I missed in thise beds when I dug them up earlier in the year.

In order to keep beneficial insects you need what they eat. So you can't kill all the aphids because then the ladybugs won't come around. I had preying mantis in my garden hiding in my tomatoes last year and the only reason why I knew it was there was from it's old shell when it grew out of it.
At first I thought a bug had sucked all the insides out of it until I figured out they molt out of the old skin/shell. Tonight L and I found two wheel bugs eating the Japanese beetles off of my asparagus plants. They are scary bugs, but are so good, I put up with a possibility of a nasty bite if I were ever to get bitten. We didn't see a lot of these when we moved in in 2008, but slowly they have come back, differing amounts in some years, but just like those toads my chickens found. They are there, just hiding, waiting, looking for something good to eat.

 

[Kassaundra]

I LOVE LOVE LOVE my little predatory spiders, and my big predatory spiders and all my little insects. Another great insect predator are devils darning needles (dragonflies)


I take lots and lots of insect pics.

 

[Mrs Rebecca]

Jessica, it does look similar.

I need to get my fall garden started. Hopefully next week since I have two beds that are pretty much ready to go. The chickens found two onions I missed in thise beds when I dug them up earlier in the year.

In order to keep beneficial insects you need what they eat. So you can't kill all the aphids because then the ladybugs won't come around. I had preying mantis in my garden hiding in my tomatoes last year and the only reason why I knew it was there was from it's old shell when it grew out of it.
At first I thought a bug had sucked all the insides out of it until I figured out they molt out of the old skin/shell. Tonight L and I found two wheel bugs eating the Japanese beetles off of my asparagus plants. They are scary bugs, but are so good, I put up with a possibility of a nasty bite if I were ever to get bitten. We didn't see a lot of these when we moved in in 2008, but slowly they have come back, differing amounts in some years, but just like those toads my chickens found. They are there, just hiding, waiting, looking for something good to eat.

I found a pretty impressive garden beneficial this week, just wish he would have been in the garden and not on the lamp. After a small heart attack, he was relocated to a more useful location. I understand that in other areas there are much more impressive spiders, but here in NW MO that is a BIG spider. Having been out in the country for only 9 months, I am learning everyday that there are many more little buggies out in the country than there are in the city. I am making myself dizzy trying to identify them all. I am curious to learn the beneficials from the non-beneficial. I would love to have a wheel bug to munch my japanese beetles, what the heck is it?!? I do see lots of dragonflies, praying mantis and ladybugs.

 

[Kassaundra]

Wheel bugs are awesome!


One of many in my yard

 

[armorfirelady]

Wheel bugs are awesome!


One of many in my yard

I LOVE LOVE LOVE my little predatory spiders, and my big predatory spiders and all my little insects. Another great insect predator are devils darning needles (dragonflies)


I take lots and lots of insect pics.

I think I like our dragon flies better

Wheel bugs are awesome!


One of many in my yard

While I don't mind spiders per se I tend to look, not touch & stay away from them. I've been bitten from them when cleaning my pond and it felt more like some sliced my finger than a bite......and thankfully the only poisonous spiders we have don't have stingers to poison anyone

 

[MumsyII]

Seeing all these beautiful images of insects boggles my mind! They have their own majesty in beauty. I don't like to get too close to big ones. Can appreciate them from a distance. I also love the bright blue dragon fly or damsel fly.

Now I want to take pictures of them too! Thanks for sharing your pictures Kassaundra. They are amazing.

I could only find two in my folders. Taken last year of a bumble bee in a Rhododendron blossom.