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My asparagus patch had been struggling, and quietly asking for help. Well, Bill finally listened. I have spent a lot of time picking weeds out from among the sprouts and then fertilizing. I am seeing progress.

I got a whole bunch of teeny tiny sprouts popping up and I have to be real careful when I pull weeds. Don’t wanna pull those new sprouts (insert cuss words 😂)

I am going to keep this up all summer and hopefully I will reap some goodies next year.

#my garden #asparagus #gardening problems #michigan #original photography

Poison Ivy is a real bitch.

#gardening problems #I thought it was dead!#now I look like a lepper #poison ivy

"okay, I just bought the last of my seeds" I say for the 3rd time this year.

#gardening problems

I'm having a nightmarish time with my pepper plant. It's not the plant, she's great, I love her so much, it's the... the bugs.

I've had a pepper plant sprout on my balcony, in a pot, accidentally, she volunteered to grow. Cheered up by this, I decided to see if I can keep the baby plant alive during the winter, by placing her inside, so she could be my first pepper plant in the spring, and make peppers early, which would be absolutely wonderful.

So, by the time it was frosting outside, she was trying to flower, and I brought her inside; I created a little shelf in the kitchen, just by the windows, where she'd be getting plenty of light, and would be the first thing I look at when I enter the kitchen. This worked beautifully, she would cheer me up every time I entered the kitchen, green and big and beautiful.

However, only 2 days in, I realized her leaves are getting little holes in it, and by more observation, I noticed she had an infestation of plant lice. The bugs would have likely died outside in the frost, but since I brought them in, they were prospering. Annoyed, I brought the plant with me to the shower, and hosed down all of those bugs with water, so they would fall into the bath and I could get rid of them.

The plant was a little stressed out from it, but free from bugs. 3 days later, new bugs! I hosed them down again, stressing the plant out, but I think the plant realized that hosing down would not damage her, and she recovered more quickly this time. 2 days later, new bugs.

So now I'm like, okay, what remedies do we know for plant lice? I sprayed the entire plant with soapy water, which I remember was supposed to like, make bugs unable to hold onto the plant or something. No effect. Then I made a nettle infusion, remembering nettle could be poisonous to them, but the bugs did not care whatsoever.

Then, I accidentally saw in a gardening video, the way another gardener was over-wintering the pepper; they clipped all of her leaves, and only the stem was preserved! The thought of doing that to my plant was painful, even if it would get rid of the bugs, as they would have nothing to eat. I tried spraying more, didn't help, so eventually I caved, took some scissors, and cut off all of the big leaves. I left a few tiny ones, that would be too small for bugs to eat, and I wanted the plant to have at least some greenery on her, so it wouldn't be too sad.

The plant got VERY stressed from this, I could tell she wasn't happy. But she was also determined, and started growing those new leaves super quickly, I could observe by the day how much bigger they got. I also monitored them for bugs, and as there was nothing for the first 3 days, I thought we were done. A week in. New bugs.

Now why am I so upset about these bugs if they're only messing with my pepper which doesn't really need the leaves? Well, that is because very soon, after the winter solstice, which is now a week away, I will be planting new seedlings for the next spring. First about 10, then 20 and 30 and then over 60 little plants will be on that same shelf. And the bugs absolutely will attack them all. I could lose my entire garden if I don't get this under control.

I need to either resolve the bug infestation (and I don't wanna cut off these last few leaves! The plant really wants to keep them!) or put my pepper plant somewhere else, isolated and in darkness, which would make us both very sad. So, anyone ever got rid of some plant lice successfully? I've never had them inside before, and I've already exhausted all my ideas.

#gardening problems #pepper plant #plant lice #black plant bugs #plant bugs #pests #plant pests

And we have now lost electricity at 7F and my greenhouses can't be heated with the boilers or generators and I'm going to lose so many plants fuck

#garden problems #greenhouse problems #gardening problems

Patiently waiting for the rest of the broccoli to form a head.

Patiently.

...

*fidget*

#garden #gardening #garden problems #gardening problems #homegrown #home grown #broccoli #brassica

Dead Apple Tree Mystery

So I’ve solved the mystery of the dead apple tree. Why a supposedly hardy tree that I was looking forward to producing 4-kinds-of-apples-in-one just up and died on me. It had started to grow leaves and blossoms that curled up and dried out one weekend for no seemingly reason.

First, notice how everything in the garden is nice and green. So it’s not the spot, not the soil, not the amount of sun or water. Because everything else is just fine, including the other fruit tree:

Then I decided to try something. I had left the label on (above picture I snapped AFTER I peeled off the label). I liked letting my neighborhood know I’d planted an apple tree. I got compliments for doing so. I peeled off the label. Below is an older picture when it had the label on and a protective fence around it to keep deer away:

I peeled it off and.... so many bugs crawled away. The bark from the bottom 2 inches was gone. They ate the tree from the ground up, inside out:

So even though I wanted an all organic, pesticide-free, bird, bee, and butterfly friendly garden? Next apple I buy (and I WILL try again... in the fall or next Spring, as soon as I can obtain one and the weather is right for planting) I am going to make SURE no bugs get into its roots or trunk. And peel off all labels right away.

#plants #gardening problems