Good morning, Zone 9’ers! Things have been busy around my house for the last couple weeks and I haven’t carved out any time to post. I had some time to myself this morning and wanted to post an update on my garden and my compost pile.
First things first: My “hot” composting never got hot. Below is a picture of it. I think the problem was that I didn’t add enough “brown” material. I’m going to try adding more “brown” this weekend and see what’s what. If that works, great. If not, I’ll just let it be and keep adding to it, turning it, and be thankful I have it. If there’s one thing I’m learning with this gardening stuff it’s that I have no control over some things. It’s teaching me patience and flexibility, both of which I was in dire need of lessons in (yes, yes, even with two kids……especially with two kids!).
These are my tomato and pepper plants growing in my screened porch area. I’ve already been battling tiny green worms and whiteflies. And I thought growing them inside would keep the pests to a minimum. I’d hate to see what they’d look like if I planted them outside! I found a recipe for homemade insect soap online, and I’ve been applying it every few days. The whiteflies have all but disappeared. The tiny green worms seem to be barely surviving, and my hope is to one day check the plants and come away with a count of zero. The recipe for the insect soap is as follows:
1 quart water
1.5 tsp dishwashing liquid
Several drops of vegetable oil
Spray bottle
Just combine all the ingredients and spray liberally on your plants. I’m using a pump sprayer. I’m also using this on my directly sown garden outside. It really seems to be doing the trick. I also companion planted nasturtium, marigold, garlic and scallions, so I think that’s helping keep the pests down too.
And finally, here’s my garden! It’s a raised bed median in our driveway. When we moved in six years ago, it was full of azaleas. The previous owners had let them get very long and spindly and they were a mess! I’m not a lover at all of azaleas, so my dream was to pull them out and put in a flower garden. My husband laughed. What, I asked. No, no, go ahead, he said. Well, six years later, this is the first time I’ve been able to plant anything in there. We hacked all the azaleas down to stumps. Pulled out the bigger few with my truck. To make a long (very, very long) story short: Through pulling out with a truck, digging out with a shovel and backbreaking labor, we were finally able to rid EVERY SINGLE AZALEA from the bed. We gave it one full summer to make sure none were going to sprout again. None did, and I declared victory! I wanted it to be wild and crazy and full of color, so I took my time choosing plants. Mostly pilfering cuttings from friends. I have Gerbera daisies, a bleeding heart, several butterfly attracting bushes whose names I don’t know, ixora and devil’s backbone. Then I decided to plant a garden instead. I have to say I am so happy with that decision. I’ll be putting in a couple trellis this weekend for my pole and greasy beans to climb on. They’re already reaching for each other, so I’d better get busy! Thanks so much for stopping by and taking the time to read my ramblings.
This is a random picture of my husband’s pineapple plant. No fruit yet, but we’re keeping our fingers crossed. There’s also another he planted in my garden.
I’m trying to be organic. If anyone has any advice on organic pest control that they’ve tried and it’s worked, I’d love to hear it!
Oh, one more thing! My children have taken up the hobby of edible flowers/weeds. Here’s some purslane my son found in our yard (which is pretty much just variations of different weeds with a few blades of grass here and there) that I asked him to dig up and put in a pot. We have two dogs. Need I say more? My daughter is clearing a path on both sides of our walkway in front of our house where she will be planting a variety of lettuce greens, herbs and edible flowers. I’ll post a pic of that as soon as it’s more than bare earth covered in newspaper and dirt.
