Natural Pesticide

Be Green!

Aphids beware!

Lady beetles are voracious feeders and may be numerous where prey are plentiful and broad-spectrum insecticide use is limited. Lady beetles need to eat many aphids per day so that they can lay eggs. The convergent lady beetle may eat its weight in aphids every day as a larva and consume as many as 50 aphids per day as an adult. Sevenspotted lady beetle adults may consume several hundred aphids per day and each larva eats 200 to 300 aphids as it grows. Once the adults and larvae have eliminated an aphid colony, they will search for additional food.

Visitor

Garden visitors such as frogs and toads 

can be very effective predators of biting insects!

Be Green:

 make better backyard habitats

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elsewhere

An aster is primed for full blooming

(bagworms beware!)

Be Green:

Pepper plants are new for this year...

so far, so good!

Home gardening is fun, tasty, & great for the environment! 

They Might be Giants

 even though they are CG's non-favorite color, these are keepers

 the blooms are giant- easily double the size of other iris

 

these are a large, royal presence in the front river birch planting area

-elsewhere in the garden

 

lots of new growth from this aster

Be Green: 
 Never use chemicals to control bagworms. 
Plant asters (perennial) instead. 
Asters attract micro-wasps (harmless to people & pets) which prey naturally on bagworms. 
 

only a few daffodils remain, a few are budding, and some are still just pushing-up

 

 cannas are coming back

Canna Snake

It was a warm, sunny afternoon. CG was enjoying being able to get outside for some long-overdue gardening work. To make room for a solid border of daylilies, some cannas had to be removed. CG usually works with a shovel, but it was hiding somewhere in the garage. So, CG started clawing away at the mulch and soil by hand. Always accustomed to feeling the sensation of a wriggly nightcrawler, CG thought nothing of it at first.

Yeah, the texture of a snake is a little different than a worm. It brought about a delayed reaction from CG that spooked the neighbor dog (who wasn't used to hearing a girl screaming).

The snake was gently placed in the back corner of the garden under a light covering mulch.

Rodents and bare-handed gardeners beware.

The excess cannas were placed in the newly extended corner bed.

Hopefully, the garden has reached its maximum capacity of cannas and snakes.

Preserving natural predators in a landscape is a good (but sometimes scary) way to be green!

State Roadside Quiz

Which state highway dept. planted more than 200,000 daffodils in one season?
(answer)

Which state purchases and sows more than 30,000 pounds of wildflower seed every year?
(answer)

Roadside plantings of wildflowers and bulbs do not require mowing.
   Not only are these areas more aesthetically pleasing, but they save state governments millions of dollars in personnel, equipment, and fuel costs.
Green roadside plantings are great!

Maintaining a mustache

...I mean, mulch stash...
In order to maximize TiG (time in garden) CG strives to complete basic upkeep of the planting beds during the cold, dormant months. This requires having mulching products on-site and ready to go at all times. It's not fun to spend a nice warm day running around town picking-up supplies and missing-out on prime gardening time. CG will add mulch to the planting beds to a uniform 4" depth. He will purchase more than he actually needs, in order to maintain a surplus of mulch. An ideal 'mulch stash' for CG would include: 2 bales of pine needles, 9 cubic feet of cypress mulch, 4 cubic feet of pine bark, and a recycled 3 cubic ft. bag stuffed with self-made canna mulch.

Dormant-time bed maintenance includes: removal of wintering weeds, pruning, and checking to ensure proper mulch depth. The azalea bed was mulched with pine needles, but this year, a base layer of pine bark was added (with the pine needles layered on top). Iris also prefer an acidic mulch, so CG will be going to the local farmer's co-op for more bales of pine needles. Once the pine needles are in place and become weathered-in, they tend to stay put, without being blown away by the wind, or washed away by the rain.


In a few weeks, transplanting will have to be completed in a timely manner, to get the plants somewhat established before the hot, dry summer weather. When plants are being moved-around, it's a good idea to have mulch on-hand and ready to insulate a moist growing medium (so don't allow the mulch stash to be depleted during the dormant-time bed maintenance! -note to self). Fall is the ideal season to transplant, but CG is a little impatient. He's had good results moving/dividing daylilies, iris, daffodils, and newly rooted forsythia in early spring. Established shrubs and small trees require more frequent waterings and tlc (to include using framed bird netting to shade plant from the overly-harsh afternoon sun). If at all possible, delay the transplanting of mature shrubs and trees until the fall.

*note on mulch:

In the past, trees and limbs from storm damage were brought to a dump and burned. Today, this material is being recycled into mulch. Be sure to check the bag for recycled content. Of course pine needles are essential for acid-loving plants and are 100% sustainable.

When a planting bed is properly mulched and tiered with plants, additional watering (even in periods of drought) is rarely needed with mature root systems.

Fewer wintering weeds

The most effective weed control method used by CG is pulling them by hand. After a good rain, he can be found in the front yard surveying each square inch. If he had all of his wits, CG would have never started the task, which at first seemed impossible. The grass blades were probably well outnumbered by the wide variety of weeds.

Be Green:

Pulling weeds by hand is a great way to spend more time outside, and avoid the use of chemicals! 

Garden tool belts

Constant gardeners have specialized tools of the trade. Bulb-diggers, utility knives, pruners, stakes, spades, shears, pencils, notepads, cameras -all are useful if they are readily available. Regular tool belts can be expensive, but with some imagination and creativity, you can make your own. Putting old water bottles to good use as you garden is very green indeed!