Garden Fails
Every year there are failures in the garden. I believe that failure is often one of the best ways to learn, it’s seems easier at times to figure out what works and what doesn’t when we have failures. This year one of my giant failures is in my ornamental cabbage crop. I seeded them in July, moved them outside in mid-August, then they were found by the caterpillars.
I had big dreams of pots of ornamental kale beside my front door until well into December, this is what they look like.
I don’t use any kind of pest control, even “organic” varieties. Often even those (like Slug-O) have consequences down the line. I’m thinking that I need to attract more wrens and birds to my garden. Perhaps a few guinea fowl will do the trick as well, they are fantastic at controlling squash bugs and cabbage worms. My dreams of giant drifts of ornamental kale are gone, but I’ve now learned that there’s just too much pressure at the current moment to try it. Perhaps I’ll just put one of my many pumpkins in the terra cotta pots by my front door. In the future, I may try ornamental kale again, but keep it under an insect barrier until it’s quite large. I may try seeding it a little earlier so it’s larger and more robust. I may just use my time to read a book instead though, sometimes it’s just easier to let dreams go.
What pest issues are you having this time of year? Are there any garden dreams you’ve had to let go of?
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Tomato Hornworms
It’s tomato hornworm season here in Maine, I’ve been picking them off my tomatoes like mad. I always watch for the parasitic wasp eggs, but none have been found yet. I never pick them all off, I always sacrifice a few plants in hopes that the wasps will show up. In my Ohio garden I always had the wasps.
The worst part about them is that they take bites out of all the tomatoes, which then get moldy and aren’t good for anything. They won’t ripen and are lost as a crop.
Tomato hornworms are a favorite of my muscovy duck and her ducklings, they’ve been feasting on 5-8 hornworms a day this week.
Do you get hornworms on your tomatoes & peppers? Have you ever seen one covered in parasitic wasp eggs?
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UGH…..
Well, we found our first deer tick last Friday. I took Tara on a hike on and when we got back this was crawling up her leg. Luckily, all those wild turkeys I see gobble them up.
The cats always end up with lots of them, luckily they don’t get Lyme disease. I pick them off the cats almost daily in the spring/fall here. I guess it’s time for daily tick checks for the pets and for us, that’s the best way to find them early.
Do you have ticks in your garden?
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Soothe the Itch with Plantain
Now that the weather has warmed the insects have come out as well. Here in Maine they come in droves at certain times of the year, at the moment black flies are biting like crazy. They don’t stop my from working outside. For the most part insects don’t bother me too much, but I do get bit on occasion. When I do I grab a leaf off a broad leaved plantain, pop it in my mouth and chew it for a few seconds, then I put the poultice on my insect bite.
This works like a charm every time, it also works well for bee and wasp stings. If you’d like to read a fascinating collection of the historical uses of plantains head on over and check out this article.
Do you have a tried and true way to dealing with insect bites?
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Hello Little Guy
One day, Mr Chiots and I were sitting out back under the maple tree taking a break and we noticed this little guy walked across a log.
I grabbed my camera to take some photos so we could i.d. it. A quick google search leads us to believe it is the caterpillar of the white-marked tussock moth. From what I read, they defoliate trees and the birds love to eat them.
They’re rather interesting little caterpillars, so intricate with so many different kinds of hairy tufts.
This is one of the things I love about gardening, you get to see so many interesting thing, particularly insects. Check out this spider I spotted the other day. I told Mr Chiots that I found Shelob in the garden. It had a grasshopper all rolled up in it’s web.
You just never know what you’re going to see when you head out into the garden every day!
Have you spotted any beautiful insects recently?
