Thursday, May 20, 2010

A Jump Start On Summer

April Showers Bring May Flowers... err, April Sun Brought May Showers?

This year has been surprisingly warm and then shockingly cold, but this gardening season has me excited for the summer long rewards of all my hard work, and into the fall and winter if I'm lucky!

Now if I can just shoo away the bugs, bees, grubs, slugs, and my friend Peter Cottontail. Then I'd feel 100% comfortable that my garden will grow beautiful vegetables that I can eat, without my friends eating them all first! I'm not a fan (at all) of any insecticides or pesticides, but I also don't want the bugs in my garden. So, I went online and looked for various natural home remedies to lure my friends away. I wish that I didn't have to actually kill any of my nature friends, but when push comes to shove, I don't mind seeing the grubs go to the other side.

First thing first, I had grubs in my garden. Being that this is my first year as a gardener, I thought those gross little grubs were maggots. Equally as gross, but I was incorrect. I researched many different methods on how to get rid of these little white worms, but would only decide to do two things: dig them up and toss them in a can to die and set beer traps over night. I didn't like the idea of putting nematodes in my garden, since they too can be troublesome. And I didn't want to try milky spores, well because I prefer a more natural method.

Beer Trapping Bugs: First, I'd recommend you not use a beer that you like, and since it has been so delightfully warm outside, I choose to use a can of Bud whilst I sipped on my ice cold Corona with a lime.

In order to set the traps correctly, you must choose the areas of your garden where you saw the most grubs, and if you dug up part of your lawn like I did, you'll find them near the edges of the grass. They like to snuggle up in the roots where the soft, nutrient soil is. Dig a hole deep enough to put your can in so that the top is level with the ground. Don't pack the soil tight around the can, let it lay loose so the grubs can crawl freely to the pool of beer. Fill beer 1" from the top of the can, so that the grubs will reach down for the yummy drink, fall in, and drown.

I didn't have much success with my beer traps with the grubs, but I did manage to attract other bugs.

Sugar Bee: My neighbour so kindly burnt a bees nest out of a tree in his yard, leaving hundreds of bees homeless, and searching for a new place to live in my yard. (So thoughtful of him!) Though I am a HUGE bee fan and know that our plants need them for pollination each year, I'm not so much a fan of bee stings. The bees were swarming my family members in the front yard, in the backyard, and we found a nest in our BBQ! This new bee living arrangement wasn't going to work out, and I had to find a way to detour them from building their new bee hive in my backyard.

Enter Bee Solution: Mix 1 c Sugar with 1 c Vinegar, pour in a 2l bottle, add water until 2" from top. Also, cut up a banana peel (slice thin strips) and insert into bottle, and mix well. (Again, be sure to keep liquid 2" from top.) Tie string around the neck of the bottle and hang from a tree.

This nifty bee solution will attract the bees into the bottle and drown them. The website I found this on said this mixture will not only attract bees, but all bugs. Something about the mixture will attract them to the bottle before anything else. We'll see how it works. I put it up about 30 minutes ago.

Pesky Peter Cottontail: I love Mr. Peter Cottontail and I'd love to keep him in my yard. But he's already beed digging up my garden, before I planted my potatoes and onions, and I started to scratch my head, why? Now that I know Mr. Peter Cottontail knows of my grand plans to have a lush, beautiful garden, I must give him something better or keep him out.

I have two solutions that I will try before I build a 2' fence to keep him out.

#1. Plant two rows of onions around the edges of my garden. Rabbits don't like onions, so it's an option. But I have limited space for growing and I don't need bushels of onions the entire year, as I'd like kale, cucumbers, carrots, radishes, lettuce, peas, and beans, among many other plants. So, I'm not too excited about this plan. Maybe when I have a large garden.

#2. Sow clover around my entire garden. They say rabbits like clover more than any other plant and they will stop to eat the clover before entering my garden. I'm hoping that is true because this is the option that I am going to try first. If this one doesn't work, I'll move on to #3.

#3. Build a 2' fence around my garden. I don't really want to do this, but if Mr. Peter Cottontail doesn't understand that it's my garden and not his, I'm going to have to put my foot down and build a fence.

SLUGS: I don't really mind slugs, but when it comes to my tomatoes... I mind slugs. I've looked up several different solutions to the slug problem, and most of them involve completely natural ways of detouring these little pests, but almost all of them injure or kill the slug. I guess I'm going to have to accept that I can't keep everything alive AND have my veggies too!

Options: Eggshells, coffee grinds, or fireplace/bonfire ash. All of these things, when you circle your garden or the base of your plants, will detour the slugs from climbing all over your veggies and eating them. The eggshells, when broken up and scattered, have rough edges and will slice into the slugs exterior and they won't tread there any longer. The same goes for the ash. The coffee grinds have some sort of chemical reaction with the slugs exterior, and again, will keep the slugs away.

I haven't tried any of these methods yet, but I have a slew of eggshells waiting, as I don't drink coffee.

Well, now that I have soaked up some sun, taught you a few natural methods about bugs and pests, and successfully caught 2 bees in my trap. I'm going to go check on my baby veggies and snap a few pictures for my next post.

Happy May!

Love,
Katie

"If at first you don't succeed, try, try again!"

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