What Did You Do In The Garden?

[digitS']

I spent hours painting myself into a corner in the gardens.

My hope for a Sunday is for little work but the weeds were beginning to oppress the dahlias. The oppression is eased ... but it was already time to go back to the first beds weeded and clean up what was missed. There are also tiny purslane weed seedlings just showing here and there at the soil surface. They are difficult even to see.

Eighty-five percent of the dahlia garden is now dahlias and bare soil. Remaining ground has the stragglers missed 10 days ago. Not a weed flower in sight!

So, I turned my attention to a customary Sunday task, spraying. Earwigs!! They hide in the growing tips and chew holes in the leaves. In a couple of weeks, they will begin shredding flowers! Earwigs must hide out in the bushes and under the neighbor's shed through the winter. That's where the damage first becomes noticeable, every spring.

They have moved beyond those locations and nearly every plant has a couple of small earwigs. This year's first generation and it's time to spray. So, I sprayed.

Now, on to the big veggie garden, today? What about the forecast for high winds this afternoon? That place will be a dreadful location to be sitting on a stool, slammed by 30+ mph gusts! Go back to the protected dahlia garden and get those stragglers? I sprayed that horrible bug killer on those beds!

Right now, I'm wondering if there are enough weeds to justify hanging out in the shady corner of the little veggie garden. Painted myself into that corner ... that shade comes from big evergreens that lift the wind and it's in the lee of a hill.

Steve

 

[so lucky]

Steve, you work too hard for a retired person.

 

[so lucky]

I found my first two Japanese Beetles on my roses yesterday.

 

[Larisa]

We were freezing, soaking rain and blamed climate.

 

[ninnymary]

Steve, what do you use to spray those earwigs? I have them and have been using Sluggo Plus. Seems to work but I still have some.

Mary

 

[Smart Red]

I found my first two Japanese Beetles on my roses yesterday.

No-o-o-o-o-o-o-oo-oo! I don't want those JBs back! I just might post traps as threatened in the past. I hate those things!

 

[so lucky]

@Smart Red, If you put up traps, put them adjoining the crazy neighbor's property.
@Larisa, did the rain and cold kill many of your plants? I saw on TV that much of Europe had floods, too. The weather is so strange and unpredictable.

 

[digitS']

Steve, what do you use to spray those earwigs? I have them and have been using Sluggo Plus. Seems to work but I still have some.

Mary

Sluggo Plus has spinosad.

I am fairly sure that I once read that in one study, spinosad had very limited control of earwigs. Now, I see that the spray has been comparable to Sevin in peach orchards. Well, good!

I sprayed 1 bed with spinosad and the remaining with Bonide's systemic. I don't know if they just migrate away or not but that stuff clears them out. I'll see how the spinosad does.

Realizing that there are more living things that can suffer from the wind than us humans, I built a trellis for the marigolds this morning. Then, the forecast winds didn't show up right on time. So, more weeds went down to the hoe and

digitS'

 

[ninnymary]

Steve, is the Bonide's systemic organic?

Mary

 

[digitS']

No Mary,

it is not. As a systemic, the plants become toxic for a time.

I began using it against thrips. Thrips can damage buds to the point where they cannot open. They are most interested in the plant flowers and are highly mobile. Since they are everywhere and can show up anytime, a useful pesticide has to have a residual effect.

Bayer systemic is another systemic, synthetic pesticide. It also has a miticide. Spider mites are absolute death for dahlias, many seasons. The evergreens and probably many other plants have mites and they just seem to blow in. I think our arid summers are especially stressful on dahlias and their resistance is weakened.

Steve