Celery and a Fig Beetle had my interest today. I just planted celery seedlings in the parkway where my corn was. I read in “Golden Gate Gardening” that celery would like to be planted in pure compost, so I obliged with a whole bag of biodynamic compost between six seedlings. It also needs a lot […]
Aphids and Planting with Linden: I started at seven A.M, hand-watering. When it’s quiet out, and you take a good look at how things are in the garden, you get drawn in. First, I tidied up my tomato and watermelon vines (it seems there’s more of that to do every day now with the summer […]
The good, the bad, and the ugly: The chopped and melted buckwheat is reseeding itself on my flower island. I think that’s a good thing; My Brandywine tomato plant, the really huge one, has Blossom End Rot (thank you to a blogger who wrote in and told me). That’s bad; A critter, a suspected raccoon, […]
Is this some insect, nutritional defect, or fungus? Or, some alien hieroglyphic that I need to interpret? Whatever, it seems to be all over my garden. Cucumber 1 (Bushy): Cucumber 2 (A&C Pickling): Cucumber 3 (Japanese Climbing): Japanese Melon: Patty Pan Squash: Yellow and Green Bean: Even the Nasturtium! These plants are in different soils […]
Watermelon, Watering & Bugs are preoccupying me these days. When my watermelon patch (about 6’x6″ with seven plants of baby watermelon) started showing fruit, I could count at least 50 little green balls emerging. Now, it seems like things are amiss. (I’ve since learned that vines put out a lot of little ones, but they […]
I spotted this on a sunflower leaf about 8PM last night, and didn’t realize what I was looking at. I believe this is the back end. John Dunstan’s “Total Metamorphosis” video makes it quite clear that this is one stage of a ladybug transformation. This little creature was racing along beside the one above, which wasn’t […]
Crane Fly – I spotted this impossibly long-legged, mosquito-like insect on my cherry tomato plant today, and since I’m keen to attract beneficial insects to my garden, grabbed a photo and went to the internet. I learned it is a crane fly. I think I can spot the ovipositor, so I’m assuming it’s a female just taking a […]
Create an insectiary in your garden to attract beneficial insects! In “Wild Farm,” episode 15 of “Late Bloomer,” we meet Lisa Putnam and her sister Kathleen, who are master gardeners and they take us on a tour of Lisa’s family farm in Woodside, CA. Lisa explained that her insectiary brings in beneficial insects which eat the […]
I’ve been wanting to plant some California native plants that would bring in beneficial insects for my vegetable garden. On my search for a native milkweed, I found Grow Native Nursery in Westwood. https://www.facebook.com/GNNWestwood. This is one type of Solanum, which should bloom from July to December, which will be nice as other natives […]
Nasty Aphids Attack Corn! What else is new? Aphids attack everything! As I was out shaking the tassels to promote pollination, I discovered my second corn plant has been attacked. Everyone passing by my garden has told me they had trouble growing corn here, and I am no exception! Though, I naively thought I might […]
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