garden pests

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Contentment

curb garden purple flowers

Scabiosa ‘Vivid Violet‘

con·tent·ment
/kənˈtentmənt/
noun
a state of happiness and satisfaction
“The gardener spent a lovely 45 minutes working in the curb garden today.”

Gardening brings about a unique contentment: The work is satisfying, the results are rewarding, and the time spent with my face towards the earth grounds me like nothing else.

We had a nice breeze today, keeping the temperatures manageable.  Once finished with my appointments for the day, I spent ‘drop-in’ garden time at the curb. I love working the curb  garden. I can take care of the entire box in about an hour, then continue to enjoy the fruits of my labor from my kitchen window.

curb garden snap dragons, freesia

Snapdragons, Freesia, Cilantro and a self-seeded yellow annual

curb garden love in the mist, gravel

Love in a mist volunteering around the edges. Wooly thyme slowly filling in over the gravel.

curb garden yellow pest

Can you spot the visitor on this yellow flower?

The last of the daffodil foliage looked tired and spent, so I trimmed the bunches down to a few inches and tidied up the rest of the bed.

I spotted one or two lady bugs visiting the aphids. The ‘ladies in red’ generally consume a lot of aphids in one sitting, but they are currently outnumbered. I snipped off a few of the heavily infested branches and hope the ladybugs will tell their friends to return at dusk and take care of the rest.

curb garden pests aphids

Aphids!

My son pointed out a small wasp’s nest inside the hollow ceramic bird perched in the center of the garden. The ‘bird’ used to be part of a ‘self watering’ system but it broke off at the base. I put it at the top of the small trellis over the winter for a bit of color. Since wasps eat garden pests too, I’m going to leave the nest undisturbed. I know many people have aggressive wasps that chase them around the garden, but the ones that nest near our house are fairly mellow. Case in point: I lifted the ceramic bird, spotted the nest and one adult who simply hovered nearby till I replaced her nest. I guess she’s content too.

curb garden yellow bird

Ceramic bird housing a wasp’s nest

Did you find contentment today?

curb garden mint and daffodils

Chocolate mint escaping the confines of the box

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For the Love of Pumpkins

I love my pumpkins. After a good night’s rest I’ve decided that I won’t take it lying down.

Their demise that is.

In case you missed yesterday’s post, my nemesis the squash bug recently moved in. You can catch up here.

pumpkin female flower with bee

Female flower at the ready as a bee swoops in

Actually I did take one thing lying down: pictures. How else would I get a shot of the underside of the leaf and the attached eggs?

squash bug eggs

Squash bug eggs on the underside of a pumpkin leaf

squash bugs on stem

Leaves, tendrils, flowers and…more eggs

In a word, yuck!

I laid flat on my back and took photos looking up. Fortunately, no one walked by at the time or they surely would have called the paramedics. Amazingly, I managed to get back up, then spent the better part of an hour looking at the underside of every leaf on the pumpkin vines.

That scrutiny lead to another discovery: eggs on some of the pumpkin plant stems. In the end I’d scooped several adult bugs into my dry bucket, along with infested leaves and stems. I removed dead or browning leaves as well as spent flowers, making it easier to detect the adult bugs  They were happy to crawl on my glove and from there they went into a bucket. I dumped the infested leaves and bugs into the curb side green waste site, and within an hour the ‘green monster’ came by and scooped the entire pile into the back of the truck. This was another tip from one of the sites: rip them out and compost them.

pumpkin infested stems and leaves

Infested stems and leaves

The lovely Pauline at The Contented Crafter looked up companion plantings for me, something I hadn’t thought of nor come across in my reading. Ah, the web is vast indeed.  There is enough room in the boxes for additional plantings so I’ll give it a try.  Nasturtiums unfortunately need opposing growing conditions, but dill might work. I’m going to look for some at the garden center.

It’s unlikely that I removed all the eggs this morning. I’m pretty sure others still lurk on the vine. With daily checks, however, I hope to slow them down and possibly keep them at bay.

Stay tuned.

pumpkin vine trails deck

Trailing the deck

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Pumpkin Harvest, Cousin Shelley

Squash bugs

Squash bugs

If you’ve been following along, you’ll know this is pumpkin harvest week at gardeningnirvana.  The probable final count is ten, 12 if you count Frank and his cousin Shelley.  I left a few late-season fruits on the vine since I’m nothing if not optimistic when it comes to pumpkins.

The squash bugs continue unabated, so I need to come up with a plan.  I want to use the soon-to-be vacated planting bed for my cool season crops, but not until the bed is pest-free.

I’m soaking seeds on the kitchen counter as we speak for peas and beets.  Broccoli seeds don’t require a good soak, but I need to get busy setting them out soon. The first day of autumn in our hemisphere is still a month away. The changes in the air say otherwise.  I hate to miss a good planting opportunity.

In case you missed yesterday’s post, here’s another peak at Frank.

frank the pumpkin

Frank aka a pumpkin casualty

Frank wears his scars proudly, forgiving the gentle gardener for her blunder. Shelley on the other hand has piercing eyes and a lopsided grin, courtesy of an unknown pest. Since everyone loves a good ‘before and after’ shot, without further ado, here’s Shelley:

2013, 08-27

 

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It’s a Bug’s Life

Confession time.

Are you ready?

I’ve got some mad skills but they have little to do with gardening. I excel at raising insects and bugs.  Not to toot my own horn, but I think I might qualify for ‘Top Incubator of Garden Pests.’

Don’t believe me?  Come take a look:

After chatting you up about my gorgeous coleus, and my plans to take cuttings for next year, I found this:

Spider Mites or Whitefly?

Spider Mites or Whitefly?

I’m not sure if I have whiteflies or spider mites or both, but boy are they prolific. While watering the plant this evening, I removed a large, partially eaten leaf. When I turned it over, I could see that a small family had moved in. In just a week’s time, they spread to half of the plant’s leaves and part of the soil. Damn I’m good!

Next up, aphids.  Why settle for a hundred aphids when a gazillion will do?  The more the merrier, I always say.  I noticed a bit of ‘black soot’ on the stems of my soon to bloom Allium, but I just walked right on by.  Might as well let the aphids settle in first.

aphids

Aphids

By the time I made it to the garden center for a batch of ladybugs, the party was well under way.  The ladybugs arrive in a container saying pre-fed.  Huh? I guess all that good aphid food will just go to waste.

DSC_0017

Aphids, and the ladybugs that love them

Saving the best for last, will you take a look at that Scale?  I diligently removed all traces of scale earlier in the year while the tree was dormant.  I manually scraped the scale into a bucket, then went back over the young branches with warm soap and water.  I run a tight ship here. I cleaned those branches top to bottom to get the tree ready for the new residents.  They moved in early this summer, and show no signs of leaving.  In fact, it looks like they’ve invited a few guests.

scale on magnolia

Scale

In case you’re interested: