It’s been a while since I’ve chatted about the garden. Here’s what is happening now.
For some reason, my mint plants have taken ill. Their vines a red and their foliage has dried up despite above average precipitation.
Peppers are suffering from the same issues the tomatoes had a few months ago, only I have a feeling that I may get a few peppers out of it. I should inspect the house for anything that may be causing ailments with my plants.
The brush pile has not been moved. And frankly, I don’t care anymore. I’ll deal with it next season if it doesn’t become a nuisance. Besides, I had to use a lawn rake to pull out the creeping vine weeds (I don’t know the official name) that had attempted to take down my strawberries and mom’s herb garden. I should have done the same with the roses especially since the flowers are coming in. (Yes, there will be photos!) Once that passes, I will need to trim the big rose bush which has outgrown its trellis. Of course that could be a month from now.
The garden sale was this weekend with the local garden club. Plants should be going in the ground this week come hell or high water.
Plants that are in the ground right now: Sweet Corn and Sunflowers. I’m giving corn another try since we’ve been getting all this rain. With any luck, it should do better than the first time.
Onions are still in the ground. I doubt they are edible because they were in the ground from last year, but keeping them adds beauty to the garden especially when their flowers are in bloom, which should been the next couple of weeks I think.
I plan on giving carrots one last try this year and with a product that should get that going. I’m take a snap shot of the product sometime in the future. I’m sorta disappointed they didn’t have that product available for sweet potatoes. (I don’t like them myself, but the rest of the family enjoys them, and it is what my great-grandparents on both sides of the family used to farm in this area. I’m hoping that with this product I can take better care of my carrots this time around since on their own, the seeds of any type of carrot are very small.
In lieu of asking my uncle to bring his rototiller to the garden like he did last year, I am finding significant progress using a mattock. (The horizontal side, not the vertical side.) I’ve done more work getting dirt tilled more than any other gardening tool, including a shovel, hoe, and Garden Claw. The progress I’ve made with my mattock is so worth the callous in the palm of my left hand. (Next time I’ll wear work gloves!) The mattock is ideal for breaking that hard top surface of the dirt to get to the most ground underneath where the wonderful earthworms are. From there, a hoe or Garden Claw would be idea to bust up any of the larger dirt chunks that using the vertical and horizontal sides of the mattock still don’t break.
If the weather cooperates, plants from the garden sale may be installed as early as tomorrow.
This year’s goal is to thwart the vine borers, horrible insect that goes through several stages of metamorphosis as it sucks the life out of vine plants including zucchini, pumpkin, melons, and squashes. Spraying the vine where it comes out of the ground or near the roots was suggested by one of my fellow gardeners. I’ll give that a try this year.
Current methods of eradicating the Japanese beetle still seem effective. I haven’t run into a whole lot of their larvae (the grubs) while digging up dirt which is a good sign. I use Spectricide Bag-a-bug an put it downwind from the garden where the randy little porkers don’t commit their adultery on my plants then cannibalizing the leaves in the afterglow.
My biggest concern this year is for the honeybee, which although sighted in the neighborhood continues to worry the gardener and the farmer as much as the beekeeper. Bumblebees (which are also exuberant pollinators) have also taken a hit this year and their curiosity seems has been replaced with timidness. I’ve always considered the bumblebee as the B-team (no pun intended) when the A-team (the honeybees) don’t show up and they manage to work well with other pollinators even if they don’t produce honey. This includes the sweat bee and various wasps. It is important to remember that those insects are part of the ecosystem too and they serve a purpose even if their attitude is not as docile as the honeybee or bumblebee.
I’ve also noticed butterflies in the neighborhood. Be sure to put out some flowers that the bees and the butterflies like.
It would probably be ideal to conduct an environmental survey of the neighborhood especially after the nuclear accident in Japan earlier this year. While I doubt I’ll find anything radioactive, I’m more concerned about carbon dioxide levels.
It does no good for St. Louis City and County in Missouri and St. Claire and Madison County in Illinois to work on improving carbon emissions with the Mass Transit system if St. Charles County in Missouri doesn’t also work on cutting their carbon emissions. Of course, our state legislature (mostly republican) doesn’t believe that, but I’ve injected enough politics in this blog for one weekend.
The point is the Urban Sprawl of St. Charles County (now spilling into Lincoln and Warren Counties according to the 2010 Census) reflects poorly upon the Greater St. Louis Metropolitan Area. I would encourage St. Charles County, Warren and Lincoln County Residents work with Metro in St. Louis to expand the mass transit system out as Wentzville.
As much as the influx of white flight is boosting the economy in these counties, they are doing damage to the natural enviroment and the blowback can be seen downwind in the St. Louis Area.
Saving the bees globally, begins with controlling pollution locally.
