Garden grows– so do the pests

Well, as many gardeners know, as our gardens start taking root and such, pests seem to increase exponentially. Pests include birds like quail, robins and starlings along with the slimy pests like snails and slugs. It looks like this is a big year for wood lice (pill bugs, rolly-pollies) too.

So the conscientious organic veggie gardener has to take steps pretty much immediately to make sure that these pests don’t use the garden as a buffet. Unfortunately, sometimes we don’t win. Like in the case of my slicer cucumbers, which this year are lemon cukes. I had five sprouts come up. They were so cute with their tender green leaves and tiny, vital-looking stems.

Then one evening the slugs slimed out of the grass and devastated that mound of cuke sprouts, leaving one (mostly chewed) sprout behind. I was sure the sprout was a goner, and one is not enough anyway, so I planted more. That spout has made a marvelous comeback! And four more sprouts are saying hello as well!

Here’s what you can do to keep slugs away from the plants: use dried egg shells. That’s right, when you use an egg, put the shell back in the carton. When you have a carton of empty shells, set the carton outside for a few days to let the shells dry out. When the shells are dry, dump them into a tough, black plastic bag.

When you have several cartons-worth of dried egg shells dumped into that bag, twist it closed and stomp. Pulverize those egg shells, letting the bag contain them. When your egg shells are pulverized, not egg shell dust, but not very big, sprinkle a trail of pulverized shells around each planting bed. You can also just sprinkle a trail all around each plant.

This trail of egg shells will basically be a wall of broken glass shards for slugs. They will shred themselves to bits when they go over the shells. This trick works very well with slugs, but obviously you need to plan ahead so you can start saving egg shells fast.

If you live in a place that has those massive snails, you need to understand that they don’t like these shells, but the shells won’t be much of a deterrent for them. The other organic trick I know works for both snails and slugs, but is more work-intensive.

You have to buy some beer. Not light beer. Then you have to sink some shallow containers (I cut some plastic cups down to about 1 1/2 inches tall) into the ground, making sure that you don’t leave sharp edges exposed. Pour about an inch or so of beer into each container. You will have wanted to sink the containers near to the plants that are being victimized by the snails. The beer will attract both slugs and snails. The beer will also drown them.

Three weeks ago, I found a massive snail drowned in one of these containers. I didn’t feel sorry at all. Nope.

As for the pill bugs, you can use a combination of Dawn (it has to be Dawn!) dish soap and tabasco sauce and water. Spray the combo onto your plants. The pill bugs will drink it and die. Tabasco sauce is near the ketchup in my local grocery store.

I don’t know the exact proportions, but I can tell you what works if you have a Miracle-Gro feeder attachment for your hose. Put two somewhat overflowing tablespoons of Dawn and two overflowing tablespoons of tabasco into the feeder. Then fill the feeder most of the way. Attach it to your hose. Turn your hose on– not too high. Spray. Do it again the next day and the next.

That should do it.

As for birds, you can cover or surround your planting beds with bird netting or with my preference, row cloth. The best row cloth has Reemay for a brand name. I’ve ordered row cloth, as I mentioned in a previous post, from a good website. Scroll down to find that link. Make sure you weight the cloth down with rocks or something so it doesn’t blow away. Also, as your sprouts grow, put something under the cloth to prop it up so your sprouts have room to grow.

By now, most gardeners should have tomatoes in the ground and they should be doing well. If your tomato plants are not thriving yet, don’t water them for two to three days. Let the ground get nice and dry. Then water every two days for about a week. Then move to every three days. Letting the ground dry pushes the roots to stretch and strengthen. Then the water helps them get moving.

Remember that the provident garden will only provide if you stay diligent. Love your garden and it will love you back.

The basic tools for good lawn care

This is an article I wrote a while ago. You can also find it at: http://www.helium.com/items/269711-a-guide-to-basic-tools-for-lawn-care

The vast swath of green glints dewily in the crisp early spring morning. Emerald and lush, your lawn is your pride, your pet, your hobby. All of your labor and heart goes into the work you do for this wide welcoming mat to your home. So what do you use? What tools do you use that enable you to create such a jealousy-inducing lawn? If you are like me, and I have a nice lawn too, these are the necessary weapons we must use as we do battle against dandelions and crabgrass; thatch patches and brown spots; rapid growing and pale green color.

The first tool in our armory is so simple it might be overlooked. It is that stupendous snake, that perfectly flexible pipe: the hose. What many novices do not fully understand is that grass loves to grow. It is a nice-looking weed that many of us choose to maintain. If you keep your lawn watered, then the grass will naturally grow and will likely be quite lush. But how do you use this important tool called the hose? Simple, you hand water. Hand watering keeps the droplets of water bigger and heavier than most sprinklers. Grass appreciates these heavy drops of water by letting the water into its very tight root base. Hand watering is also particularly a good idea for grass that is in clay-like soilfor the same reason. Those heavy drops get in there better. If you do not have the time to hand water, however, use a sprinkler that does not make too much mist. You will lose less water to wind and also the water will have a better chance of settling into the ground.

Second is the mower. Some folks swear by the old-fashioned mower that has blades at angles so that as you move the cylinder of blades rolls and cuts the grass. But this really does take a lot of effort, the grass is not as even as you might like, and there is actually no measurable difference to the health of your lawn. So use a modern, motorized mower. Set its height so that when you mow, you are only cutting about 30-40% of the height of the grass blades. If you mow regularly, perhaps even every week like me, you can keep your grass even healthier by mulching that top 30-40% of the blade right into the lawn. If you do this every week, thatch will be no problem and the cuttings will become completely natural fertilizer for your lawn. This works like a dream.

A third weapon is the rake. Okay, the rake actually includes two types of rake: the fan rake and the solid metal tine type. You will use the metal tined rake to loosen up any patches of thatch that appear. The fan rake can be then used to rake the little bits of brown grass away. The fan rake is also useful if you are going to rake grass or leaves; although again, if you keep up with it, you can mulch these nice organic materials right into your lawn.

The final weapon in your armory is really only for the die-hard do-it-yourselfer. It is an aerator. Many have seen the large, motorized aerators used by lawn and garden companies. These are beyond expensive. So there is actually such a thing as a hand-aerator. It is not motorized and depends entirely on your energy and ambition. Using this beasty is very time intensive and literally back-breaking. Due to this fact, I recommend you hire one of the lawn and garden companies to come and aerate your yard once a year. Usually they charge about $10-20, so it is very reasonable. Aerating, by the way, gets much-needed oxygen into the root system and soil. Also, any fertilizer you put down, hopefully organic, will penetrate that much faster on aerated soil.

Behold, my lawn warriors, armed thusly you will be able to tackle any lawn problem that arises. Stay vigilant and don’t give up the fight!

The gardens so far

Main garden space.. about 260 square feet.

Alright, beloved readers, here’s a photo, taken today, of my main garden. I believe in gardens that provide sustenance, so beauty is not really the priority here. As you see, I’ve labelled where things are.

I like to surround my tomato patch with onions. I’ve heard that they go well as companion plants because the onions repel pests. We’ve never had a problem with pests beyond slugs/snails in the tomato patch, so maybe it actually works!

Just about 100 square feet: the hottest garden space we have.

So we had squashes and the like in this patch last year. Potatoes too (that was a strangely successful experiment). This year we’ve got peppers, beans and carrots. Peppers are still smallish, but are making progress. I’ll add some compost food to them soon. What hot peppers you ask? Jumbo jalapeno and anaheim.

You probably noticed the white covering over the carrot patch. This is light row cloth. It allows sun and water to get through, but keeps birds away from my small sprouts. Slugs and snails, and maybe wood lice, become the only real worry for my sprouts this way. As for the slimy creatures, I use dried, crushed egg shells to keep them away. Wood lice? Try a mixture of tabasco sauce, Dawn dish soap and water.

I bought my row cloth from a website. Here it is: http://www.territorialseed.com/product/1669/171 

No, I’m not getting a kickback or affiliate payment for linking to them.

For food, these gardens get plenty. We throw leaves, grass and kitchen veggie cuttings into the garden all throughout the off-season. We till them in a month or so before planting, then keep the garden plots wet. I also use compost dirt as a fertilizer, usually a month or so after plants are growing.

My tomatoes and eggplant are from seeds that I started in the house. Everything else but the pepper plants are heirloom seeds that I planted outside. Oh yeah, the onions are Walla Walla and I got the sprouted bulbs from a good store that I trust. Remember: heirloom seeds mean they’re not genetically altered and you can take the seeds from the fruit and use them again!

My slicer cucumbers for this year are lemon cukes. When ripe, they’re round and yellowish. Our first time with these ones. Picklers are simply boston picklers.

So that’s it for this garden update. Next week, or maybe late this week, I’ll show you my front gardens. They’re not so provident, although the strawberries and herbs are wonderful.

I’ll be posting how-to articles regularly too.

Remember that organic is all about the care, simplicity and not using toxins. It can be easily done. It’s more work, but that way, it’s more worth it.

In the beginning…

there was a guy who was really freaking lazy.

That was me. Wait.. no that’s still me.

Yep, still lazy.

But in about 2001, my wife and I, along with our first child, bought a home in semi-northern Utah. Over the first autumn here, we tore out poisonous hedges and created a pretty nice back yard. We decided to do a garden. I dreaded the amount of work that I knew would have to go into this thing. We started with about 200 square feet.

We went ahead and tore out leaves, ivy and more to create a nice dedicated spot. The garden space was on the south east side of the yard, and in general it gets about eight hours of sun a day on a nice day.

Now, seven years after our first garden, this blog has come about. A lot of trial, a lot of error, and a strange new obsession for me have all been a part of this gardening experience. This blog is going to provide all kinds of tricks, secrets, assurance that you can do it, tips and just really good advice.

You want to share this blog with your friends, family, enemies and more. You won’t find more practical, actually usable advice anywhere. My focus is on gardening on a very strict budget and with limited physical resources. And I have had some pretty wild success.

I’ll post photos. I’ll post recipes for canning.

Yep, this is all about having a provident garden.

Do I work with flower gardens? Sure, if I have space that veggies and herbs can’t grow in or if I have nothing else to do with that space. I’ll post pictures of some of that success too.

By way of introduction, I’m 35, have 5 kids, am self-employed and I listen to Metallica, Breaking Benjamin, Simon and Garfunkel and Billy Joel. Journey too. Lots of other stuff as well. You can find me on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook. You won’t catch me anywhere near MySpace.

I have three other blogs and work regularly with a top-notch writers’ site called www.helium.com. I’ve had articles published in LDSLiving’s online magazine, Maximum Yield magazine, Name.com, and many more places and corporate websites. Last year I was invited to join the National Press Corps. I’ll take them up on the offer when I have some $$ to spare.

Come back soon. I’ll be posting all kinds of important articles on what you can be doing now to have a provident garden this season.