Pests are Back

The cutworms are back. I'm really frustrated and wondering if I'm going to eventually cave and just get something to put in the soil. They are seriously the grossest looking bugs I've ever seen!!!


My lettuce is growing and looks great, but I should have had starters as back ups to replace the ones I harvest. Live and learn, live and learn.


By the way, don't leave your start trays out in the rain. They flood. I had to do some emergency transplanting.


By the way, don't wait too long to transplant. It's not good for your plants.

5 Things the Newbie Gardener Should Get

About six months of gardening experience logged now, and here is what I've come up with:

1.        Knee Pads

I first saw these knee pad contraptions that you strap to your knees on my elderly next door neighbor, who uses them frequently.  I picked up a pair for myself and have been pleased with the results.  No matter how young or fit you are, there is only so much crouching you can take. Knee pads enable you to kneel and do your gardening business with ease. 

2.       Hand Shovel

For planting, pulling weeds, and all other gardening pursuits.  I use my frequently.  I prefer the  non-rust kind for those thoughtless moments when I forget them outside and they get wet!

3.       Big Shovel

For big gardening overhaul, you need a big shovel.  This will help you turn over more dirt at a quicker pace, and everyone should own at least one.

4.       Gloves

Bugs ick me out, so if I have to touch them, I do it with gloves.  Invest in better quality ones so you don’t have to keep replacing them.  Mine are pig skin. 

5.       Sticks and Tomato Cages

I have lots of wooden sticks and tomato cages in my garden.  I use sticks to cordon off  new seedlings, prop up unruly plants, and so forth.  For the tomato cages, I use them to prop up plants (mint, spinach, tomatoes, beans, etc).  It is essential to keep plants from plopping over on the dirt, where slugs and the like enjoy burrowing into them and causing destruction. 

Trying Again

It’s round III in the garden. After two disastrous attempts at having a fall “crop” (I say crop, but my house isn’t big enough to have a real “crop”), I’m trying again.  I tried not to get discouraged the first couple rounds when pests destroyed all my new starters.  I didn’t even get too upset when I found hundreds of cutworms lounging in the soil beneath the ruins of my spinach and lettuce. 

I figure that the first couple years will be a learning curve anyway, right? 

So this weekend I finally got around to double-checking to make sure there weren’t any cutworms in the dirt I had carefully combed the weeks before—there weren’t.  I put dirt back in their appropriate places and transplanted starters (spinach and lettuce) and I’m waiting patiently.  I did go to Lowes to look for some pesticides “just in case” (remember I’m trying to be organic) but didn’t find any to my liking, so I’m back to holding my breath.  I also want to try putting a nail next to each starter to prevent cutworm destruction, but I haven’t gotten around to that either.  Such is the life of a gardener with kids…you gotta do things in stages.  Hoping the bastards don’t get the munchies before I get out there to do my preventative measures. 

I also planted some onion bulbs I bought from Lowes.  I haven’t been very successful growing root plants, so here is some new experience under my belt! 

The Plague of Cutworms

It was most definitely the cutworms that ate my garden. 

Here are some rec's people gave me (remember I'm trying to be mostly organic here):

- place a nail next to the plant to prevent cutworm from curling around plant and eating it.
- Diphel Dust
- BT by Safer
- get a chicken (where the hell would I get one by the beach??)

This is what I did:

- tore up garden and picked out cutworms (found around 100 of the bastards--still having nightmares of cutworm larva)
- waiting a few days
- searching dirt again
- apply Diphel Dust or BT
- transplant seedlings and place deep nail next to each one
- hold my breath and hope that the cutworms don't come back

In hindsight, I saw a caterpillar a while ago and didn't know what it was.  I should have picked it out then. 

Problems in Spinach Land

I planted about 5 of those spinach plants you can buy at Lowes. Today, I officially have 4 of the 5 plants mowed down by a mysterious predator. At first I thought maybe it was rats or some kind of rodent, but today I found this from harvestwizard.com:

Plants are eaten or cut off near soil level. Cutworms are gray grubs ½- to ¾-inch long that can be found curled under the soil. They chew stems, roots, and leaves. Place a 3-inch paper collar around the stem of the plant. Keep the garden free of weeds; sprinkle wood ash around base of plants.

This is what the latest tragedy in spinach-land looks like:

I did find weird worms in this section of the garden when I was planting, but I didn't think anything of it. Turns out, being a gardener is more than just planting stuff, it also involves pest control.

I just Googled the cutworm. Here is is:

Wikipedia article about cutworms

So they are not really worms, but actually caterpillars. I definitely saw these guys in my garden, so now I'm thinking this is what is attacking my spinach plants. Time to learn what gets rid of cutworms. 

I admit, I'm gettting really frustrating with this round of gardening. My summer garden was so easy and fun to grow, and these autumn crops suck ass. The pests are all over the place--we're getting invaded by slugs again. I set out beer traps that are working pretty well, but now I have to re-plant a bunch of stuff. I've got some starters going.

Couple lessons here:

* keep starters constantly starting so I always have something in rotation

* keep said starters protected from predators--set beer traps around them to ensure their safety

* get to the bottom of the spinach predator.  Try methods listed by harvestwizard.

The Pumpkin Harvest

Last year's pumpkin score: 0

This year: 1

Next year: hopefully at least 2-3 good ones.

Just picked today, about the size of a basketball.  Firm, healthy, and a brilliant shade of orange.  This is the lone pumpkin that came to fruit after planting 2 plants that took over a large portion of my garden.  Let me tell you...what a pain!  We had lots of little pumpkins start, only to have the plant drop them off the vine.  Online research indicates that my plants were maybe not getting fertilized.

So, here are my lessons learned:

* plant in June, just like I did.  I may have even planted them too early.  I can't remember if I planted them in late May or June.  Either way, I picked this baby today and we're still over a month away from Halloween...so maybe a little later would be okay.

* plant in one area.  The two plants I had grew in different directions and were separated by corn, yellow squash, and lots of other plants.  I think this may have contributed to the fertilization problem.  I can only assume that by some stroke of luck maybe an insect out there randomly helped fertilize the one pumpkin we got.  At any rate, I think planting them in one area will help.  Also, next year I'm going to do a better job of reining them in, because these plants like to grow everywhere. 

Spinach is Good for You!

I planted spinach plants yesterday.  I cheated a bit and bought the already-grown plants from Lowes.  I also bough seeds to plant when I get some room in the garden.  I figure there are a lot of months left before I can plant summery things, so there is time. 

You're supposed to plant spinach either in the fall or late winter.  If you plant them in the fall, you're supposed to do it 6-7 weeks before the first frost.  If in the late winter, 6 weeks before average last spring frost date, starting seeds indoors or somewhere protected.  The thing is, I live in Southern California near the beach where there is no frost, so I'm thinking this doesn't apply to me.  Moving onwards.

You're also supposed to prepare the soil by loosening it at least up to 10 inches deep, mixing compost and all that kind of good stuff to make the soil rich and humus. 

Thin plants as they grow so the leaves of plants next to each other don't get entangled.  You want to give them space.  I learned this the hard way--good crops need good space. 

More on this later.

Coming up:

~ still dealing with pests
~ succulents
~ transforming a blah winter garden
~ pumpkins