Starting to Plant the Beds

The following day my husband stopped on the way home to pick up a flat of flowers and herb.  I was not specific in my instructions other than marigolds, petunias and herbs.  I figure he has been helping me around the gardens long enough to have a good idea what I like.  He brought an assortment of marigolds, deep purple petunias, thai basil, purple basil and lemon basil.  Apparently my comment that one can never have too much basil has not gone unnoticed :)

The flat of plants just looked so pretty!  I always love planting and buying flats of plants because in such a small space there is a lot of hope and anticipation of what is to come.  This year has been a bit off with the house for sale and a May vacation so I didn't start a lot of plants indoors.  I am relying on buying a few flats of plants this year as well as the free tomato and pepper plants I can get. 

Buying plants if you don't have the chance to start them yourself is still a good value.  A cell-pack of vegetables usually ranges in cost from 99¢ to $1.29 for 4 to 6 plants.  A flat usually holds 48 plants and ranges in price from $10 to $15.  A $100 budget for annuals, herbs and vegetables can buy a lot of plants! 

Marigolds are excellent companion plants for tomatoes, peppers and lettuces.  This bed will be planted with all three so I planted marigolds around the perimeter.  In less than two days the first bed is already taking shape and looking good!  Once the marigolds were planted the bed was prepped for planting the other vegetables.

Work has already started in the herb raised bed. The herbs there already look great so it was a matter of working up the bed a bit after weeding then stringing the grid.   Then that bed was ready for planting as well.  So really under 2 days of a bit of work and it wasn't difficult or time consuming work the beds were in the progress of being planted.

Happy Gardening!

Garden Gnome
©2006-2010

The First of the Tulips in Bloom

Tulipa tarda

April 19, 2010

I was quite pleased to see the first of the tulips in bloom.  Last year it took a bit of effort to identify Tulipa tarda pictured.  The Tulipa tarda are thriving and spreading (naturalizing).  These pretty little tulips were hiding in with the lilies so at first appeared to be a lily.  What I did find out is the former owner planted these tulips amongst the lilies to protect them from the rabbits.  From experience wild rabbits like snacking on tulips but they don't like lilies so will leave anything planted along with the lilies alone.  So lilies are good companion plants to spring bulbs. 

Happy Gardening!

Garden Gnome
©2006-2010

Controlling Garden Insects Effectively

Yesterday I wrote about the reasons why electronic bug zappers should not be used in the yard or garden for insect control. One of the biggest problems with these devices is the do not distinguish between harmful and beneficial insects. In one evening they can easily kill 10,000 insects effectively destroying the balance in your yard. Less insects mean less insect predators giving other more destructive insects the chance to gain a good foot hold in your yard and garden so essentially creating more of a problem than originally existed. Any form of insect control that kills insects indiscriminately creates the same problems. The first step in insect control is proper identification. Once identified as a garden foe then use the least damaging method of control possible. How can damaging insects be controlled?

1. Encourage insect eating birds (eg. Purple Martins), bats, toads, spiders, ladybugs and frogs in and around your garden. Install both bird houses, bird feeders and one or more bat houses. Provide few toad houses or hiding spots as well. While harmful or poisonous spiders should be controlled, encourage any beneficial spider by providing little nooks and crannies where they can spin their webs. Provide one or more water sources for birds and bats. Control any mosquito larvae problem with water sources by changing daily or if larger use a couple of rosy red minnows that will feed on the mosquito larvae.
   
2. Manual removal continues to be one of the most effective methods of insect control for certain insects. Inspect your garden in the early dawn hours when damaging insects like the Japanese Beetle are sluggish. Knock them into a pail with a bit of soapy water.
3. Make a solution of 2-3 drops liquid dish soap, 2-3 drops vegetable oil in 1 quart of water. Put this in a spray bottle. Use it discriminately against insects that are harder to manually remove.
4. Keep a few weeds. Surprisingly the very weeds you don't want quite often are edible but more importantly they serve as natural weed control. Last year I left 2 pigweed plants in with the sweet and hot peppers. Apparently the insects preferred the pigweed to the pepper plants which was fine with me.
5. Use companion plantings such as certain herbs with certain vegetables to control pests that don't like the herb but would normally damage the vegetable. Plant petunias specifically pink petunias with beans, squashes and peas to repel the Mexican bean beetle, potato bug and squash bug. Marigolds also act as natural pest control.
6. Control slugs (mollusc not an insect), earwigs and pill bugs using finely crushed egg shells or diatomous earth as well as removing decaying vegetation from around the house and in the garden beds.
7. Observe your gardens at various times of the day to catch any insect infestations before they become a problem.
   

Happy Gardening!

Garden Gnome
©2006-2010

Petunias

Common Garden Petunia
(Petunia x hybrida)

Very few gardeners are unaware of the common garden petunia (petunia x hybrida) with their beautiful showy, cascading trumpet shaped flowers. These plants are members of the family Solanaceae (nightshade plant) that originated in South America and are thought to be a hybridization between P. axillaris and P. integrifolia. There is a wide variety of colours available ranging from white to very deep purple and everything in between. Petunias are grown as annuals but in warmer climates they are biennials. They are a popular plant for hanging baskets and containers. Why?

The reason is quite simple. Petunias are very low maintenance plants that but on a beautiful cascading display of colour from mid-spring to first hard frost. Their only real requirement seems to be regular watering. To keep the plant looking nice, remove spent flowers by simply giving a slight tug. This will leave the seed pod intact so you can harvest the seeds. The seed pod will turn brown and open releasing very small, round, dark brown seeds. Since most petunias are hybrids the seeds may not breed true but you can get some interesting combinations and they are free plants!

Petunias are more than just a pretty flower! They are excellent companion plants for pole beans, bush beans, peas, squashes and potatoes. Pink petunias in particular will repel the Mexican bean beetle, potato bug and squash bug. I've also noticed that rabbits don't seem to bother petunias. Taking advantage of that observation I planted petunias around the entire perimeter of my legume bed and sure enough the rabbits left that bed alone. So be sure to plant pink petunias in and around these crops for a natural pest control.

Happy Gardening!

Garden Gnome
©2006-2008