Thursday, July 31, 2008

Ya Win Some....

This morning as I made my daily rounds to check on the status of my gardens I noticed some turmoil. Seems a neighbor's dog had dug under the fence of one of my gardens and had himself quite the good time at my expense. Grrrr.

Once I had managed to block the new "entrance" to garden #1, I went back inside to "cool off". A bit later Nathan came in and informed me that we had an invader of a different sort in the other garden. He took me out to show me the evidence. There were aphids on two of my pea plants. Well, of course there were! Why not? This does seem to be the year of every imaginable gardening challenge after all.... I grabbed the water bottle/squirter, added some garlic powder and a couple drops of dish soap to the water, swished it around a bit to mix and proceeded back outside to give the peas a misting.

Naturally, the mister clogged up within a few seconds. Last time we picked up garlic powder I didn't notice it was "California blend", what seems to me a silly mixture of garlic and parsley. I thought I'd managed to sift out all the parsley bits, but I guess I managed to miss at least one little speck which found it's way into the misting head and lodged itself.

Alrighty then! I dumped the garlic water mixture into my hand a little at a time and sprinkled/tossed it at the offending little "bugs" clinging to my pea plants. Hopefully we got them soon enough, and good enough that they will not spread further in my pea garden.

Hopefully my hands won't get too upset by the teeny bit of dish soap they were subjected to.

Hopefully the lovely garlicky aroma on my hands will cease to exist by the time we go to town this afternoon.

And...

Hopefully, our neighbor will keep their dog home this evening.

Tomorrow, we harvest the peas that are currently ready, and I replant the spinach patch our neighbor's dog dug up last night.

At least I have yogurt! :)

3 comments:

Kim said...

Yogurt. I always say it's like edible duct tape. Fixes everything.

No, I don't really say that.

My friend Don had an aphid issue, so he bought a box of ladybugs - let all 1500 of them loose in his back yard, and they pretty much stayed in that area! Pretty cool....maybe you could go to the pet store and see if they sell them.

HDMac said...

I hear that ladybugs work too. I am sorry, but I do have to chuckle... not at your dilemma just at the way you share! lol

hugs,
Marcia

Boondock Ma (Kim's Mom) said...

"Edible duct tape" LOL I bet you do say that! ;-)

1500 ladybugs?? Eek! LOL The kids would love it! I just may have to make some phone calls...

Marcia, thanks, you made me chuckle with your comment. :)