Organic gardener growing food and flowers, lovin' pollinators and birds.

Front door view

Phlox "David", Black Eyed Susans and Pink Anemone along the front walkway.

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Mole Attack!

Hey, are you down there? Hole in the first grow bed.
What started out innocently enough about a month ago has evolved to Caddyshack proportions. Moles have been carving their way around the back garden, taking out some plants in the process. Even though they don't eat the plants (I suspect they are more likely after my worms then the grubs even), the process of moving the plant out of the way of his tunnel has caused one of my winterberry bushes to (half) die, and might actually be responsible for the tomatoes dying off in the back yard (or, it could be our friend, the wilt).

Nevertheless, I truly regret not stabbing the earth when I saw it move that day a couple of weeks ago.

I got sick of trying to dodge the tunnels and went to my local Agway yesterday and bought the organic Holy Moley Mole Repellent (derived from castor oil) to hopefully drive the critters away from my yard and back under the fence into the overgrown woods behind the house. But what I wasn't expecting was for the moles to partially vacate the backyard, cross (tunnel underneath??) the patio and driveway, and start meandering through my veggie grow beds along the driveway. 

Argh!

So last night I applied the treatment to the front lawn that has no activity. The repellent says (in my shortened summary): "to apply it to the area not yet affected, then the second day apply to the affected area, and then on the third day, apply it everywhere!! Everywhere!!!"

I think they forgot to include the evil laughter.

Anyway, for good measure I tried my father-in-law's mousetrap trick again, only to be foiled by the ants. They carried all the bits of peanut butter away. Today I moved the trap next to one of the holes and placed a bucket (without air holes) on top with a brick. It's a weak attempt but it's worth a shot. Over on Facebook, I'm being advised to buy windmills, vibrating sticks, chew and deposit Juicy Fruit gum in the tunnels and to buy Grubout (it's not organic so I won't be purchasing it). A search on Amazon led me to a Victory trap that if I'm pushed a bit further, I might actually entertain the idea of buying and using.

I really could do without this drama!
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Garlic harvest!

At least I did something right. Here's my harvest of German Extra Hardy Garlic.

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I've got blight

Despite my best efforts to grow tomatoes (my previous troubles this spring are noted here), I've never had such a terrible time than while living in Connecticut. I removed three plants tonight from the back grow bed that are showing signs of blight- the leaves were continually wilting for the past week despite extra waterings (I thought it was the extreme heat we're having, even though other plants weren't having a problem) and straw bedding I put down as a mulch to help conserve moisture. After appealing on Facebook ("Is anyone else using an umbrella to shade their tomatoes from the 90 degree plus heat?"), friends advised me to pull the plants since it looked like blight.

See the droopy leaves?
So tonight, that's what I did. I hauled them off to the trash can since it's important not to compost plants with signs of blight. In this case, I noticed brown discoloration along the stem of one plant. (I found some useful information from UCONN about blight here. And I was directed to this site by a friend, since I do have black walnut trees behind my home.) Since all seemed to be showing symptoms, they all went, even though I didn't seen brown spots on the other two.

I'm hoping it does not spread to the remaining two tomatoes in that plot, or to the grow bags adjacent to the plot. (I moved one across the driveway because a few leaves looked suspicious, but I believe I'm just paranoid at this point.)

How depressing.

Oh, and in other news, I am battling Japanese beetles successfully- they seem to be lessening now; perhaps they have heard of the dreaded shake and drop into dish detergent trick I am fairly good at now.  And I have moles in the back yard - a first this year that I'm not too happy about. My father-in-law showed me how to set a mouse trap and cover it with a flower pot so the mole might get into it (yes, I'm not too happy about being driven to this extreme) but I had to abandon that idea when I saw one of the squirrels trying to anxiously find it's way under the pot to get to the peanut butter. Oye! Abandon that idea! (No one was maimed or injured in this event.)


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Japanese Beetles

I think the insect I hate the most in the garden is the Japanese beetle. A few days of not being able to shake them off my plants into soapy water has led them to swarming numbers this morning when I went outside. They have taken a special liking to the new plum trees, so when I shake one branch, the motion of the tree sends more down. Blech! I have managed to get rid of a good number, I'll just have to be extra viligant and will have to break down and buy the milky spore disease this year and hope an application of that helps.

That's the problem with Japanese beetles. There really isn't any effective sprays that kills them. I opt not to use insecticides in my garden and try to make everything as organic as possible. In the past I've tried the bags and lures but they didn't have much impact. Two falls ago I applied beneficial nematodes to the lawn, but it didn't make too much difference in the number of grubs out there (this can either be attributed to me not having proper equipment to apply the nematodes or just not enough applications). While more of the lawn disappears with each growing season, I still find them in my garden beds, where I promptly cut the grubs in half with whatever tool I have on hand.

The main problem is that my garden might be the number one flowery oasis for these little buggers. Where else can they visit a food court offering roses, plum trees and daisies, not to mention strawberries, blueberries, grapes and raspberries that they (luckily) have not come across yet?

I suppose it's officially summer now that they have arrived.
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