Finally some nice weather has me outside to check on my newly transplanted early tomatoes and WHAT THE?!
The wilty and pale sad little transplants looked perfectly healthy 2 days ago.
I pulled one up to replace it with a backup and WHAT THE %$^&%$%^&*?! There’s worms eating them from the inside out.
I think this one is actually drooling….
I dug around in the soil only to find a whole bunch of these ugly critters. I had planted lettuce transplants early in the season in the same raised bed which all mysteriously disappeared days after planting. I blamed the slugs. I killed LOTS of baby slugs to terrify the other hidden slugs. But could it have been these nasty little wireworms that ate my lettuce?
Gardeners out there: help me, please! What are these worms and how do I rid my nice, organic garden of them?
May 18 2011 | Gardening and Growing Food | 21 Comments »
I finally got back out into the garden today and revisited some completely neglected projects, like my hanging strawberry planter. To my surprise, the plants were not doing as well as I thought they would after a winter break. Many were dead and the ones that remained had weak root systems. I rooted around in the planter a bit and found some unwelcome visitors to be the cause: Strawberry Root Weevil grubs. Ick!
The beauty of keeping strawberries in a container is certainly the ease of replanting it all (although it did take me a few hours to empty out the planter, dig through the soil, and pick out the grubs). My planter is now weevil-free and here is what was left over…
…just enough for my backyard birds: a high-protein meal of gourmet grubs served up in a terra cotta plant saucer for easy pickin’s. Lucky birds!
March 27 2011 | Gardening | 4 Comments »
Well don’t ask me. This is what my carrots looked like this year: riddled with tracks from the disgusting, putrid, foul, menacing carrot rust fly. Those little buggers can sniff out a carrot with superhero powers so I planted carefully and didn’t have to thin them (thinning releases the smell and attracts the flies), but the females still found my carrot patch, layed eggs and a week later the larva fed on the hidden roots. Bummer.
Clearly I’m not doing well at all in the carrot department but there is a wonderful set of posts by Abby Palmer at Green Slate who has written 2 helpful carrot posts: 18 Carrot Gold: The Secret of my Carrot Success and A Carrot For All Seasons . I’m going to give them another shot this year so I’ll be following her advice to the letter. The only exception is that Abby suggests using seed tape but my beloved red and purple carrots only come in seeds packets so I’m sticking with old school loose seeds. The carrots this year are in a new location and will have a row cover to keep those vile, hated, stupid flies out. Any other suggestions are appreciated and thanks, Abby, for your wisdom.
Me: 0 ; Carrot Rust Fly: 1
April 17 2010 | Gardening and Growing Food and Projects | 14 Comments »
