What's eating what

It's a late summer here, so I consider this the end of spring, and there are a lot of springtime shenanigans happening in the garden.

Number one enemy is waffling between slugs and cabbage moths. My attempts to get on top of the slug problem - by setting nifty little beer traps for them in old drinks cups - are foiled by an unknown midnight visitor (raccoon seems to be the candidate of choice) who gets downright cranky if it can't get the lids off. Great, a furred vandal with a drinking problem. As if I don't have enough problems in the plague garden.



The cabbage moths are about to drive me to near-chemical control methods. They have denuded my defenseless broccoli



with their evil eggs



which hatch into evil, hungry worms



which get large on my brassicas



and leave evidence of their digestive successes. The moderately good news is that it's highly nutritious for what's left of the plants.



The options of choice for dealing with this monster are: yellow sticky traps for the moths, and Btk for the offspring. As I saw a moth fluttering around this morning, so shall it be.

Also destined for yellow sticky traps are the evil leafminer flies who lay their evil eggs which hatch into evil offspring who tunnel between the layers of leaves - of spinach, chard, beets, sorrel...



(note worm-like shape eating its way downwards in bottom right: this is why you might not want to eat mined leaves) you name it; even beans this year.



Because they are within the leaves you can't do much except take the leaves off and drown the occupants in your slug bucket. But the yellow sticky traps (and/or neem oil) are said to be all you can do about the adults. The other advice - cover seedlings with row cover - is not an option at this stage of my plants' lives. And what an ugly garden that creates anyway, shrouded in reemay.

Slugs have been busy procreating in my garden:



Last night's hunt yielded a total of 61 babes from one half-wine-barrel planter. Now deceased. 61 fewer appetites to skeletonize my hapless plants.



It's a bad year for beans in my garden; those that have not been eaten alive are developing some nasty ailment that might be rust



- very bad news if it is. Not so bad if it afflicts, as it does, my garlic



as it won't affect the bulb. But with beans, it discolours and stunts the pods, apparently. Can't wait to find out. My fellow gardeners shake their heads and tut about beans, and most other things, saying "it's just too cold this year". I may have to give up on that bed and try to plant something else for a winter garden. Hmm. What doesn't mind being overshadowed by a giant pea trellis in an already dark garden?



There are successes to report. I've managed to stay on top of the aphids this year



and the parasitic wasps are getting the tent caterpillars under control.



Tomatoes have not yet expired from lack of sun, and a few are even setting fruit



while the volunteer potatoes are happy enough to be in sore need of hilling up



So far the aphids are not getting the better of the favas, as they did last year



and the blueberries are abundant. Soon I will cage them in hopes of foiling the birds.



The apple crop is looking awesome



and the fennel is surviving, and so is the garden supervisor.

Aphids everywhere and a few things growing nicely

According to the Vancouver Sun, the cool grey weather is largely responsible for the aphid infestation in my garden (and the rust.. and the apple scab). Never had them so bad, but then have never grown fava beans before. Which they love, apparently.



Also squash



and honeysuckle



and artichoke



My little heroes are trying to cope.



I deliberately left the honesuckle alone hoping it would attract some aphid eaters. I saw a wasp on there yesterday so perhaps they've nibbled on a few, but I've been obliged to get out and blast with my soap spray to try to save what I can. And I had a nice feed of fava beans last night.



And managed to harvest my garlic yesterday despite the rust that hit it a couple of weeks ago. Going to hang it in the shed to cure today, if it ever brightens up.



Guerilla gardening? I used to think so, but it turns out we have vegetable advocates among the municipal gardeners in Saanich Parks. Each year they plant squash among the flowers, which is furtively harvested by passersby. Bless 'em!



Some experiments in propagation working out. I stuck some wisteria trimmings in a pot last fall and here's one of its children.

Creepy spring

Last year's battles with tent caterpillars were gruesome, but I have (so far) managed to find and destroy the few nests that are turning up in my apple tree. Not so with the ones in my neighbour's plum tree - I have visitors dropping in periodically - but hopefully they will go away soon.



I believe this is a sowbug,



one of the night-crawling culprits who (together with the slugs) are making my rhubarb look like this:



I have been on slug patrol the past few nights and found so many slugs I lost count. Most are babies. I have been putting out slug brew for them (served in plastic party cups) and had quite a few takers, but will need to go slug-picking more often to keep them under control.

Meanwhile, I discovered several conglomerations of spiders, which I think are baby Garden Spiders. I would like them better if they ate slugs...



More potato experiments this year. I'm trying them in a burlap bag



as well as car tires again, and some in the earth as well. Meanwhile, the artichoke I planted last year survived the winter and looks like it will offer me something nice to eat this spring...

Late summer in the garden

My miracle acorn squash looked so lovely



I had to pick it the other day. And botched the job! I broke its little handle off, which is a bad, bad thing to do - it won't keep if you do that. So I have another squash on my menu (and two more on the vine, phew!). It's a miracle squash because it grew from a seed from a particularly delicious one I had in my seasonal veg box last winter, from FoodRoots. I heard after I planted it that I wasn't supposed to do that because squashes are a bit promiscuous and will cross with anything; but then I read that it's ok for your current crop, but the next round of seeds won't grow true. And that the two I'd planted (acorn - Cucurbita pepo - and hubbard - Cucurbita maxima) were different varieties and should be safe from wilder crossings as long as nobody else in the area was growing them. Or something like that.

Nice flowers anyway, and the bees like them.



The popular wisdom is that you should only sow squash seeds that have been properly bred and saved. One reason is to prevent disease, and all my squashes (including the one legitimate number I got elsewhere) are mottled with evil powdery mildew.



My eggplants are taking their sweet time and I fear will not bear fruit of sufficient size by the time the frosts come. Still, three cheers for pretty flowers and this game attempt against the odds and limitations of light:



And as for my garden - testing ground for plagues and pestilence - all manner of wickedness in the stunted corn...



Ugly onions (could it be wireworm?)



And those poor chard plants. No sooner do we vanquish leafminers but we get these wicked things, some kind of aphid I suppose:

More bug identification & spicy pesticide

Another site for bug identification: check out Bug Guide, for "identification, images, & information for insects, spiders & their kin for the United States & Canada".

And a fragrant way to deal with the evil ones: a nice little piece from the National Geographic tells us that the oils from common herbs such as thyme, rosemary and mint can work as pesticides if sprayed on plants.

Shoot before you spray

Some wonderful things come of the web. The Pest Identification Photos page, from Pest Control Canada, is surely an example of what the internet does best and is endlessly interesting. People send in photos of bugs and someone identifies them (Ed Saugstad, retired entomologist, Sinks Grove, WV surely deserves a knighthood for answering so many of the questions).


Ladybug larva, from the Pest Identification Photos page

The site also includes a helpful page on Integrated Pest Management (IPM), and some tips on Borax in the Organic Pest Solutions (although nothing else; for more organic pest control, check places like Suite101 for do-it-yourself, or Extremely Green for manufactured but allowable solutions or Pest Information for good general all-purpose information).

Wasps, leaf miners and ladybugs

My feelings towards wasps have softened since I saw one nibbling on aphids one day. I'm still nimby about having their nests in my backyard though, as is my allergic neighbour, so I'm afraid we shot this one down with a garden hose.



No change in my attitude to spinach leaf miners. My new skill this year is spotting the eggs before they can hatch and eat the greens.



My last greens harvest included this little feller, an Asian Lady Beetle larva. It's tragic and lethal to our gardens that we are more often than not unable to recognize the ladybug larva than its cuter adult version; it's an important thing to learn to identify. Ditto the eggs. Aphids for lunch!