bussete1's Blog

Poor Rambo Pumpkin
Jul 30, 2010 | 4:16 PM PST

Rambo Pumpkin has a boring beetle.  I dug and dug, and I couldn't find it.  I sprayed the garlic/pepper/soap spray, cove
red up the area I dug into with dirt, covered up a few other areas, and watered.  I want to cry.  I needed to tell people that understand.

It's not just the pumpkin, it's the fact that I'm not getting the help I was promised with the garden when we doubled the size of it.  Because of that, I can't keep up with the weeding.  Because of that, the bugs are hiding out in the weeds and attacking my garden. 

Our family was depending on the garden to feed us this summer and through the fall.  All I've gotten were some green beans and a few cukes.  I've been doing everything organic because it's inexpensive.  I'm thinking Sevin is less expensive than losing half your plants.

Spreading the Organic Love
Jul 29, 2010 | 7:35 AM PST

I have an old friend from college who is trying to garden, too.  She's starting to have some of the same problems I've had this year.  She posted this question on facebook: "Anyone know why my pepper plants keep dropping their blooms?"  I had the same problem this year, so I told her it's because of the heat.  If she sprinkles some epsom salts on the plants, it should clear up. 

She came back to me and asked if I've had to deal with snails or Japanese Beetles.  I haven't had the pleasure of the beetles, but I've had slugs, which are a snail without a shell.  I told her about the eggshell/coffee ground trick for the snails and I gave her my bug spray recipe.  I think I have her hooked on organic (cheap) gardening.

Tweaking the Garlic Spray
Jul 28, 2010 | 6:44 AM PST

I stopped using my garlic soap spray because it was burning up the plants in my garden.  I asked my cousin about it, who's an avid gardener, and he said that it's the soap, not the garlic, that's eating the plants.  He said that what he does is spray everything with the same recipe I was using, except he uses hot peppers in there, too.  He lets it sit for a few minutes to drown the bugs a bit, then waters.  I let it sit while I sprinkle Epsom Salts on my tomatoes and peppers, then water 45 minutes.  It seems to be working very well.

I spray the Garlic/Pepper/Soap spray all over, and I see the bugs fleeing in my wake.  Mwahahaha.  When I come back the next day, there are only a quarter of the bugs there were before.  I can handle that.  The amount of bugs stay down, too.  I just have to do this every time I water, which is about twice a week.

Jug of Doom Results
Jul 26, 2010 | 6:28 AM PST
I had the jug of doom in my garden for a week.  I looked inside, and there were only about 10 bugs in there.  However, I did notice that I have a lot more bees and there were less cucumber beetles on the plants.  I say the Jug of Doom is helpful, but not in the way described in the article.  I'm making more today, but this time I'm going to use brown sugar instead of white sugar and see if that makes a difference.

Jug of Doom
Jul 21, 2010 | 9:20 PM PST

I read that if you take an empty gallon milk jug, add a cup of sugar and vinnegar and fill the rest with water, you've created a great bait for the bugs to attack instead of your plants.  It was called the "Jug of Doom."  I just put one together.  Hopefully it works.

I have two girls under five and one is borderline failure to thrive.  We go through two gallons per week, so I should be able to make some more jugs of doom by the end of next week, if it works.  Cross your fingers!

Cutting Off the Suckers
Jul 20, 2010 | 3:43 PM PST

I found something I was doing wrong with the tomato plants.  I wasn't cutting off the suckers.  Now I'm cutting them.  It takes about an hour to do a quarter of the plants because I let them go so long.  Hopefully this will increase production.  It's kind of fun to do once you get the hang of it.  I'm finding all these green tomatoes I didn't know I had : )

Another thing I'm doing is I'm finding that some branches fell off from a storm, but they're getting roots.  I'm sticking the branches that were broken off and have flowers in the ground.  Maybe they'll grow, maybe they won't.

I keep forgetting to look up if I have to plant another crop of bush beans.  The ones I have are only flowering half-heartedly and I'm wondering if they're done for the season.  If so, I have more seeds.

Boring Beetle Blues
Jul 19, 2010 | 6:49 AM PST

Brave Zucchini had to be pulled out yesterday.  He got a boring beetle.  I have to read up on preventing those guys organically.  It's frustrating.  I didn't even get any zucchini out of that plant!  I rotated my garden so the boring beetles wouldn't find it so quickly, and they came two months earlier than last year.  Hopefully it won't take 6 hours to find an organic solution.  This is my second year with a vegetable garden, and the pests have been a big problem this year.

Where are my flowers?
Jul 17, 2010 | 11:27 AM PST
My tomatoes, zucchini and pumpkin aren't flowering.  I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong, but I"m bound and determined to figure it out.  I have one zucchini that came from the plant, but it's only about 2 inches long and the flower is starting to fall off.  Blah!

Shhh, Don't Tell!
Jul 12, 2010 | 6:22 AM PST

I think I'm starting to like gardening.  Whenever I'm at home, I find myself wandering towards the garden and staring at it.  I touch each plant and see if there are any new veggies on them.

When I started my garden, I absolutely hated it.  Every plant I touched seemed to die.  I hate getting dirty.  I'm like a vampire every summer because I burn so bad.  I didn't like to weed. 

This is my third year gardening, and the plants aren't dying so much anymore.  I seem to be obsessing about weeding so that the plants do better.  Whenever I find a problem with my garden, I now have sources to find the solution (thanks to you guys).

DON'T TELL MY HUSBAND!  He still thinks I hate it, and he feels bad for me everytime I have to go out there.  I want to keep it like that so that he'll help when I need him to, lol.

Three Tomatoes
Jul 8, 2010 | 9:58 PM PST
I planted 20 tomato plants, and I have 3 tomatoes on the vine.  They've been green for about two weeks.  I can't wait 'till they redden up.  Last year I had 9 plants and they only produced a total of about 3 per day when they were in full swing.  That's just about enough for the family of four to snack on.  I wonder if I'm doing something wrong.

Ash & Coffee
Jul 7, 2010 | 6:31 AM PST
I sprinkled some ash in the walkways of my veggie garden and sprinkled coffee grounds on the plants.  The slugs seem to be leaving.  I know I have to be very careful with the ash because it will kill the plants, but I've used coffee before and I know the plants love it.  The worms do, too.  I hope I'm not making my garden too acidic, especially with a cedar tree right next to it.  We'll see.

Slugs
Jul 6, 2010 | 6:42 AM PST

If it's not one thing, it's your mother-in-law.  I won the war against blackbirds, now the slugs are moving in.  I found three on my tomato plants yesterday.  I searched high and low for something organic besides the beer method.  It took me 3 hours, but  I found coffee and ash help.  We'll see if this works *sigh*

I like organic gardening because it's cheap, but I wish it didn't take so much research and time.  I really wish there was an easier way to find this information.

Rambo Pumpkin Has a Sidekick!
Jul 4, 2010 | 6:54 AM PST

I named my pumpkin plant Rambo because it was the only one that survived the blackbirds.  I went weeding yesterday and noticed that another pumpkin plant is coming up!  I know it's really late for pumpkins, but if I can even get some small pumpkins for decorating and pie, I'd be really excited.  I did some research and in Rambo V, he has a sidekick, his name is Beau.  Those blackbirds had better be careful with Rambo and Beau around, lol.

Watermelon Blues
Jul 3, 2010 | 1:32 PM PST
It looks like my watermelon seeds aren't going to come up.  I planted them three times in the garden, but the blackbirds got them all.  I planted them inside to bring outside and they never came up.  I'm disappointed, but maybe it's best this way.  I'll go outside today and "plant" my peat pot in the watermelon hill as a requiem to the watermelon seeds.

Another Pumkin!
Jul 1, 2010 | 6:18 AM PST

I lost the Brave Pumpkin and the Ninja Pumpkin to blackbirds.  Now that I've chased those all off, I have another pumkin coming up!  I will dub him Rambo.

I finally figured out what's wrong with my zucchini plant.  I've been putting too much soap in my garlic spray.  My cousin from Mexico said that if you have more than a drop in there, the leaves burn in the sun.  He puts his soap shield on in the early morning, waits half an hour, then waters.  He said that's enough to kill off the bad guys.  Hopefully now I'll get some beautiful zukes.