The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Bugs are a common problem in all gardens. They may pose a severe threat to vegetable gardens as they can make plants vulnerable to disease, rot, and viruses. Take a look at the bugs I have found while having my cell phone camera handy in the garden. These are just a few of the good, bad, and ugly that I have run into while working in the garden over the past 2 months

Bad

Adult green stinkbug: Known for chomping down on fruits, but also has a taste for other greenery. I found this one in a row of strawberries. Looks kinda cool for a stink bug. 

Mostly Bad

Red thorax beetle: I tried finding information on this beetle, but had little luck locating a description of this little booger. Beetles generally aren't favored in the garden unless they are big beetles that can eat smaller bugs. 

Bad

Candy-striped leaf-hopper: This is a common North American insect that carries plant diseases. This is a picture of one on my early peas and guess what? My peas all have gotten sick with a virus that kills them from the bottom up over a week or two after an initial discoloration of the leaves. Beauty kills in this case and I'll always squash them in the future.

The reason leaf-hoppers are bad bugs is that their feeding can cause damage by discoloring leaves, by interfering with the transport of liquids in the plant, by causing curled and stunted leaves, and by spreading disease. 

See week 11's post that references the discoloration in my pea plants.

Week 11 

Good

Centipede: Often used as a horror inducing image in scary movies, but that have just as many reasons to like them as they have legs. A few reasons are they feed on slugs, grubs, worms, cockroaches, ants, and flies which make them champions of the garden. 

Good

Ladybug: Beautiful, colorful, and wonderful for the garden. They eat aphids and do it with style. This particular ladybug was looking for an aphid with a side aphids for lunch.

Good

Spiders: They are welcomed in the garden because they pretty much kill anything that lands in their web. Can't say that I am personally a fan because they bite, but I've noticed they typically run when they see my hands getting close to them. I have a habit of not wearing gloves and spiders a good reason to do the opposite.

Bad

Cross-striped cabbage worm: These pesky worms or caterpillars are eating up my broccoli leaves and kale leaves like they are going out of style. I continue to find them and kill them by hand every other day. 

Bad

Lesson learned: Don't judge a bug by its appearance. The leaf-hopper is one to be reckoned with and I remember distinctly feeling captivated by its beauty while photographing it on a pea plant.

Week 11

My Sunday night was not a typical one as I was up until 1am in washing, cutting, and blanching kale for the freezer. If I could have one super power, it would be to control time.

Freezing Kale

Step 1: Harvest (My favorite part!!)

Step 2: Remove leaves

Step 3: Chop remaining stems into 1-2 inch pieces

Step 4: Cut leaves into smaller pieces and leave to the side

Step 5: Steam kale for 3 min.

Step 6: Place in ice water for 3 min.

Step 7: Drain excess water 

Step 8: Place on a towel and let rest

Step 9: Freeze

 

Step 10: Steam or boil kale stems for 6-8 min.

Step 11: Place in ice water bath for 6-8 min.

Step 12: Drain excess water

Step 13: Place on a towel and let rest

Step 14: Freeze

Bugs are a necessary evil in organic gardening. Removing bugs by hand is important and so is leaving some for the good ones to eat. Last year, we bought our house which came with rows of grape vines and the occasional vegetable plant in between rows. The squash I kept picking were big and beautiful, which was exciting until I started finding each squash plant had been eaten by bugs that burrowed inside and left jelly-like trails. I am trying to prevent this from happening by utilizing plastic planters around the squash to keep a barrier in place between the delicious squash and the ground to reduce the risk of intruders. I'm hopeful, "but one never knows" as one of my employers use to say.

Broccoli

Broccoli Head 4" (Harvest at 6 to 8")

The bush beans having been blooming for roughly a week and just started showing baby green beans. The curiosity and excitement of not knowing how many beans they will produce is killing me. There are roughly 20 bushes and I'm getting good vibes as all the plants are looking healthy. 

The early peas that I planted have been producing, but showing some discoloration in the leaves and have black spots on the pods, yet leave the peas on the inside beautiful and elegant. If you know what the discoloration is, please leave a comment. I add them fresh to my salads each day and they have a bitter sweetness to them. 

Discoloration on early peas

Marigolds repel pests

Week 9

The herb garden was 95% grass and weeds. So, weedless to say the bed is now 95% herbs!

Before                                      After

My new policy on weeding: 1 to 2 beds per week, no more and no less or I will get overwhelmed.

Truth be told, I am already in over my head, but I love working in the garden. If I didn't love it and have a little luck, my drive wouldn't have survived the late freezes with having to run out to the shed at 9pm after work to cover up the rows of seedlings night after night. I can't express how happy I am that we have gotten through the last freeze.

Take a closer look at some of the herbs that are popping up.

True Lavender

Chives

Cilantro

Basil

Parsley

Rosemary

Thyme

The spinach is ready to be picked, but I plan on leaving some of the smaller leaves so they can get bigger.  I plan on growing some edamame as soon as the spinach and mesclun mix has done its job. 

The squash plants look beautiful and seemed to grow a foot high in roughly one week. I saw people on Pinterest growing them upwards, so I added some bamboo and a wooden frame to support the plant. We'll see how this goes, as I am beginning to think the variety of squash that I have planted will not work well with the vertical growing idea. The cucumber plants were planted at the same time, but nowhere near the size of the squash plants.

Don't forget to include some marigolds in your garden to aid in pest control plus they add a pop of color! I moved a large St. Francis of Assisi statue into the garden and it fit the space perfectly. It is my understanding that he is a fan of the animal kingdom which is why he is chillin' near the chickens. 

Peas are continuing to take form and I can't wait to starting picking them off the vine and shelling them. I started another variety of carrot in a new bed that I haven't shown, some brussels sprouts, arugula, and a sweet pepper plant. 

Tomato Tomata! The tomato plants I direct sowed into the ground are starting to mature. I will try to remember to remove the suckers that grow in between the main stem and its extensions that bear tomatoes. Using google and the words "growing tomatoes," you can find a wealth of information on how to grow them in a healthy and productive environment.  

Peas

Check out some before and after photos to see how far the vegetable garden has come since it began 9 weeks ago in early March.

0 weeks

6 weeks

9 weeks

Pesky Squirrels and Peach Blossoms

My desire to become Carl Spackler from Caddyshack is about to manifest. I'm afraid if I go to bed tonight, I'll wake up in the morning with the bright idea to throw dynamite at squirrels. As usual, I find the damages from those pesky rats with fuzzy tails every morning when I check on the chickens and the new sprouts in the garden each morning. In response to the local squirrel A-Team, I added a plastic netting over the bed that was left from the prior owners of our house which protected their grape vines from birds.

As I mentioned in my Week 1 post, I left a row of potatoes and onions open because I laid hay over the plants and had not noticed any disturbances on the soil. I suppose the squirrels took what they could get and dug around 3 holes in the that one bed.

 "I smell varmint poontang. And the only good varmint poontang is dead varmint poontang, I think."
-Carl Spackler from Caddyshack

These beautiful peach blossoms have been introducing themselves and I'm hoping to get my hands on some yummy peaches this year. Last year, there were only two peaches because there was a late frost that killed the buds before they blossomed. This is my first experience with peach trees, so we'll see what happens.

I haven't done any research on peaches, but it is about time I learn given there might be an abundance of peaches soon to care for in the garden.