wireworm trap

This picture shows my wireworm trap in action.  I stuck a number of full-grown carrots throughout my raised bed.  I pull them up and check for takers.  Wireworms are not very fast.  In fact, they often "play stick" when pulled up in the trap.  I usually take my time and cut them in half with an old plant description stick. 

I felt silly using good carrots as bait -- but they have lasted a couple of weeks already and don't show much sign of decay.  I hear you can bury potatoes too but I haven't tried it yet.

using my new pest knowlege

I took a class last weekend on pest management in the garden through Seattle Tilth.  Walked away with a better appreciation of Integrated Pest Management -- and a curiousity about my weeds and flowers.

In IPM, prevention is the first strategy.  And a gardener must realize that there is no such thing as perfect.  A few holes or bad bugs doesn't mean failure -- it means you are part of something alive.  A gardener using IPM must be patient.  Live with the 'bad things' and make sure they are bad before acting.  This keeps you from applying a solution that is worse than the problem. 

I found these leaves in my raised bed -- but I don't know what is causing the problem, so my strategy is to OBSERVE until I do.  See, I am not too late.  I need time to understand (or to learn so I can understand.)  If the damage spreads quickly to other leaves, then I will act fast.  If not, I am free to dawdle. 

In the meantime, I can pick on the things I do understand.  Practicing IPM means spending more time looking at your garden closely.  The big things are obvious when they arrive.  

But the little things are there too.  This catapillar I found on on a piece of bark that made it into the raised bed.  Its color was so unusual (to me) that I took a picture of it before I squashed it (too close to my cabbage.) 

By looking closely I also found this guy.  Turns out it is a stink- or a shield-bug (it took a lot of internet research to figure that out.)  How did I make it out of childhood and not know that?!   I wasn't sure what to do about it since I kept seeing online that it likes to eat hawthorn leaves until I found this page that said it was happy eating any broadleaf plant.  Since I found it on the trellising above my struggling (hole-y) bean plants, I got rid of him.

The first 'aggressive' IPM strategy is physical control -- which includes making barriers and handpicking offenders.  I found the four slugs below under the wrapper leaves of my cabbage.  Clearly garden pests, they did not survive the shoe test.

 

I was really worried that all the holes in my cabbage leaves would mean the heads would be teaming with worms -- but they were beautiful once I opened them up.  I am wondering if all the damage was done by slugs and not the offspring of the white moth I saw in the yard.  But the slugs don't explain all the tiny poop I saw.  The next step in IPM strategy is to introduce natural predators to your garden -- maybe I got lucky and some good bugs took care of the (possible) cabbage maggots for me.

The last strategy for eliminating pests using IPM is employing a chemical control.  The tip is to always start with the mildest remedy -- such as soap spray.  And then make sure your soap spray is made out of a mild soap like Doc Bronners if you want to keep you veggies as healthy as can be.

Finally, I figured out that I am going to have to learn a lot more about bugs and plants before I really understand what is going on in my yard.  There is a lot to know about bugs (good and bad) and their lifecycles.  There is a lot to know about plants -- what I want to eat, what good bugs need to thrive, and what a weed's location might say about soil.

highs and lows in the garden

The kids found some strawberries in the yard.  They were pretty pleased with themselves.  Picked them without asking and then ran inside to show off their treasure.

I also found my own treasures in the yard.  Tonight I made a soup featuring fennel and chard from my raised bed.  It turned out to be rather tasty.  And I was pleased that I made good on my desire to eat more veggies today.

In the harvesting though I ran into one of my arch nemeses: a wireworm (visible on the railing next to the bulb beneath the hole it was creating on the root.)  Wireworms are known to eat roots and stems.  Thank goodness it wasn't interested in the bulb or my dinner would have been blown....   

I wound up bagging it so I can take it to a garden pest talk over the weekend.  I am wondering if the slow growth in my raised beds is due to wireworm damage -- or just a general lack of sun and heat.

drawn in by the winter catalog....

I've been feeling a bit low lately about my gardening prowess.  It is certainly limited.  Something has been foraging for my pea seeds -- and it seems that I have allowed catapillars/cabbage worms/loopers to get the best of my cabbage.  There are now holes that dig into the core of head and plenty of poop to go with it.

According to the Territorial Seed catalog, I should have sprayed with Bacillus thuringienses at the first sighting of a moth near my plants (which I saw weeks ago, but did nothing more than fret about.)  Since I delayed, I can try baiting the cabbage worms with wheat bran soaked in BT solution.  I will probably try that if I can find some time next week -- and see if it makes a difference.  I hate seeing potential food turn to waste but I have a limited tolerance for bugs in my food.

I was griping to my husband about what a failure I am turning out to be as a farmer and he reminded me that I am just starting out and that we would all pay a lot more attention to keeping the crops healthy if we were actually dependent on the food.  Which is true.  And I realized that I got into this adventure because I wanted my family and I to eat more veggies -- and that gardening isn't a great way to eat more veggies.  Eating veggies is a great way to eat more veggies. 

So it is time to separate the veggie eating goal from the garden.  I can address the veggie eating goal by changing what I buy at the food store (and supplement with the few edible suprises I produce as I gain gardening skills.)  And in the meantime, I should admit that I am enjoying the garden in itself because I like learning how the plants grow and what pests to look for and what works where.  And I hope I will feel a lot more successful if I let the garden be just about gardening, learning about nature, and exploring my relationship with it.

So I decided to go ahead with a winter garden and ordered more things from Territorial Seed.  Turns out I am a sucker for things purple and red.  I have been really curious lately about mixing edibles and ornamentals.  I think most of these things (maybe not the carrots) are great candidates for the front yard.  Four things I will be trying this fall are:

• Dragon carrots
• Falstaff brussel sprouts
• January King cabbage
• Walking onions

welcome guest

After weeks of watching aphids and holes emerge and re-emerge in my raised veggie bed, I finally spotted a good sign: a lady beetle.  Help is on its way!  I hear ladybugs are great eaters of aphids.

Ironically, I also saw my first ant in the garden today too.  Ants are known to protect aphids for their honeydew. 

So let the battle begin....  I know which side I am rooting for!

Culprit?

My kindergartener says this mammoth slug looks like a really dirty chocolate kiss.  It was larger than a bouncy ball from a gumball machine -- but not as big as a kiwi. 

Definitely large enough that I was afraid to smoosh it.  It is the largest slug I have ever seen in my yard.

garden life

Spent some time today in the fruit bed weeding.  Found lots of oxalis.  It's a pretty little weed with its dusky purple cast -- but I have been told it is a dangerous one -- to dig out the entire root or this little guy will multiply fast.  And I am being diligent about it since in another corner of my yard clover and vetch has overrun the existing periwinkle and is threating my nandina too.

In more upbeat garden news -- while weeding the fruit bed my son found 4 apples growing on our columnar tree.  This is the first time it has born fruit (it was planted 2 years ago.)

His discovery took me by total surprise.  I heard that stocking covers help prevent apple maggots infestation (which we are prone to in this area.)  I think we were supposed to get the covers on before the fruit reached nickel size and now I have quarters.  Plus I was caught unprepared since we have never had fruit before.  I bought nylons at the foodstore tonight so I can cover up my beauties tomorrow. 

Another surprise in my apple tree was the spiraled dweller below.  With my snail lover nearby, I had to quietly palm him and quickly launch him over the fence into the street.  I didn't go check on his landing...  I can be mean when there are edibles involved.

I also spent some time just enjoying the aesthetics of an abundant garden.  I am so glad I started planting months ago.

more trouble

I was taking a peek at my large raised bed while I worked around the yard today and heard myself wondering -- why does it look like a strobe light in the garden?  And lo and behold I found a perfectly white butterfly flitting beneath a broad cabbage leaf.  All I could think was cabbage worms!

Really, how do people grow vegetables without insects?

I shooed the butterfly away and replaced the remay -- and cursed myself for taking it off in the first place.

Please, please, please let me raise some edible food.

Plants under attack!

Found this big (little) guy attached to the stem of a watermelon seedling a few days ago.

Maybe a fruit fly?  But then a few hours later I spotted some more.  Big ones, little ones, brown ones, green ones.  I found them on my seedlings.  I found them on my herbs.  Especially on the red sage that I bought to plant in the front yard.  And I should have known better.  One of the things I love about the garden blogging community is that so many people are writing about what they are up to that I get a really good sense of what I should be thinking about as a beginner.  And just a couple weeks ago Thomas at A Growing Tradition posted on his run-in with aphids and shared that it makes sense to quarantine new plants before bringing them inside so pests are not spread.  Well, if I had only listened....

I still don't know what the creatures were but I could only assume they were up to no good. The only thing I could think to do after noticing these winged things all over the place was to spray them with soapy water (it was dinner time and I had no time to run out to the store.) 

Can you see their tiny carcasses? 

In other bad news, I found my first slug in the raised bed veggie garden.  One of my choy sum leaves was riddled with holes -- and sure enough there was a teeny, tiny slug roaming around underneath.  I smooshed it and hope that it was a lonely traveler but know that is not likely.  I am going have to accelerate my hunt for copper tape or foil to use as a deterrent.  I heard that you should use copper that is at least 4 inches wide -- but all that I have found so far is 1 inch wide (and expensvie at that!)   

Not a good bug ...

On Scaredy Cat Farm, knowledge is power.  So after I saw this green bug during sod removal on Monday, I sent its picture in to Seattle Tilth.  Their vision is "to transform the NW region into the organic gardening capital of the world."  And I think they can do it because they run a fantastic helpline that is quick, informative, and sympathetic towards newbie gardners like me. 

Unfortunately, this bug is most likely a cutworm.  The helpline would need to see its legs for a positive id --but since I left it to its own devices on Monday, I wouldn't even know where to begin searching for it now.  I guess I am going to have to start bagging and tagging unknown critters until my knowledge of good and bad bugs is complete.

Cutworms can be really damaging to vegetable starts.  They like to eat the leaves off the crown of emerging plants.  I should have eliminated it.  I am not big on smooshing bugs -- but sometimes you have to tough it out for the greater good.