This past spring of 2012, I started looking into various flowers and herbs etc. that might help deter and prevent pests in my vegetable garden in a natural way. I wrote a post on this subject early on in the season, Herbs & Flowers to Naturally Control & Deter Pests, in which I described a few plants believed to be helpful as pest control, and made a decision on which plants I wanted to try for my own garden. In this post, I will give you an update on how things went, and whether it seemed to work. All in all it was an interesting project, and though I did had some pest problems, I still think it was worth adding these plants to my garden. PETUNIAS The small section of green beans definitely took the biggest hit, this year as in previous years; the petunias I planted were supposed to help control Mexican bean beetles, but I would say the effect was very limited. The plants seemed just as attacked as before, but the difference was that (amazingly enough) I did not actually see any of the worms this year. I did see one beetle, but no worms, although the evidence of them were all over. So if I decide to plant snap beans next year, I will have to do something more drastic. For some reason, and I’ve also noticed this before, later in the season the beetles […] Read more »

  Several years ago I used to keep tomato plants on my deck (before my fenced in garden.) One summer I saw that my plants were wilting and not looking healthy, losing a lot of leaves and twigs. I figured I wasn’t watering enough. Despite better efforts, my plants continued to go downhill, looking worse every day, until they were missing most of their leaves and dying. I also noticed several partly eaten tomatoes still on the plants. I couldn’t understand what was wrong. While studying my plants, pondering what might have gone wrong, I suddenly discovered two large, fat, brightly green worms on one of the stems! I was both shocked and horrified at the sight! I had never seen anything like it! My husband did a quick search on-line and discovered that these two hungry caterpillars were tobacco hornworms, and that they are extremely common in North America. They cause a lot of damage to tomato plants, and will destroy them completely if left alone. These worms are often mistaken with tomato hornworms, which is closely related. It doesn’t matter much which type they really are, as they do the same damage, feed on the same plants, and are controlled in the same ways as well. If you really want to know the difference between these two worms, there are a couple of things to look for: The tobacco hornworm has white stripes along its body and has […] Read more »

  When we decided to put in a vegetable garden, we realized a proper fence with a good gate was essential. As you can see, our property is surrounded by a lot of woods, and we have wild life to show for it. Approximately 90% of all the trees we have planted, whether apple trees, dogwood, flowering pear, or maple trees have been destroyed by deer and rabbits, despite much effort to prevent it. Naturally, we figured: if these animals love trees, they will surely love our vegetables! So a fence was never a question, it was a necessity. In this post, using lots of pictures to explain, I will describe how my husband built our fence; I assisted a little here and there, but he did all the planning and building. He didn’t have any pre-made plans to help him, he just thought about what might make sense and went from there. Several years later, it is still going strong and in very good shape. And to think, all I wanted was some wire to go around and some way of getting in and out of my garden, and this is what he built me! According to himself, my husband is a technical kinda guy, not a handy-man. And while he is excellent at anything technical, I beg to differ. Just look at that nice work! More beautiful than I ever hoped for, and highly functional! Thank you, sweetheart!!! […] Read more »