Please don’t tell the grasshoppers but I think I’ve outsmarted them! There are still a few of them left but not nearly as many as when I left. If ever we get really cool temps, I think they’ll be gone . . at least till next summer.
We did have to resort to a supposedly/hopefully safe for humans systemic bug killer. I had heard that covering the ground with flour would gum up their mouths and they would die so I used some of an old bag of flour that had been improperly packed and then stored in the heat and was no longer good to eat. You can see that the plastic has been rolled back but not removed. I think it’s now safe to remove the plastic and the metal pieces we used to hold it down.
The carrots are doing great. Vince and I are going to thin the carrots and beets tomorrow . . so he says. Otherwise, I’ll do it next week. I’m afraid I’m going to have a bit of a mess. If you look closely, you will see something else sprouting. When the grasshoppers ate the first crop and I replanted, I was so aggravated that I didn’t even pay attention to what had been planted where. I tried to move the rows over a bit just in case things came up from the first planting, they wouldn’t be right on top of each other but since there was no indication of where I had planted because the grasshoppers had eaten every single bite of my plants, looks like I missed on the carrot row. I could have sworn that was the same row on which I had planted carrots the first time but I guess we’ll have a bit of a surprise with the garden this year.
The grasshoppers had almost totally destroyed the strawberries and look at them now. The ones that are supposed to produce all year are blooming again and nothing has eaten the blooms. Yay!!
The grasshoppers had eaten the top out of all the asparagus . . just chewed them off about 10″ above the ground and now they’ve all sprouted new tops and are looking healthy again.
I so hated to use chemicals/poisons and we try hard not to do it but it would have been no garden and probably a total loss to the strawberries and the asparagus if we hadn’t done something to stop those grasshoppers. I’m so glad to see the garden getting green again. I have a few more things to plant this weekend. I don’t think the spinach sprouted but I have more I can replant and I never got the kale replanted. I love having a garden.
Pauline Kennelly says
Hi Judy, two comments. First, I am pleasantly surprised at how fast your web site now loads for me. Earlier, it seemed to take so long and I moved on. Now, I can just zip along and see it all. I think you mentioned once about a new designer?
Second. We also try to do without chemicals. We use diatamatious (sp?) earth. It kills all insects mechanically by penetrating the exoskeleton. And, if you buy the food grade DE, completely harmless to humans, if fact it’s good for you! There is one kind of DE that’s been heat treated and dangerous for human consumption, so be careful. We dust our “barn cat” with DE and she stays free of fleas. There’s lots of information on the Internet about it.
Love your garden!
JudyL says
DE isn’t a good option when we’re having to water every day or when the wind is blowing pretty hard, like it almost always is here. It’s silica in the “unsafe for humans” DE but when using either version, please be sure to wear a respirator. Those particles are very fine and you do not want to be breathing them in.
Ranch Wife says
I am so envious of your winter garden and it looks like your perseverance over the grasshoppers has paid off! We’ve already had a good freeze so my garden has gone to sleep until next spring. I’m taking a Master Gardner program in January so hopefully I’ll glean some gardening wisdom from the experts.