...that make me feel silly for not thinking of them sooner.
Last year, I went to war with what I finally discovered to be a cut worm. This is a completely illogical creature as it only cuts off stems. It does not eat anything...it just enjoys destroying property. Like this:
So I called Mike
McGrath from "You Bet Your Garden" on NPR and he suggested 'plant collars', which is a can or plastic bottle with the top and bottom cut off and buried halfway in the ground around tender, young plants. I have been having friends save bottles for me and I've tediously repeated this 'plant collar' process on dozens of my vegetable transplants.
This morning I was planting new lemon and spicy globe basils to replace the ones that were stripped (because I DID NOT put collars around them) and I decided to used some of the little plastic pots that have been piling up under my garden bench. As I was cutting off the bottom, I glanced over at the new plants to realize that I would be taking the plants out of one plastic pot and stuffing them into another - damaging the roots in the process - and it occurred to me: "why not just cut the bottom out of the pot it's in and bury that one?" Duh.
A cut worm barrier needs to be a minimum of about 2 inches above the surface and two inches below. After I cut the bottom out, I gently pressed the plant down a bit:
After planting it, I sprinkled a couple of tablespoons of
pre-minced bottled garlic around the outside and spritzed the plants with the soap/baking soda/olive oil soap spray (
last spring blog entry) with a bit of fish emulsion mixed in for good measure. I will keep you posted on how that works.
The collars reduce the amount of water it can soak in from the surrounding soil, so it is important to mulch with well crunched up leaves inside the collar (making sure you don't create a cutworm bridge) and often check the inside soil for dampness. Once the plant matures, you can cut the collar off with a pair of shears. Another option I read about is to affix two Popsicle sticks around a stem with twine. I'll try that out and keep you posted ~
Have I mentioned that I'm addicted to Pinterest? Yesterday morning I found this idea that somebody pinned. I realized that our neighbor offered us his old, cracked up birdbath...it won't hold water but it will sure hold plants.
Thank God for soaker hoses....and my husband who bought them. It's not the prettiest garden, but it's the prettiest one I've ever had a hand in creating. We've got peas, beets, sweet potatoes and a swiss chard that somehow snuck its way into one of our seed packs or transplants.
One of the things I love about our home are the toads that come back every year. Lately I've noticed these two...they are inseparable. Maybe they will create a new crop of toads :)
.............................................(image found at: http://www.urbanfoodgarden.org)
I just returned from the farmer's market with a lovely little gem of wisdom. Plant collars work pretty well but aren't a surefire defense against cutworms if you put it on with a cutworm sleeping at the base of the plant, which is what happened to another plant last night. I discovered that cutworms cut down a plant by circling the base. If you put a toothpick or scewer at the base of the plant, it can't fully circle it! Problem solved...now I need to find out what is stripping the leaves off my pepper plants.
Last summer, during a dry spell, the plants' main water source was city water. Although they were grateful for some moisture, they didn't look too healthy - with all the chlorine and hard water stuff...especially the rhododendrons. Lately, I've been researching compost tea which gave me a great idea. The instructions state: if you are going to use city water, set it out for 24 hours to let the able chemicals evaporate - like chlorine.
Jason and I found a HUGE young tomato plant at the Cleveland County Farm Market today. As I was carrying it around, people came up and asked "What kind of tree is that?". I've been learning about how to prune tomatoes to create a thick bushy plant and felt like this would be a great one to prune. Jason wasn't too keen on the idea and our tomato cages were not big (or pretty) enough to cage this beauty in so I told him I wouldn't prune it if he made me a trellis tower...so he did :)
The greenhouse will be attached to the east side of our workshop in front of a window that is near the workshops gas furnace so we can easily warm the plants during the super cold nights. The north side will have no windows (which will help keep the brunt of the winter wind from getting in) and will, instead, have hangers for 'shovels and rakes and other implements of destruction' (name that movie). The south side will hold a very open screen door that lets in ALOT of light with a clear plastic insert for the colder months. The east side will have a bank of four windows that we will be scouring The Restore for and the ceiling will be framed in corrugated plastic sheeting. Enough of the explanation...here's our progress: 
It's started warming up enough to begin clearing some of the leaves out of the beds. I lifted up an overturned pot in one of the shady beds and found what looks like Jim Jimminy (Jason's toad) hanging out under there. Last year we didn't see any toads till mid April, but I wasn't digging around quite as much.
This is a six foot tall marigold. If anyone can tell me how it is possible that a marigold can get that tall without fertilizers, please fill me in.
Jason just scored me a ton of rocks...the kind that all the structures are made of in Medicine Park!!!! Now the wild little shady nook is looking a bit more cultivated. Not too much, though. 
Oklahoma got hit with some crazy tornado weather yesterday. Jason and I stood outside and watched a mass of funnel clouds poking in and out of the storm just south of our city. The wind was INSANE...so I was amazed that the garden was spared. At around sunset we drove around the countryside to glimpse some destruction...we found a crumpled car resting upside down on the side of the road and some felled trees. 
