Preparing to work in my garden and Hummingbird question

[AmysMacdog]

Actually preparing to wage war in my garden and know many of you feed your buns from your gardens, I figured I better seek your advice on products.

I posted earlier this year about my issues with slugs, voles and roly polies (Sow bugs).
I lost at least half my dandelions to the voles. Not sure what I will do about those yet.
Now I have alot in pots to keep them safe! So I have between now and spring to eradicate as many as these things as I can so I don't hurt the toads and frogs we have here in the warm months. They are gone now until spring, except the green frogs out front but I'll leave their area lone for now.

The rest of the garden was a complete disaster all year. All I got was a batch of green beans and a couple of squash. Thats it. It was pitiful. So me and my buns would really like to ask everybody what products if any do you use in the garden? :all-ears:

I was reading about pill/sow/roly polies and they can live for 8 years!!!! :evil: So I was planning to set up bait stations (they gather under boards during the day and spend winter under them) so I can gather them up this winter. And I was planning to use sevin dust in certain parts of the garden and on the ground under the rabbit hutches where they feed on the dust from the feeders.
Now to be a little silly for a moment, I want to know how on earth somebody figured out that these bugs live for 8 years?! It was probably one of those gov. run projects. :?

The slugs will gather under the boards too so that won't be an issue but I believe they are thriving under my house so I'm going to have to go uder there and do something. Just not sure what to use yet. :roll:

While those pest are the biggest issues there are the usual others pest eating leaves. I have BT for caterpillars but what kinds of products do you use for flea beetls and aphids?

And was just wondering if anybody else on here feeds the hummingbirds? We don't have any during the winter here but some parts of Georgia are getting winter HBs. I still have a couple of juveniles here right now but they should be leaving soon. If any of you do feed the birds, please let me know. The numbers are increasing for winter birds here. (none in our county yet but not far away)
I love the HBs, the pineapple sage is blooming right now, they are thoroughly enjoying it and the feeder before they head south.
Thanks everbody!

 

[Marinea]

We use only natural products, so bear that in mind. Our garden was really sad this year, too. The weather (too much rain) had everything to do with it. That can't be helped, really. You just shrug it off and try again. All we use in ours is composted manure and rely on the swarms of ladybugs we get each year. If we have a bug problem, we use some baking soda and water sprays, or perhaps some Neem oil.

For slugs, put out a dish of beer.

We feed hummingbirds. We have lots of their favorite plants, but we also put up several feeders (down now for the season). We use a dry mix of feed that we mix with water. We get it at TSC. I think we are on our fifth generation or so of returning birds. They will return to the same place each year where they know there will be ample food. We get three or four different kinds up here- my favorite is the ruby throated.

 

[DogCatMom]

I garden organically. *I* eat from my garden, as does my DH and now Parsley Graybuns. I cannot use chemical compounds; they give me migraines and respiratory seizures.

It's been this way ever since...well, ever since I was a kid.

Roly-polies are interested in dead vegetative matter. They're a normal, necessary component of a compost pile, so if other intruders are killing your plants, the roly-polies are eating the dead parts left for them by others. They show up in my veggie boxes, too, and I just ignore them.

Cannot advise re. voles; they're very rare in my garden, as a neighbor has an indoor/outdoor cat who's an excellent hunter.

If you can collect the seeds from the remaining dandelions, plant them in pots for next year. If you can't collect them, others have and are offering them for sale. A search on "dandelion seeds" produced many potential vendors.

Sorry about the squash; did Squash Vine Borers kill your crop? The only way I know of that gardeners have found to foil these swift (literally overnight) killers of healthy squash plants is to plant early or late relative to "high season."

I can't remember whether you have a duck or not. Ducks are excellent hunters of slugs and snails; the only problem being keeping the duck safe from raccoons and other predators. A friend of DH's and mine had an excellent duck gardening assistant who had a "raccoon-proof"--as vouched for by a locksmith--overnight hutch. It was not raccoon-proof.

What I do, having no duck, and not being able to use chemicals, is to hand-pick the nasty things. I go out after dark with a flashlight and my trowel and kill them. At this point, I have created a local vacuum of both slugs and snails. An out-of-season rain on September 21 flushed out 46 snails and no slugs. I still haven't seen another one, even though I've been looking. However, I've been hand-picking snails and slugs for several years and had counts in the hundreds to begin with.

Re. BT: you may want to learn caterpillar identification. Some caterpillars turn into destructive moths (e.g., cabbage moths :angry: ), but many turn into butterflies, which are secondary pollinators after honeybees. BTW, BT can also be toxic to honeybees, depending on where and when (time of day) it's applied. (I know: aren't I just full of great news...)

One gardener on the forum I "inhabit" used a Dust Buster for flea beetles and whiteflies, amazingly enough. No reason it couldn't work, if it runs on batteries! or a very long extension cord.

Aphids: Ah. As with snails & slugs, here I DO have lots of experience. Living in a damp, foggy, never-very-hot climate, aphids drop by the day the plants go into the ground, if not sooner. Gray, green, white, black aphids...I think I've seen 'em all.

Use a soap spray: 1 tsp of a liquid soap (not detergent! it will kill the leaves of the plants) like Dr. Bronner's or even liquefied bits of left-over bars of hand-washing soap + a couple of drops of olive or another heavier-weight cooking oil in 1 quart of water, put into a spray jar, will desiccate those little aphids quite nicely. If the aphids seem to laugh at this concentration, work up to 1 Tbsp soap per quart. :twisted: If the infestation has just begun, squish 'em with your fingers or use a jet of water from the hose to blast 'em away. This soap spray is good against all soft-bodied insects. (Metric system folks: 5 mL liquid soap [max. 15 mL], couple drops oil, 1 L water.) Be sure to get the bottom as well as the top side of affected leaves.

If the aphids keep re-appearing despite your best soapy water efforts, look for regular ants (not fire ants) nearby. The ants may be farming (transporting) the aphids to harvest the aphids' "honeydew" secretions. In that case, spread cinnamon on the ant trail (large containers for good prices at Costco and similar locations). Soap spray will also work, and in this case--if the ants are not on plants--detergent will work. My favorite anti-ant treatment is the counter cleaner "Fantastik." I'm sure "409" would work, too, if that's what you use around the house.

Remain alert for snails/slugs even if there's a hard freeze at your location. We actually had a hard freeze a few years ago. I needed to go to the nursery for something and expressed hope that the sub-30 temps would kill off some snails. The guy looked at me quite seriously and said, "Snails don't freeze to death. Slugs don't, either." It was very demoralizing. And that very night, maybe at 6:30 because it had been dark for almost 2 hours by then, yep--I caught quite a few of both. Alas.

Good luck!

 

[AmysMacdog]

Thank you DogCatMom!
There are several kinds of pillbugs,sowbugs and rolypolies and unfortunately I have the one that loves seedlings and young plants. [Sigh!] I wish I could post pics of the darn things, you can go outside and find them on plants by the dozens and its not long before its dead. I've been using collars to protect plants until they are big enough to survive them but there is just getting to be to many. This year I couldn't grow chard! I've had it the last several years but this year the plants got eaten. They were past the seedling stage too! I tried to save them and they came back and then got eaten again. So I gave up for the time being and decided that I'd have to use some sort of poison on them. I've already used cornmeal/ DE on them. I couldn't tell if it worked or not, there is just so many! We are surrounded by woods so I know they will just keep coming but if I can just control the garden area.
I love the thought of getting some Muskovy ducks to turn loose in around here, they would be well fed for sure! But they would sadly probably be food for the coyotes. I'm still considering them though if I get some ducklings with clipped wings so they can't fly and will stay in a fenced area for their safty, I'd love some! I found a source for ducklings and they reccommended the wing clipping if you don't want them to fly and would do the procedure for you at the hatchery.
Thoughts?

LOL I collect all the Dandelions seed heads and keep those and have been planting seeds all summer and have a bunch coming along now and my plants are just starting their fall blooming season. The darn slugs go after the spent blooms and will ruin the seeds though! I planted a large plot of dandelions in the spring and alot of those died over summer for some reason so starting more again. Then the darn slugs got my seedlings and wiped them out!! I forgot to go out just 1 night and thats all it takes! :x I have a nice new batch coming along right now. They are doing good.
Everynight I go out with the flashlight and my spray bottle of ammonia and water mixture and spray slugs and the plants they eat to protect the plants but it has to be done nightly. It won't protect from one night to the next. The most I've ever sprayed in a night was 432 slugs! (Pretty bad when you start keeping score! :lol: ) They just never seem to run out either! I've been spraying them for 5 years and when I first started gardening here I put out beer traps and would get literally bowlfuls of slugs!! IT WAS GROSE!!! Every night for a month! They never stop. The only thing I can figure is the lake is across the street behind the neighbors house so the woods and conditions are perfect for the sowbugs and slugs.

I only use BT to contol cabbage loopers, I like most others and the butterflies. If a caterpillar is the destructive type I'll hand pick those and feed them to the chickens! LOL Thats always fun!
I love Dr Bronners mint soap! Thats great stuff! I use it all over the house! It even kills fleas when I bath the dogs in it.

 

[DogCatMom]

With the rain the East Coast had this summer, the DE may have been washed away before it could do its work.

DE along the edges of the pots you have the dandelions in *should* act as a deterrent to slugs. This would be gardening-grade DE with some sharp edges, not food-grade like we feed to the animals. Copper bands around the outside of the pots are also recommended for slug/snail deterrence, but I've never used them personally. What with all the copper-wire thieves tearing down the public infrastructure, at least in California, I don't want the least bit of it visible on my property (50 feet in from the sidewalk or not).

Weird about the roly-polies. The fellow mod on the gardening forum who observed them on her plants lives in New Jersey, so I'd think hers would be more likely to be the kind you have (the Rockies and the Sierra make for some odd-ball divisions in gardening pests). My back-up recommendation was going to be garden-grade DE, but you say you've already tried it, and they ate it like candy. Or did you use food-grade DE?

Maybe the Dust Buster for roly-polies? She's the same mod who uses the Dust Buster on flea beetles and whiteflies. Roly-polies are small enough to get up into a Dust Buster; it might work.

And, yes: 432 slugs/snails is pretty much where I started in 2008, when I was able to return to gardening after 10 years away due to a car accident. On consecutive nights, too...it was truly amazing, since we have only a 50'x100' lot, and a bunch of it is covered by house, driveway, carport, and redwood tree.

I calculated once that maybe 300 sq.ft. of our lot are both unpaved and available for growing something, anything. However, what with the rose bushes that've been here for a few decades (before we bought the house), the jade plants that form a hedge out front, and the god-awful juniper, there are fewer than 150 sq.ft. available for growing FOOD. Thus the raised beds, and a large number of containers/pots running down the north side of the driveway/south wall of the house, where the best sunlight is. Yep: lots of snails/slugs there, too, the first couple of years. They'd just mosey on across the driveway and make free with my herbs and tomatoes. :angry:

However, there *is* light ahead, maybe pretty far ahead, but it's there: in June it rained the last Monday. I found over 100 snails and dispatched them all right back into the ground, where they had stolen their calcium from MY plants and MY compost. (This was after a couple of months of not going out after them.) Then, one day in July/August, I got--14. As in 12 + 2 = 14. I'm not missing a digit. Then, the September 21 "haul" of 45. DH and I just worked outside for a while this afternoon, and neither of us saw a single slimy gastropod.

The numbers will go down. But it will take a while. And only two or three ducks, given the size of the problem it sounds like you've got, should do it. Our friend occasionally had to supplement her duck's diet, because all the snails/slugs would be gone and the duck would still need something to eat. But he worked for her for about three years. Her lot was similar to ours in size, but her house was at the front of the lot with a very short driveway, so she had maybe 2,500 to 3,000 sq.ft. in garden for him to patrol. At first he couldn't keep up, but he got there quite soon. I think she said he was a Teal Duck? maybe a Wood Duck?

How much of your garden is fenced safely from coyotes? That's where the duck(s) should be. No sense in providing coyotes a free, gourmet-fed meal!

HTH.

 

[PSFAngoras]

The advicce on here so far is good, and PLEASE do not use harsh chemicals! I had a friend loose a bee hive because of sevin, and our pollinators are scarce enough these days!

The only thing I'd like to add is that for slugs and sowbugs, Sluggo and Sluggo plus are good candidates. Sluggo is on the OMRI (Organic Materials Review Institute) approved list and Sluggo Plus is currently under review for approval. The plus is the formula better suited for sow bugs, and still takes care of slugs. I'd look for that. I work in a certified organic plant nursery and we use the original formula of Sluggo for slugs in the greenhouses. Works wonders. All it is is a pellet that they ingest and it basically expands in their stomach and kills them.

 

[Bill]

And was just wondering if anybody else on here feeds the hummingbirds? We don't have any during the winter here but some parts of Georgia are getting winter HBs. I still have a couple of juveniles here right now but they should be leaving soon. If any of you do feed the birds, please let me know. The numbers are increasing for winter birds here. (none in our county yet but not far away)I love the HBs, the pineapple sage is blooming right now, they are thoroughly enjoying it and the feeder before they head south. Thanks everbody!

We are in South Central GA, 75 miles from Florida, and we leave a feeder up all winter. We have had a few visit it during the Winter months. The first one about 12 years ago we thought was a Ruby Throated that was just late leaving, but it kept staying and staying and staying.......

 

[AmysMacdog]

Marinea yeah the rain killed my garden too this year and a population explosion of sowbugs and slugs! :shock: Perfect conditions for them! Thank goodness slugs and sowbugs don't seem to like herbs! The herbs all seem to did well here except I lost my lavender to the rain. Slugs will kill my baby dandelions but once they are big they are ok.
I'm fixing to move the buns to their winter spot in the garden. I love doing that, I don't clean under the hutches I just move them, all around the garden. By spring the garden will be full of worms and poop! All tilled by the worms!
We have ruby throats HBs here. Thats neat you have 3-4 different kinds there. According to a Ga site there are more kinds coming here to Ga especially in the winter. Just a couple of couties over there have been winter sitings so I'm concerned. I always take down my feeder. I don't mind keeping mine up but what about freezing weather? It get so cold here.

DogCatMom
What I did was keep my DE and cornmeal mixture in a parmesan cheese container and everyday I'd sprinkle out fresh around my seedlings until they got big. It did work, they left the seedlings alone. It was supposed to kill them but I never saw any dead ones just more live ones everyday. Yes I have food grade DE. I'll have to find some garden DE.
LOL I know the copper thieves are bad here too. If its copper they are stealing it, even from churches! :shock:
Dustbuster for RPs? I think I need to take my shop vac out there! :lol: :lol:
I shot over 80 slugs tonight and they were still coming out so I just sprayed the things I needed to protect and gave up. It rained last night so they will be everywhere!!! :x

Thank you PSF Angoras I'm so worried about the Bees too so thank you for the info. I will get some sluggo plus. I'm kind of a nut for bees. LOL I encourage the bees here, including the native bees like the Mason bees and carpenter bees. Love them! Don't care for wasp or yellow jackets of course but I'd love to have a top-bar hive of my own someday.


Bill Thats so cool. I was saying earlier, I don't mind leaving my feeder up over winter but what do you do in freezing weather? The feeder I have doesn't look like it would freeze well at all! So far there haven't been any reported sitings of winter HBs in this county but there have been a couple of counties away. I had no idea they had started coming here until I was reading an article about them recently.

 

[DogCatMom]

I won't use Sluggo. Here's why: I used to think an OMRI certification meant something until Sluggo came along. Look at the label: 1% iron phosphate, 99% "inert ingredients." WHAT?! 99% is "inert ingredients"? Sounds like stuff they just don't want us to know is in there. There was another insecticide that Gov. Schwarzenegger wanted to inflict on the Bay Area in 2007 and 2008 called Checkmate. "It's just pheromones, nothing bad," we were told. Well, laboratory scientists analyzed the stuff, lawyers went to court to get the formula released, and many legislators enacted emergency legislation against the carpet bombing of cities with this stuff while leaving out apple-growing areas.

It turned out that the "inert ingredients" were PM10s (particulate matter < 10 microns in diameter, small enough to embed in the deep tissues of the lungs, unable to be expelled)! Ah...and it turned out that the Guvernator had ($$$ contributing) friends in high places at the company which manufactured and was going to profit very much from the no-bid contract to perform Checkmate aerial bombing of the Bay Area, whether or not we had apple trees with Light Brown Apple Moth infestations. Here's one write-up so you don't have to accept my summary as truth; here's more background to the political/monetary deal-making.

"But," you may reasonably ask, "what does this have to do with Sluggo?"

If they did it once, they can do it again. At this point, I don't even trust OMRI anymore, sad to say. Oregon Tilth & CCSF have merged into CCSF alone; them I believe. They have *not* endorsed Sluggo. Who knows what that 99% "inert ingredients" really consists of?

Answers are beginning to be provided; one of those "inert" ingredients is EDTA, harmful to pets, children, and wildlife. The following quote is from the Hosta Library:

Iron phosphate is non-toxic to both humans and dogs, as well as other pets and wildlife. Studies also show that it is equally non-toxic to slugs and snails, because it does not release its load of poisonous elemental iron very easily. If this is the case, why do other studies show that it is a very effective product that rivals the metaldehyde baits? How can these baits made of nothing but iron phosphate and wheat gluten be as effective as they are shown to be when other studies show that snails can live indefinitely on a diet of iron phosphate?

Enter a man-made chemical called EDTA, a chelating agent that causes the iron phosphate to release its elemental iron easily in the digestive systems of not only slugs and snails but of pretty much anything that eats it. EDTA or the similar EDDS are the only reason these baits are effective, yet interestingly the label only reads Active Ingredient: Iron Phosphate - 1%, Inert Ingredients - 99%. No mention is made of the presence of another chemical that can turn harmless iron phosphate into a deadly poison. Apparently EDTA was slipped through the cracks in our regulatory system as an "inert" ingredient, and inert ingredients do not have to be listed on the label. Since iron phosphate is harmless, and EDTA is the ingredient that makes it effective, not to mention dangerous, something is really wrong here.
Missing from most of the literature about iron phosphate slug baits is their mode of action - the "how" of what they do. Some trying to write about them even say that the mode of action is not well understood. Once you know that EDTA is present in the bait, the mode of action becomes clear pretty quickly - iron poisoning. In Australia, these baits are labeled as containing EDTA. An article about them contains the following mode of action description:

"Iron chelates can be incorporated into bait, which is palatable to the mollusc and it appears that at an appropriate location in the mollusc's gut the iron is released as Fe3+, and is toxic causing death if the concentration is sufficiently high. A number of chelates are efficacious, particularly those belonging to the group of compounds referred to as complexones, but to date the iron EDTA complex formed by the reaction of ferric EDTA with hydroxide ions is the most effective on the basis of the total iron concentration. A number of iron complexones have been shown to be effective."

A review of these products by the Swiss organic certification organization (FiBL) discovered the EDTA content and stated that these products were likely no safer than the metaldehyde baits, that EDTA itself was significantly more poisonous than metaldehyde, and even said they weren't even sure that it wasn't the EDTA alone that was killing slugs and snails. When I started posting the link to that study and warning people about these baits, the report was quickly removed from the website that hosted it. It is referenced in the Ohio State study, though. A graphic comparing the toxicity of EDTA and metaldehyde was also taken down.
The actual effect on slugs and snails does seem to be iron poisoning from what I can find. The referenced pet poisonings also seem to be the result of iron poisoning, from iron freed up from the iron phosphate by EDTA.

For a second look at EDTA, OMRI, and Sluggo read here.

I cannot recommend, and I do not use, Sluggo. I also no longer trust OMRI. I am very disappointed, sad, and very much adrift.

 

[AmysMacdog]

Wow thanks DogCatMom. :shock: This is why I came to you guys for advice! I've tried looking at these things myself and I just get stuck!!!.....and the bugs just keep multiplying out there. :evil:
When I first started gardening here I was able to grow quite a few vegies but every year the soil has gotten easier to work and looks better but along with that an ever increasing population of the slugs and sowbugs. [sigh] Both of them are the culprits consistantly caught actually doing the damage.
I have the dogs,cats, DD's chickens and rabbits and of course I want to eat my veggies. Then there are the Bees (several kinds), green anoles, toads, grey's treefrogs, boxturtles and green frogs that are our seasonal wild pets that live around the house spring til fall that I don't want to poison. We love having all of them show up each year. Despite all of those, they don't make a dent in the sowbugs! Too many crickets and grasshoppers and other critters to eat I guess. LOL
I don't know, I will make the bait stations, that part will work. The only thing that go under those are the things I'd like to get rid of. Oops and skinks. I'll have to watch out for those. [Sigh] This is why its been so difficult. I don't want to hurt the good critters!
Decisions, decisions :|

 

[PSFAngoras]

Hmm, didn't know that about Sluggo. From what I've heard though and by what the dead slugs look like i have been under the impression hat it killed by expanding in the slugs stomach and killing them by basically ripping their stomach open from the inside. With how reliable the government is, it doesn't surprise me that its possible that it's not as safe as advertised though!

 

[Marinea]

I'm telling you, beer for the slugs. I use disposable pie plates, sunk down to ground level in my garden beds, half filled with beer. The slugs get in, but they can't get out (hey, that sounds like a good ad jingle ).

I also highly recommend Neem oil. It's really the only thing we use, besides an occasional spray of baking soda and water for spider mites and such. We have well water here, so I take zero chances with anything.

Amy, the bee thing is breaking my heart. Colony collapse disorder is taking soooo many hives. It took ours this past year. One guy we know lost about 50% of his colonies this year. There is a lot of research being done to find out why it is happening so often. Some folks are tying it to the expanse of GMO crops, but at this point, who knows?

 

[DogCatMom]

DogCatMom
What I did was keep my DE and cornmeal mixture in a parmesan cheese container and everyday I'd sprinkle out fresh around my seedlings until they got big. It did work, they left the seedlings alone. It was supposed to kill them but I never saw any dead ones just more live ones everyday. Yes I have food grade DE. I'll have to find some garden DE.

Forgot to say this last night: get rid of the cornmeal. Slugs and snails LOVE the stuff! That's what they're fattened on (well, snails, anyway) in France to make the commercial escargot. It *attracts* them. Just use DE.

 

[AmysMacdog]

Marinea I know. The bee thing has been breaking my heart for years too! On this property we have some honey bees that come in certain times of year. Then I noticed they were gone for an entire season. I was sad!!!
So I began researching and planting to encourage the other native species. We have mason bees, abunch of other smaller varieties and carpender (bumble) bees including orange crowned carpenter bees. So I planted flowers for the bees and I'm so happy to say the honey bees returned last year and this year. So you are right Marinea I haven't used poisons because of my worms and the bees but somehow I gotta fix this situation. Its getting really hard to grom flowers because they are devoured so quickly!
Marigolds are killed by slugs, I use them as a trapcrop and spray them every night with the ammonia spray. This seems ok for bees b/c it doesn't last long at all.
Sweet allysum-slugs I could go and on, the vegie list is getting longer and longer. [Sigh]

Going back to the bees, I love bees and honey. Bees are fascinating to me. My brother used to have some hives. I want to get a top bar hive. I've read some good things about those being good for bees, more natural and the care is the same as for other types of hives. Some folks say they are easier to care for than regular hives and still others say top bars are healthier for the bees. I'm going to keep reading on that this winter and hopefully build a top bar hive before spring.
Just alittle amusing story about my brothers bees, he ordered them through the mail and a few of the bees got outside the package and were just clinging to it and for those of you who know bees, they are very docile when in a box like this so no biggie but the mail carrier didn't want them in the car so the post office called, frantic, to come get thse bees please! They even had us walk back through the post office to pick them up. Poor thing were not happy!!! The people I mean, the bees were fine! :lol:

Marinea I would love to have any garden recipes you have. I will give them a try. I have powdery mildew on beebalm right now and I heard baking soda is good for that. Where do you get neem oil from, I'm not sure I've seen it around here. Its a pretty traditional farm community around here.
Sad for the bees but I'm going to keep planting flowers for them. I didn't grow it this year but I'll be sure to grow it next year, luffa sponge. The bees last year loved it! For those of you who have some room or especially if want some shade just put up a trellis and plant luffas. Once they get going they make a nice dense shade for a trellis, arbor, gazebo or maybe a rabbit shed! :mrgreen: Not sure how edible the leaves are though....The fruits are when young, supposed to be good in stir fry.

DogCatMom Yep already figured that out and haven't used it in a while, since spring, It did keep them from eating my seedlings though! LOL <br /><br />__________ Tue Oct 08, 2013 12:46 pm __________<br /><br />Marinea DD was headed to work at TSC and I asked her if they carry Neem oil and she said yes so she is supposed to pick some up today.

 

[Marinea]

I will be honest, I have limited my flower growing over the last few years. The ones I grow now are resistant to issues here where we are. I grow irises, lilies, zinnias, and some varying annuals. I also have wild roses, butterfly bushes, Rose of Sharon, and some shade plants. Most of my greenery these days is low maintenance perennials. I concentrate on the edible stuff.

We garden almost exclusively in raised beds. That prevents a lot of problems from ever coming up. We are also lucky in our large influx of ladybugs, and in the fact that our chickens free-range a good part of the year. Rotating our crops in the various beds and locations also helps. We also have a friend whose daughters bring us preying mantis.

We use Neem oil on our fruit trees twice a year or so. For weeds (I am looking at you, kudzu), we use a vinegar/water spray, mostly on the fence line. We use a baking soda/water spray for mites and such, but not often. I don't put much of anything in our beds because they are loaded with worms. I will most often cut back or pull up a plant with issues. I am lucky that I can keep a close eye on our beds and stay on top of anything I see. Well, except for this year's rain, but we are looking into some large-scale, hopefully inexpensive, greenhouse-type setups for that.

 

[AmysMacdog]

Thanks Marinea! I have to becareful of the worms too. Its the soil surface I somehow have to eradicate the over population of pillbugs (I discovered while reading yesterday I have pillbugs not sowbugs. LOL) and slugs so I will put out lots of old boards and cardboard for them to hide under then go out daily with a bucket of hot water and scrape them into it and we're saving lots of soda bottles to make into beer traps.
I already go out nightly to spot spray with ammonia/water and after five years, there are still hundreds of them!! :shock:
The problem is the woods surrounding the yard..... I'm so screwed! LOL I wish I could employ some guinea fowl and some ducks. I think that might be the only solution on this property but its not fenced and they would just feed the coyotes and bobcats before they could even make a dent in the bugs. Our neighbor has gotten geese and peacocks. We hear them, they don't last long. I wish he'd quit doing that! It just encourages the predation of other peoples livestock! We lock ours up tight every night.
The chickens are to destructive to use in the garden. [sigh] Ugh! So frustrating! Anyway we'll do the beer traps and hiding places for now and keep up the research. There has to be some way to at least cut down the numbers so I can garden again. :? I want my fresh vegies!

 

[Secuono]

Rollies are good bugs, you can use vinegar, dawn dish soap and hot water mixed together in a spray bottle. Spray the plants as needed.
No idea on the voles, never had them, have mice and moles, but they only show up when a tarp or plywood is laying on the ground.
Nothing ever bothers the weeds, they should grow easily w/o help or any work.
Got a Lobelia Cardinalis and hummingbirds came over, not sure if its rabbit safe. Grew 8ft instead of 4ft like it should. Non-stop growth and flowering.

 

[AmysMacdog]

I was doing more reading on them yesterday and discovered I have pillbugs (roly polies) not sowbugs, not that makes a huge difference but the article said that in large numbers, they eat seedlings/plants. Thats why in previous years I had garden and this year I don't! Each year has been alittle worse.
They like moist conditions and it rained alot all summer. They love the rabbit food dust under the feeders. And in previous years I used alot of mulch. They love mulch. Never did that this year, it rained all summer but for the past several years it seems I have created roly poly heaven! Now I have to fix it. :|

Secuono Vinegar? I thought you couldn't use vinegar on plants except as a natural weed killer. How much per squirt bottle? I'll try it.
You are so lucky you haven't had any voles. Moles no biggie, voles take the entire dandelion plant in one night and of course I had a family of them.......and they breed every 20 something days. Those are gone for now though. Thank God!
I love Lobelia C.. Awesome plant! 8 feet?! Wow thats huge! Bet its beautiful though!
Don't think they are rabbit safe to eat, I think it is a medicinal plant though. I'll have to look that up.
I 've been studying the maps where hummingbirds have been over wintering and they are surprizingly far north! I suggest all of you who put out feeders in the summer east of the Mississippi google winter hummingbird sitings and see if there have been any in your area. It's amazing, I never would've thought they'd spend the winters where it so cold. Amazing little birds!

__________ Wed Oct 09, 2013 8:24 pm __________

Hmmmm I'm watching Criminal Minds and making beer bait traps out of soda bottles at the same time...... :twisted: Bwahahaha!<br /><br />__________ Wed Oct 09, 2013 11:27 pm __________<br /><br />Welp... here we go again.... the traps are filling up already. Its SO GROSS! They just keep coming from everywhere! :shock: I can tell....I don't have enough beer!
I'll have to check some different recipes using yeast and see if thats cheaper. I can't afford THAT much beer!! :lol: :lol: So far I only have 5 traps out. I need alot more! :shock:
One book list brewers yeast, thats easy to find....