Life is in transition in our home right now. Laughing Water and Mr. Blueberry Eyes are done with school for the summer. We are, however, still tutoring another homeschooler for a few more weeks. We are nearing the end of music lessons for the year. Laughing Water is done with her guitar and piano recitals. She played at a local coffee shop last evening, along with other music students. Mr. Blueberry Eyes had his violin recital last week and has his piano recital next week. Music lessons will be done next week. Mr. Blueberry Eyes' last baseball game was Monday. There is a lot going on and I'm tired and wishing we could get into a quiet, summer rythm already.
My 6,000 sq. ft. garden is planted. This year has gotton off to a bad start. My starts did very poorly. They just wouldn't grow. I don't know if it was the potting soil, or the fact that I didn't water with kelp this year. I had to purchase about 43 tomato plants from a local nursery. Fortunately, they were on sale.
Another downer is that I already have grasshoppers in my hoop house! They've eaten 2/3 of my kale crop and about 3/4 of my basil. My mother-in-law sent me information on an organic substance you can get called Semaspore Bait that gives the grasshoppers a disease called Nosema locustae. It is supposed to be safe for other creatures and kills off grasshoppers for at least a couple of generations. I've ordered some and I'll post on its success or lack of success over time. (Thanks, Mom! I don't know how you knew!) I would be most interested in any advice on grasshoppers you can give. A childhood friend told me that her dad blends up a mixture of grasshoppers, garlic, and cayenne to spread around the plants and that he swears by that! (I think I will get a blender from the thrift store. I'm not going to put grasshoppers in my Bosch blender. Sorry. Ain't happening!) The next hurdle is collecting the critters!
I'm just finishing up a willow chair for our deck. I'll post pictures as soon as its done. It has been fun! Cheers! And happy June! - Nanette
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1 comment:
Dear Nan,
there is a farmer in Saskatuwan that grows about 5000 acres of organic grain. I talked to him on the phone last year and he told me that he never has problems with bugs because he sprays his plants with a mixture of blackstrap molasses and water. He said that all the farms around him had an infestation of grasshoppers and they were starting to come into his crop so he just sprayed and the next day hundreds of grasshoppers were dead on the ground. Not only is the sugar content too high for the bugs but it is great for the plants and so are the minerals. Lots of friends around here have had trouble with aphids (sp?) and so did I a couple of summers ago. Last year, I regularly watered all my plants with a mixture of molasses and water and I never saw a single aphid. My plants and garden were lovely too. Try it. I'm not sure it will work. It didn't seem to do much for my sisters earwig problem but you never know. It's cheap anyway.
Julie
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