Just when I was starting to pat myself on the back for nurturing the pansies that sprouted in a pot in the garage - why these will be the earliest pansies I've grown yet! - I was humbled this morning when I found little green aphids and little brown (spider) bugs on the plants and lurking on the surface.
Super.
I tried to pick them off the plants but kept finding more. I had just sown new pansy seeds three days ago that have not yet sprouted. Visions of aphid madness began to run rampant through my mind.
Time for a little tough love.
We're just coming out of a cold snap here in Connecticut; today is on the "warmer" side (at 30 degrees), so I dragged the greenhouse out of its winter home in the garage, propped it up by the back door, and set the pansy seedlings inside.
Hopefully I haven't doomed them to death.
I just can't risk an infestation before I even start growing new seeds.
The good news -- if it can be considered that -- is that I am going to try to garden by the moon again this year. Two years ago I did, and perhaps memories make it seem better, but last year I didn't bother to buy the Gardening by the Moon calendar and I had one of the worst growing seasons ever. So this year, I made sure to make my first sowing of seeds when the calendar recommended it. And interestingly enough, the attempted eradication of aphids today fell under the "Harvest, cultivate, weed and control pests" portion of the calendar.
Perhaps this will work out after all.
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