Grasshoppers

The grasshoppers aren’t horrible this year . . there are some but not so many that they’re eating everything, including our window screens! A friend who lives on another side of town said they’re terrible at her house – eating the leaves off their trees and devouring every tender plant she has.

One year I had planted a fall garden and was watching the little seedlings break through the ground. They were about an inch tall . . several rows of plants. I went out one morning to check on them and . . gone! Not a sign of green. Had I not been watching their progress, I would have sworn the seeds never sprouted. The End! . . for that garden! I think that was the year they ate holes in our screens. I told Vince . . when they start nibbling on the tires on my car . . I’m outta here!

So, after planting all my seeds over the weekend, I looked at all my handiwork and thought . . GRASSHOPPERS! Even with shade cloth on the greenhouse, it’s still too hot to put anything in there. There’s no ideal place to put all those little pots so I was asking Vince if he could build me a little screened in cage to put the plants in and he remembered seeing a little plastic “greenhouse” on sale at Tractor Supply so we went back there. I’ve been disappointed in our Tractor Supply lately. Customer service seems to have changed a lot in the recent past. They always have a couple of markdown shelves along one wall and that’s where Vince had seen them. He came back to where I was and said “They’re gone! They must have marked everything down and sold it. Nothing is left on the markdown shelf.” He found an employee and asked him and he acted like he’d never seen a markdown shelf but said he would go ask his manager. The guy came back and said the manager said they sold both greenhouses. I was wandering around the store while Vince was looking for something else and stumbled upon the markdown stuff . . in a different location and there were the two greenhouses. It’s not a huge store. Someone in there should know that stuff got moved and for the manager to say they sold both of them without even knowing that . . not good customer service in my opinion.

Greenhouse

Anyway, we bought both of them. They were regular $19.99 and marked down to $10.99 each.

Greenhouse

It’s all plastic with no ventilation and even with it in the shade, we can’t keep it closed up as hot as it is so we bought some screen and we’re going to cover that opening with screen with a way for me to easily water the plants.

Greenhouse

I isn’t big but should be large enough for what I have planted and should offer the protection we need from bugs.