A Slow July
Well, better late than never, here is my review of July–it consisted of more aphid infestation and finally planting the community garden plot (yay!)
Just after ridding my herb boxes of the green aphids that sucked the life out of the dill, a new breed decided to take up a spot. Black aphids! New to me, and just as nasty, if not worse than the green ones. They sucked my nasturtiums dry, and I soaped them and ripped out the worst bits, but they still managed to kill them in no time at all!
Can you see the little critters?
Here is a close up of the buggies contained in a ziplock–look at that plump one on the bottom, probably about to burst with a zillion little baby aphids, ugh!
But on a lighter note, we got out and weeded some of the community garden plot and got some veggies planted just in time. I’ll get some individual shots once they’re a bit bigger, but here is Scott and me working the plot:
Scott has impressed me, turning out to be a great gardener, and has actually taken a liking to working in the dirt… he especially likes weeding and gets a lot of satisfaction from it, what more could you ask for?
Hopefully we’ll get to harvest everything in the fall, since it doesn’t get too cold out here, and rarely frosts until much later. It won’t be the most productive summer, but it feels good to have *something* growing! As long as we keep the weeds somewhat at bay, and I don’t let things dry out too much–it’s been really hot since the rain stopped–I think we should get a decent little harvest!
Till next time!
August 9th, 2005 at 2:04 am
your garden looks great. the earth looks nice ‘n’ soft ‘n’ rich…
what’s with the black aphids?! i got them for the first time this year, too! _and_ on my nasturtiums! and a friend of mine had them on hers, too! are they already in the seed before it’s planted, or something?
August 9th, 2005 at 1:04 pm
yeah, the dirt was better than expected, but it was rototilled earlier in the season, which helped a lot. unfortunately, some sections of dirt are pretty thin before you hit sand underneath. and the weeds!!! this is the first year in a long time that this plot has been used, so there are a lot of weed remenants that will have to be dug out over time.
seriously, what IS with the black aphids??? my nasturtiums are completely dead. i’ve never seen anything like it. vicious little things. and now of course they’ve spread to other plants. i’m not sure where they came from. i got my nasturtiums a few months ago now, and they were plants that i bought from a plant show (same with the dill that had the green aphids). i don’t know if they can really incubate so long, or if they just caught on once the weather heated up.
speaking of aphids, i should go soap the plants…
August 11th, 2005 at 10:24 am
I had those nasty little black ones too, but on my corn and sunflowers. I gave ‘em a good dose of neem oil/liquid soap and they are gone. . .keeping fingers crossed.
August 12th, 2005 at 12:37 pm
Aphids LOVE nasturtiums. They are unstoppable. Once they hit the nastutiums I give up and pull it all out.
Plus the females are all born ready to reproduce nymphs (no eggs even) without mating. That is just wrong.
August 12th, 2005 at 1:09 pm
I don’t know what to do anymore! I keep killing them, and then a couple days later they’re back! It’s almost like the dead ones can still have babies or something… they’ve moved on to the parsley, and I’m not sure I’m winning the battle.
*tear*
August 14th, 2005 at 9:18 am
i kidnapped a ladybug and put her on my nasturtiums where she laid eggs! the baby ladybugs hatched yesterday and i’ve been hand-feeding them aphids. mua-ha-ha-ha!
August 15th, 2005 at 12:15 pm
you’re an evil genius, quant!
August 17th, 2005 at 12:52 pm
I recently moved to the city and have been trying to figure out how to do some ‘indoor gardening’. I miss being able to grow my own flowers and veggies!!! I found this great article on ‘apartment gardening’ on this site called associatedcontent.com. They have a bunch of articles on gardening and things of the sort. You should take a look. Happy gardening!!
August 27th, 2005 at 12:04 am
Nice blog.I read some of you’re articles and they are really nice.