October 16, 2007

blog action day: no garden pesticides

Blog Action Day October 15, 2007 is a network of posts relating to the environment.My topic: What worked for me this year to avoid the use of pesticides in my kitchen garden 1. Row covers. My newly found triumph. They were easier than I thought and very effective in keeping the cabbage worms away (photos here). 2. Admit defeat. Black aphids ate my fava beans this year and I admitted failure and pulled them up (pictures of the favas and aphids are here). Soon after, the lady bugs arrived in…

August 18, 2007

covered kale

My kale is now covered. I bought some galvanized stainless wire and made hoops and then covered them with row cover and secured with plastic pegs. I picked a good batch of it a couple weeks ago (photo below), but ended up composting it because there were too many holes in the leaves for it to be appetizing. Hopefully the cover will help. Of course, it doesn’t get rid of the caterpillars that are already on the leaves. It just prevents the moths from laying more eggs. On the far…

August 13, 2007

broccoli and butterflies

I transplanted my young broccoli seedlings from their seed tray to the garden this weekend. I gave them a space between a row of dill and one of kale. I spaced them about 5 inches apart. They seem pretty happy. I noticed that the fall crop of broccoli at a nearby farm is only a little bigger than mine now. I’ve been enjoying several small white butterflies that bounce and flutter and play over my garden in the mornings. This pretty white butterfly is called a Cabbage White (Pieris rapae).…

July 18, 2007

ugly bugs on pole beans

OK. Some more ugly pictures of my pole beans. I was asked some questions about what’s really going on, so here are some close-up photos. I guess I see thrips and spider mites. Some mite webs. Also mottled, puckered leaves and fruit. I noticed black aphids earlier but they’re gone now. The problem is ONLY affecting my 3 types of pole beans, one of which is way on the other side of my house. No problem with my 3 types of bush beans planted nearby (odd). So my guess is…

July 15, 2007

pole bean problem

My pole beans have been suffering this year. The vines are very stunted and leaves are mottled and crinkled. I thought they weren’t getting enough water and then I thought it was the black aphids that killed the nearby fava beans. But I think it is probably a mosaic virus (maybe bean common mosaic virus or cucumber mosaic virus?). These viruses are spread by aphids and the only solution seems to be planting resistant varieties. I noticed that most of the pole beans at our local community garden also looked…

July 4, 2007

fava crop failure

My favas are gone. I pulled them up today. Though the lady bugs have arrived, the fava beans were just too stunted from black aphid damage to leave growing. (I almost pulled the adjacent pole beans too. These also have aphid damage, but seem to be recovering. I left them for now.) In place of the favas, I planted a mix of sunflower seeds. I am glad to see the lady bugs, even though they are the big Asian type. They will help to control the green aphids on many…

June 21, 2007

potato beetle

I found this guy on my potatoes this morning and looked him up. Surprise – he’s a potato beetle: Threelined Potato Beetle (Lema trilineata). I’ll have to watch out for him. But for now I just took his picture and left him alone. Solanum tuberosum

June 19, 2007

garden bugs

I’ve been trying to find some bees in my garden. I’m sad not to be able to find any after a week of watching. Here are the bugs I have found. I think the closest to a bee is the wasp. From top left: yellow fly on phlox, hopper on soy, green fly on chili peppers, long legs on iris, wasp, green hopper on arugula flower. If get around to submitting the photos to BugGuide I’ll add accurate IDs here later. The bugs I didn’t show here are all the…

June 13, 2007

radish problems

Oh well. The radish crop was not so good. I planted a 3′ row (about 20 radish plants) and only one radish formed a bulb. The rest are these skinny little roots and a couple are making flower stalks. The radish that did bulb has a root pest nibbling at it. I planted another row a couple of weeks ago. Maybe that one will do better. Otherwise, I’ll skip the radish. Brassicaceaeradish (Raphanus sativus)

May 18, 2007

so much for the broccoli ….

On Wednesday my broccoli was looking great. Not today. I have to blame the squirrels. The florets have been eaten, plants pulled out of the ground, and even the little collars strewn about. (I thought cut worms ate my first batch of plants, so I put collars on my second batch.) It looks like the squirrels had party in my broccoli patch. I’ve been thinking about a solution, but I think the answer is to skip broccoli. Out of the 40 different types of vegetables I have growing in my…

weeks and counting until my last spring frost

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