Posted on 01/10/2009 6:05:11 PM PST by nickcarraway
Louisiana has to be the bug capitol of the country. The few freezes we've had so far this winter don't seem to have done much. As the weather warms between fronts, the bugs are right back. ***sigh***
Sorry about the Lyme. I think it’s much more of an epidemic than the govt is letting on. Imagine that.
I thot eastern NC held the stinkbug capitol of the world title! Between them and the red and black alien looking bugs and Tomato spotted wilt....
Fleas and ticks are epidemic here, and every time we get a shipment of chemicals, seems like something else that works has been banned by some idiot in California. I think we should ship all the bugs out there and see how they like being infested.
Thanks for the info. There is a Sams close by so I will check with them around the first of March.
Well, I think we’re all present and/or accounted for!!!!
Happy New Year all.
JaDB -— thanks for the link on the Preen fabric. It isn’t anywhere near as expensive as I was afraid it would be.
Seed catalogs have been starting to show up in my mailbox and so I’m starting to get antsy —— but I know I have to wait.
I’m having the same weather issues as many of you are having. 40 and 50 degree temperature swings practically overnight.
I did buy some potting soil today........but first, before I start that I have to repaint my kitchen — I also bought the paint today! Having the potting soil, but no shelves up yet is my incentive to get the painting done. Hubby promised my window shelves for seed starting will go back up as soon as the painting is finished. They had come down when he repainted the front room.
We have a new stinkbug on the scene, the red-banded stinkbug I believe our crop consultant called it. Don’t know where it came from, but it is pesticide-resistant. We wrote off a few hundred acres of soybeans this past year. There comes a point in time when you’re losing money and can’t spray again.
Red banded? Great! So far we just have the plain old-ahem, garden variety-green ones. They get on everything, but tomatoes seem to be their very favorite.
I hear you on the spraying. The last few years we’ve had some new kind of whitefly that seems to be resistant to everything except brick a and brick b. And ottony cushion scale. And scale.
Sorry about the soy beans. Trade you some deer for some stinkbugs?
That's what I was saying last year. I did that '07 garden in the photos with just 2 rolls of the Preen. For the $72 that it cost, I saved countless hours of daily weeding and the plants grow huge and healthy, and are ultra productive because they are competing with anything else. Then the added bonus when I pulled up old, dried plants and used the same holes in the old fabric to plant the winter stuff.
I also used that same fabric to plant some early butter beans this past year. Had to patch a couple of places, but that was no problem.
Happy New Year to you as well! I'm looking forward to the gardening threads this year.
Considering how much I love to hunt, I'll trade you just about anything for deer. I'll even come over with my bow and take a few off your hands to help you out ;-) No noise, no fuss. ;-)
I’m also looking forward to gardening threads as well. There have been so many of these “victory garden” type articles lately that it’s been on my mind.
My husband has been doing the renovations at our Pastor’s house and the interior is just about finished. His next project is replacing the windows. She ordered and so has all the replacements and we get all the old ones -— then he’s going to build me a “greenhouse” with them. I won’t have it for this year -— but.
Can I supply you with a map to my house???
LOL You’d think with all the “hunters” around here, we wouldn’t have any critter problems. Ha ha. I personally don’t hunt, but if you catch it, I;ll cook it! :) Two years ago the deer ate everything I planted, including onions!!!! Only thing they didn’t touch was the bak choi. They dug up my boss’ carrots this year, and stripped the green tomatoes right off the vines.
My guys hunt and we all fish, but the envirowhackos are trying to do away with both. May the rats with antlers run our in front of their cars until they’re on a first name basis with their insurance agents. May the tree rats chew holes in all their roofs and dig up everything they plant.
We use the ground cover cloth in the greenhouse. I don’t know what grade it is or how much $$$—not my dept :)—but it’s on a gravel floor and it will last 4-5 years, even with the heavy foot traffic we have.
Absolutely.
My hubby is making a frame from 3" square steel tubing and I'm going to cover it with heavy plastic. He said about 8'x16', but with him things can change quickly and dramatically. LOL.
If I ever see construction of it, you better believe I will post pix -———— I shouldn’t say things like that as hubby is a FReeper :)
It’s really great to have all the gardeners back on one thread again. I learn so much from this thread, really appreciate you posting, and all the other freeper’s comments.
With the economy, and grocery prices skyrocketing, I believe this thread will be among the most popular.
Good luck with your painting, I certainly don’t envy you, but it will be great when finished and the cleanup behind you.
For less than a hundred bucks I can cover my backyard in fresh veggies for the entire summer.
Thanks for the thread.
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Thanks for posting those pics again. With the renewed interest in gardening, you are going to get a tons of pings and questions!!!
Grammy check this out. I don’t remember if you were on the gardening thread last year when justa posted these. I do remember all the expert gardeners on here sang the praises of this weed cover. Pulling weeds in a garden is a pain, can be a fulltime one. So, this is something to think about.
This garden is beautiful, JustaDumbBlonde.
Wow, I am sorry to hear about your problems with Lyme Disease. I hope you are better and caught it early. I made my doctor test me summer before last, because I had some of the symptoms, and am always picking ticks off me. I am overrun with deer here, and hike in the woods a lot, so I am a good candidate.
When I expressed concern to my doctor he shrugged it off, says it mostly occurs in the northeastern U.S. Well, you are NOT in the northeast. I agree with another poster, I think it is more common than we know.
What were your symptons, and what treatment have you had? This is off topic (about Victory Gardens) but related, because being outdoors and gardening is being exposed to this.
Not only can you have, for less than $100, fresh veggies, you can also know they are clean, have not been grown in Mexico and under unsanitary conditions.
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