Re: California - What are you doing this month?

yolos 8/14/2014, 1:58 pm

If kitty can get under the tulle, so can SVB and squash bugs or anything else you are trying to keep out.

Marc Iverson 8/14/2014, 5:20 pm

What a cute little cat. Just the luck of the draw that yours is a garden pest, I guess.

It always amazes me to see people's gardens with so many uninterrupted healthy-looking leaves in a row. No matter where I grow around here, insect holes are the norm, not the exception, and disease is far from uncommon.

Don't take whatever good fortune you have for granted!

**sanderson** 8/14/2014, 9:31 pm

Yea! Marc finally has an avatar, and it's a winner! Marc everything in my garden is full of holes. These beans were the most perfect I've ever had, until now! Very Happy

I think it's the tulle against flying pests and table top against crawlers.

Marc Iverson 8/14/2014, 10:35 pm

Very nice to see. My beans are actually looking pretty decent so far, but the cucumber beetles have arrived and I'm pretty skeered ...

yolos 8/15/2014, 9:09 am

Marc Iverson wrote:
It always amazes me to see people's gardens with so many uninterrupted healthy-looking leaves in a row. No matter where I grow around here, insect holes are the norm, not the exception, and disease is far from uncommon.

+1 - Everything I grow has something wrong with it. Every leaf on every bean plant has holes. Eggplant leaves the worst. Next year the eggplant gets a covering of tulle. But most of the holey plants still produce okay so I do not spray with insecticides.

rillgardens 8/15/2014, 9:53 am

When I used to sell at the Farmer's Market I regularly had customers who visited my booth because they saw insect holes in my leafy greans. They said if there were insect holes, that reinforced the fact that I was organic!

I've always thought that was interesting theories. But I guess it is also true that most organically grown produce does show signs of imperfection. So I accept those insect holes as a sign that I don't spray. The reality is if you grow your own food, you see that all your tomatoes are not the same size, all your carrots are not perfectly straight, all your potatoes do not weigh the same. Nature comes is all sizes!

Marc Iverson 8/15/2014, 2:11 pm

rillgardens wrote:When I used to sell at the Farmer's Market I regularly had customers who visited my booth because they saw insect holes in my leafy greans. They said if there were insect holes, that reinforced the fact that I was organic!

I've read that people in Japan tend to feel the same way about produce.

audrey.jeanne.roberts 8/15/2014, 2:37 pm

I grew up living with a grandmother who was an urban gardener (banana trees, oranges, nectarines, peaches, lemon, strawberries and more filled her probably 1/6 acre lot). I wasn't given the luxury of throwing away less than perfect fruit - I would have been in for a scolding and probably more if I did! We ate the other half of the peach that the birds left, LOL! Bug holes in leaves were nothing in comparison to how much the birds loved her fruit.

Unfortunately, I remember all too well the smell of the pesticides she used and we inhaled. She didn't know anything about organic gardening back then. We buried the compost garbage in the ground, that was as close as we got to it then. I wish my "nanny" were alive now to see all of the simple and productive ways we have to grow food now. She would LOVE it!

CapeCoddess 8/15/2014, 2:56 pm

102 in the mountains of CA tomorrow??? Crud, Audrey...you must be freezing at 82 today.

At least YOU all are having a summer...

CC

Marc Iverson 8/15/2014, 3:00 pm

audrey.jeanne.roberts wrote:
Unfortunately, I remember all toowell the smell of the pesticides she used and we inhaled.

Yeah, I don't know how many gallons of insecticide I must have inhaled from spray cans and those hand-pumped squeaky, drippy tin sprayers back in the day. We'd get covered with it.

CapeCoddess 8/15/2014, 3:55 pm

When I was growing up in FL, we kids used to stand out in the street watching the low flying planes spraying for mosquitoes fly overhead. The stuff would fall on us and we didn't think anything of it...
Sad

**sanderson** 8/16/2014, 10:13 pm

We are taking a mini-cruise and won't have any computer or cell phone access. Leaving home Sunday morning and returning Thursday afternoon.

I would prefer DH had booked it in the fall instead of in the heat of the summer. Oh, well. Got the worms fed, the black soldier fly larvae fed, the hummingbird feeder filled, veggie waterers set on midnight stealth (we can only water twice a week, ha, ha!) and kitty at the kennel. Any pepper, eggplant or summer squash near harvesting has been harvested. The single tomato eaten.

Marc Iverson 8/16/2014, 10:34 pm

Have a good time, sanderson. You sure seem to take a lot of trips.

audrey.jeanne.roberts 8/17/2014, 12:02 am

Where is your cruise to? We took one to the Bahamas a few years ago, I think I gained 10 lbs!!!! Our waiter was a pusher when he found out that I was dieting :-( It was beautiful and so relaxing. Enjoy yourself!

**sanderson** 8/17/2014, 1:18 am

The little one from Long Beach to Catalina Island to Ensenada back to Long Beach. A trial run.

Marc Iverson 8/17/2014, 2:11 am

Ensenada? Time for langusta! (cheap widely available local lobster)

**sanderson** 8/18/2014, 7:47 pm

Ensenada manana! Today was Catalina.

Marc Iverson 8/18/2014, 7:50 pm

Bueno! Dos Cervezas, por favor! Con sal y limon, y algunas langustas tambien!

**sanderson** 8/18/2014, 8:00 pm

Que es "algunas?" I bought a little international computer time. I hate being unconnected with family.

audrey.jeanne.roberts 8/18/2014, 10:05 pm

I'd rather be where you are, I'm having to go out and treat my garden for spider mites Sad

I didn't realize until too late what was happening. Now I think I have to tear out all my green beans, they're too far gone, then spray everything else.

Enjoy yourself!
aj

Marc Iverson 8/18/2014, 10:56 pm

sanderson wrote:Que es "algunas?" I bought a little international computer time. I hate being unconnected with family.

sanderson, yeah, internet is all but indispensable IMO. Too much news and entertainment and even potential productivity on it.

"algunas" is "some".

Marc Iverson 8/18/2014, 10:57 pm

audrey.jeanne.roberts wrote:I'd rather be where you are, I'm having to go out and treat my garden for spider mites

I didn't realize until too late what was happening. Now I think I have to tear out all my green beans, they're too far gone, then spray everything else.

Enjoy yourself!
aj

I hate those. Good luck with the nasty little buggers!

audrey.jeanne.roberts 8/19/2014, 1:45 am

We'll see how it goes. I pulled the oldest green beans. I sprayed my bush beans which are pretty gone but I'm going to give them a chance and see if I can pull them through. My purple pole beans were just starting to be affected so fingers crossed.

A cucumber went from rich beautiful green to yellow leaves in two days. Same with a spaghetti squash.

I read up on them, hot, dry and dusty and August - all the factors that describe my property. The garden is at the end of a 200 ft. gravel driveway and the wind blows straight to the garden so plenty of dust. Non-stop 100+ degrees as long as I can remember... *deep sigh*

Give my my virgin margarita and I'm catching Sanderson's boat!

**sanderson** 8/21/2014, 2:41 am

We dock in the morning and will be home sometime in the afternoon. I'm dreading what I may find. How has the weather been? At least the corn and beans had a chance to grow with DC in the kennel. Very Happy

audrey.jeanne.roberts 8/21/2014, 11:49 am

Temps have been down this week, you may have timed it just right Very Happy

Looks like we'll have one more run at the high nineties and then we start into our fabulous, long, slow fall weather. Welcome home!

Sponsored content

California - What are you doing this month?