Ragtag Garden, Part 16
Another after dark reconnaissance mission showed a dozen earwigs munching on just one cabbage leaf.
That's all it took for me to grab my bag of Diatomaceous Earth and attempt to dust everything by flashlight. I started with the group I spotted first. Boy, do they scamper off when the DE hits 'em! (Yes, I took some malicious pleasure in that.) It looks like I did a pretty thorough job considering the circumstances... there's powder everywhere!
The zucchini are thriving and have two new blossoms to show for it. The lower one is on the plant that dropped the two previous blooms. The upper one is the first one for this plant. I'm hoping that will help with the pollination and maybe produce a squash this time.
The tomato plant is thinking about putting out another blossom. This blurry shot is the best I could do. It's just off to the right of the main stem and above the stem that forks right.
The banana peppers are looking great and there will be a fourth one, soon. You can barely see it, mid-way between the two top peppers. I was a little concerned at the rate peppers were appearing relative to the amount of leaves available to support them. Well, it seems there is some progress there, too, so I can put my worries on the back burner for now.
The big chore today was to take care of the low-hanging branches above the pole beans. The bean vines were able to reach the branches! I broke out the loppers and whacked away the ones I could grab. I ended up clearing those, plus a good batch of the stuff clogging up that corner. There were grape vines in that mess working their way towards the neighbor's shed, so those needed to be addressed as well.
The corner now feels more airy and the entire garden will get more sun. Both should prove beneficial.
The peas are starting to produce blossoms, too! I attempted to get at least one decent shot, but the camera was focusing on everything except the flowers. Sigh... So, here's the next best thing. Fingers crossed the shots will be better next time.
The cabbage is looking a little worse for wear, but with a few dry days in the forecast, they should get a chance to recover from the latest assault. I'll probably apply more D.E. around the base of the buckets to be on the safe side, in addition to another overall dusting of the whole area. I'm sure the rain has washed away the last batch.
The brussels sprouts are faring somewhat better than the cabbage, but have still taken some new damage. They should be fine and I'm hoping to see them gain some height. That will be a boost in the defense against these particular bugs.
That's enough for today. I'm headed back outside for a while to watch the fireworks and enjoy a gorgeous summer evening.
Stay Tuned For The Next Installment - Coming Soon!
RECAP:
It started here - Reclaiming The Backyard Firepit.
Which turned into this - Ragtag Garden.
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Ugh, the earwigs are frustrating. Hopefully you can be successful chasing them off.
Thanks and I'm keeping after them!
Oh, I see you have a neem tree! :)
I wish. It's a black walnut and they're all over the place. Pesky and fast growing.
Oh yeah. Not a neem tree :( but in a closer look, i noticed a cute, adorable dog!! 😍😍😍 <3
Lol! Thanks!
That's Tinker. She's a Lhasa Apso in desperate need of a haircut. Shaggy girl...
Her hair is prettier than min @aunt-deb hahaha. So huggable doogggg!!
Hooray for DE!
Everything is looking so healthily lush🌱
Lovely day to you⭐️
Thank you, hon! You, too!
I was trying to dodge the DE while reading this, lol!
Everything is getting so big!
That's about what it was like... Lol! I've been checking for subsequent bug activity, minimal to none so far.
Yessss!!
Earwigs are nasty little creatures. We have them everywhere. We always stomp on them when we see them scurrying about.
Agreed! The D.E. works really well, it's just there are so many of them. Plus, mulching the area was like building them a habitat and the buckets are a buffet. I re-dusted the whole area with D.E. again last night.
It is my understanding that earwigs are not native here. They have migrated here in the past ten years or so. We never had them when I was a kid. If you go further south, people have never heard of them. I think they prefer cooler, damp conditions (which we certainly aren't experiencing as of late.)
I didn't know that! I googled and found that they started showing up in my region in 1998. And, yes, damp areas are their preferred habitat. Nasty looking critters!
Yeah... pincers on the butt is just plain disturbing and grotesque. Kill them!!
Oh, no!!
Is that a mimosa tree!!
Kill it with fire!!
Never heard of a mimosa tree. Looked it up and see why you'd say that. Luckily, we have none.
Ah... just relooked at the picture.
Good thing. It is horrible. I keep on weeding it out and it keeps on coming back everywhere. Even in soil I bought from the store.
I have that problem with grapevines. I swear those things grow six inches every night. Arggghhhh!
That DE is some great stuff. And I see your pup checking things out. lol. Too bad dogs can't scare off the bugs.
It sure is! It goes a long way, too...
Tink thinks she's supervising half the time. She lets me think the same thing the other half. ;~D
nice ❤
Sorry to see the pest problem. I started with something attacking my tomatoes and I used diatomaceous earth on them. Problem gone. I added the powder to an empty baby powder bottle to make it easy to spread. I also have a "Silver Lungs" machine and manufacture my own colloidal silver which I spray on the plants to kill any disease. No pest issues here anymore. So far so good! I hope it stays that way!
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