Posted on 07/08/2016 1:32:57 PM PDT by greeneyes
I love the red peppers too. Nearly always leave a bunch of the cal wonders on the plant to turn red. We have grown several different types, but I can’t recall exactly.
I have an Italian, Jimmy Nardello? which I haven’t planted yet, and really need to get a few started, so that I have one or two to dig up and bring in the house for the winter garden. I’m not sure how many Hubby planted, and not sure which kind.
We have Geranium maculatum growing here and it is certainly immune to Japanese beetles but there are no piles of seduced and slaughtered JBs underneath - no diminishment of the eating pooping mating orgies going on in my hollyhocks, or in the raspberry leaves being turned into lace.
Why is there no predator that eats JBs? The birds don’t touch them, and I once spent ten minutes teasing a praying mantis into taking one - it finally speared it, tasted it, and shook it frantically off its claw - ick! ick!
When I captured them in water and crushed them, the ants ate for a few days, and then refused furthre offerings.
I have always read traps only attract more, but tomorrow I will give traps a go.
There have been two "attacks" on the garden. Last week, I thought the deer were nipping off the ends of my Sun Sugar that were getting beyond the wire it is growing on. I was putting up plastic netting when I noticed what looked like some kind of "poop". That got me to looking closer & I found 3 huge green tomato hornworms muching on that poor plant. I checked the rest of the tomatoes & found another one on my Mr. Stripey. Those 4 hornworms had not been parasitized by wasps (that I could tell) so they ended up squished. The Sun Sugar tomato looks really happy since the 3 hornworms were taken off - I'm getting pretty orange cherry tomatoes every day now.
The next "attack" is still ongoing. The crows, about a week ago, started scouting out the garden. Since the tomatoes were still very green, I figured I had some time. Last year, the crows were pecking out the pulp of ripe tomatoes. Monday, I saw crows land on a board fence very near the garden & got a funny feeling that the ones I wasn't seeing (there are 7) were up to no good. When I went out the door to shoo them off, 3 flew out of the raised beds. One had my biggest, prettiest green Roma in its beak. I found a pecked up zucchini & a pecked up Black Beauty eggplant. No one else was around at the time - if they had been, they'd probably have seen steam coming out of my ears & blue smoke from the (ahem) not-so-nice things I was saying about those crows.
I won't go into the details, but last year I had to put up plastic mesh/metal post fencing that, although it kept the crows out, hindered me in getting to the garden as well - it was a total pain & made mowing around the beds a miserable task. I have taken some pieces of plastic netting and draped them over the tomato plants for now, but I'm working on a fence idea that will be made in panels of plastic mesh/pvc that I can easily move to mow & also set up in different configurations. I could also use them for trellises when not being used as fencing. I am going to try making the fencing for one raised bed this weekend and see how it goes - if it works, I'll for sure do the 2nd bed & maybe even a third.
In the meanwhile, I made a "dead crow" dummy (I didn't feel like spending $69 to buy one) & hung it near the garden. I don't think the crows are fooled, but they haven't been coming as frequently since I've had it up ... they usually arrive by 8 a.m. & maybe come back 2-3 times in the morning, then show up again between 3-4. I haven't seen them in the afternoons at all and I only had to shoo them off twice this morning. The collective noun for a group of crows is a "murder" of crows .... apt name because they can really murder plants/gardens, grape vines, etc. Always something going on in the garden!
5-6 nice Amish paste tomatoes every day are harvested from our raised bed vines. No sign of wilt or rust...
Peppers are doing well. We’ll have out 3rd ration of jalapeño poppers this weekend.
We did traps one year, and it worked pretty good, thinned the herd at least, and since Hubby took care of the traps, it was great for me. They love my rosa rugose.
We have blue jays and cardinals, haven’t seen any Crows, thank goodness. I need to get some new wren boxes, and get them hung up for next year - they like bugs, not berries.
Amen.
I am having trouble with crows this year. There hasn’t been any changes in our yard but never have seen so many. Looked up what to do about crows:
http://www.wikihow.com/Get-Rid-of-Crows
It is the same thing said about Wrens from nesting in the eaves of the house and that didn’t work.
Anyone have any suggestions other than shooting them as I live a neighborhood
environment.
BAD NEWS… My garlic came down with rust this year and severely stunted the crop. I can post photos from years past if you are in a desperate condition???
I did traps one year also. I had so many JB, it was so many more than I had ever dealt with. I swore after that, that if I ever used a trap again, I would place it on the edge of my property.
Your garden is beautiful!
I always love your pix.
Thanks for the pictures. Lovely looking plants. I think I have an infestation of flea beetles. A couple of plants look like teeny tiny buckshot hit them.
I’m going to try some diatematious earth. Not sure what else. Might have to make some garlic/pepper spray.
Very nifty looking basket.
I asked Lady Bender about Flea beetles and she thought for a moment and said she would trade you some black aphids for a few of your beetles. Other then that I would look on line for a organic cure.
We had 5 crows last year & now it’s up to 7 ... a family, it appears. Lots of chatter among themselves and interaction - fun to watch if they weren’t getting into trouble. My dad is an old-school farm boy - he has been telling me to shoot one & hang it up & that will take care of the problem. I’m not inclined to do that & even if I were, crows are a federally regulated migratory species so you can only shoot them during certain hunting seasons - “now” is not in season.
I had already seen the article you linked. None of that really helps me so I’m going to fence the crows out. The fencing is close enough they can’t land between the fence/garden & they cannot perch on the fence. They can’t reach the tomatoes & other veggies through the fence.
In searching the internet, I did see where someone live-trapped crows. They were left in the cage for a couple of hours & after that experience, just seeing the cage kept them away. That is an additional option for me - we have a live trap & two years ago, I accidentally caught a young crow in it (baited with corn & cantaloupe for a groundhog). It was very vocal & quite upset & went screaming off looking for family/buddies when I got it released.
I think the easiest thing for you might be the “dead crow” decoy to warn them away and/or maybe trapping them for some ‘aversion therapy’. You could try a fake snake - supposedly that works for a while & it might be enough that they’d stop coming.
Here’s the dead crow link:
http://birdsoff.com.au/dead-crow-decoy-visual-deterrent/
Some people use ‘Halloween’ decorative crows ... cheaper, but probably wouldn’t last long in weather.
lovely flowers and lovely garden..
String beans are doing well. One (store bought) eggplant plant has 13 little eggplants. Saw the first bell pepper. Tomatoes are just starting to bloom. Still no pickles, but they are all in flower. Planted red lettuce; still have some butterhead.
Question on fertilizer: is 8-8-8 a general fertilizer for most vegetables? I’ve used it before on tomatoes and they perked up.
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