Get yours here!
This garden hose nozzle was supplied free of charge in exchange for an honest review.
This thing is stout! I was a little concerned about it fitting my hose since I have one of those weird shrinking hoses, but it wasn't a problem at all. The nozzle itself is extremely heavy duty and solid feeling. This is one of the heaviest nozzles I have ever had for a hose. But it really feels like you could run it over with your car and it would shrug it off. I didn't actually try that, so I wouldn't. Switching between settings is easy. And this is suitable for cleaning gutters and watering plants. I would not, however, use this to water seeds as it is a little too harsh for that and could wash them away on you. But on grown plants and trees it works well. The handle doesn't hurt your palm, either, while watering, and it can easily be set to stay without your hand pressure. Everything about this nozzle says I am going to have it for a very long time. This item was sent to me free of charge in exchange for an honest review.
Get yours here! This garden hose nozzle was supplied free of charge in exchange for an honest review.
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My poor veggie garden is always under assault, and I am always looking for new ways to keep out my two main nemesis critters... the deer and the rabbits. This year is especially bad for deer. Yesterday we had a group of deer show up - about three - and they decided to lie down in the back of the yard... their huge pregnant bellies very obvious. Now, we know this herd. One of those does is extremely hostile. She spent the winter tearing up the top of the small hill in the yard and we now have very little grass left. She kicks, she bites, she starts fights with the other deer. And she wants what she wants and she wants it now. I have in the past used nylon mesh connected to plastic poles, and they were OK. But not since this doe showed up. This winter she decided to rip up my decorative kale. She didn't eat it... she just tore it out of the ground. And that was more aggravating than anything else. If she had at least eaten it, it wouldn't have been so bad. I would have been upset, but at least I would know a hungry critter got fed in the cold months. But no. She's just a jerk. But in the process, she took out the entire mesh system around my raised bed, showing me this wasn't going to be enough this year. I had grand plans for this fence. It was going to be wood lined with hinged and latched gates for access to the plants. It was going to be sturdy and semi-permanent, and it was going to guard both the veggie garden and the raised bed. It was going to be attractive and easy to deal with, giving me access to the tomato plants that were obviously going to be popping a zillion tomatoes for our enjoyment. Aren't dreams great?! What I ended up with was far less attractive. I am going to show you what I did and how to do it, but just know... you aren't going to make the cover of your favorite gardening magazine with this thing. I am still hoping to make my dreams come true, but this was not the year. I just about got my plants into the ground in time, and I'm still not sure I got those tomatoes in in time. It wasn't laziness. Sadly, in April my father lost his battle with brain cancer, and we spent the last year trying to care for him and his estate. It took most of our time, and frankly, the fact that I even got a garden in this year was a miracle. By the time I found some free time, it was very hot and the plants were already in the ground and exposed to the deer. So I did what I could with what I had. Maybe next year I can make the pretty and sturdy gate system. I'll probably need to start in January. What I ended up with was screen attached to wooden stakes. It will do the job and grant me easier access to my plants while hopefully deterring the critters, but it doesn't look stunning. There it is. I'm not proud. But, like I said, it should do the trick. This is the pepper area of the veggie garden. The tomato area is not done as I ran out of screen. I separated the two because of the hose. Many moons ago my father tried to make this rear garden tiered by using those bricks. It didn't go as planned and I hate those bricks with the fire of a thousand suns. But it does prevent erosion. I will eventually look into something a little better fitting and more permanent... made of things that don't fall on my feet every time I go out there. But they were a major hindrance to this project, and it would have been a lot worse had I tried to set up what I had originally planned, because the original plan didn't have any give the way the unframed screening does. But every year I forget just how horrible those bricks are, and they get a little worse as each year passes. If you want to do this, here is what you will need: Screen. The same kind you would use in your windows or storm doors. I chose to go with aluminum screen, but am not sure how that is going to do as the year goes by and it gets rained on. I was aiming for less chewing. Scissors. These don't look like much, but I am fairly sure I could remove a finger with these. You need to get the right scissors for your screen. Since I chose aluminum, I went for a stronger scissor. And I was glad I did. Wooden tomato stakes. Go for the untreated wood, especially if this is for a veggie garden. You don't want the chemicals seeping in to the ground. The stakes will, actually, last several seasons. You'll see some gray ugly ones in future pictures. They are sun damaged, but still work. And they are ten years old. These crisp ones were purchased this year. A staple gun and the shorter staples (this package is the ones I used if you want to copy the size off the package). Don't use an office stapler. The staples aren't strong enough to hold the screen during summer storms. You will also need a tape measure and, if your soil is a little harder, you may need a rubber mallet. A good supervisor never hurts, either. You can do this project alone, as I did. But it would be a lot easier if there was a second person there to help you out. Steps:
Like I said, it isn't beautiful. But it is functional. One day I hope to make this a framed screen area, but not this year. If you have run out of time or just don't want to do the framed screen, this will help nicely. It won't bind the way the mesh netting does and allows you to access the garden. The mesh was horrible for that. It always seemed to tangle and just become a giant mess. Last year it was so bad I was never able to get to the bottom of my tomato plants, and when I cleaned out the garden the only way to get the mesh out was to rip at it. And the deer figured out they could push it down, which didn't help.
Be aware, though, that the screen is very sharp where you cut. The edges in the roll are smooth, but any cut area will be very sharp. So be mindful if you have small children or pets that run loose in the yard. Come on back next year - hopefully - when this make this again, only framed and hinged. :) It's that time of year again. The time of year where your entire social media feed is peppered with articles about ways to keep bugs out of your yard or garden. Folks, we need to have a heart to heart here. Truth bombs are coming. Let's face it, none of us like mosquitoes. I understand. I hate the little things, and every year it seems there is a new mosquito spread disease we are being warned about. West Nile. Ebola. This year it is Zika. I swear the only reason these insects exist is to spread disease. And if you happen to be like me... you are a buffet to mosquitoes. I mean it, I get eaten up something terrible every single summer. As you can guess, I spend a lot of time in my yard between tending to my garden and grilling, not to mention walking the dog. And I happen to be one of those people who is very appealing to mosquitoes. Apparently it is a DNA thing, and I was cursed with tasty DNA, I guess. I'm nature's fruit leather. Since this is the case, I have tried everything. And I'll admit... I click on every single one of these links that gets shared, because like everyone else, I am hoping for a miracle. But the miracle is never forthcoming. As I sat here this afternoon scratching the plethora of mosquito bites on my legs - they really like my legs - I came across an article about plants to put in your garden to keep mosquitoes away. Now, my mother always swore by geraniums. We've always had geraniums in the yard, and if you smell those arm bands that are made to repel mosquitoes, they smell of geranial, which is, obviously, from geraniums. We've had moderate luck with this, but not perfect. For the second year in a row, I have a mosquito plant - AKA Citronella - on my front porch. Also mildly successful. This page I saw today suggests the following plants: marigolds, lavender, lemon grass, garlic, rosemary, basil, catnip, petunias, and mint. OK. I have marigolds surrounding all my plants in my front and back yards since I discovered the deer won't cross them. There are about four different varieties out there. I have so many marigolds in my yard you would think I owned stock in them. Marigolds, by the way, are touted on many websites with the ability to keep a lot of pests out of your garden, like some kind of puffy little miracle flower. I got them for deer. I can attest to the fact that deer don't like them. I have a big old pot full of lavender right in the mix by the marigolds. Mint. Lord help my mint. I went over that before; someone planted it in the ground somewhere in the neighborhood and now the entire development is overrun with mint. I could supply a tea company for the next year with mint. I also have garlic in my raised bed to chase off the critters, and last year I grew a batch of rosemary that would have made any chef proud. I did not get more this year. These seem to be the big ones for mosquitoes, although you can get lists of many other plants to keep away other specific pests depending on what you are planting. These plants may work, to some degree. But they don't do it in my yard. My yard is still full of mosquitoes, regardless of how much lavender and how many marigolds I have. The bottom line... keep standing water out of your yard. Sometimes that isn't easy. I know here in NC it has rained so much over the recent months that our ground isn't even solid anymore. We can't keep all the standing water at bay. But you can do some things. Have a bird bath? Consider replacing it with a small fountain designed for birds but with a motor in it to keep the water moving. Or get "Mosquito Dunks." We use these for everything that is a water feature in our yard and they work fairly well. The tennis racket looking bug zapper looks like a lot of fun, too. Be mindful of your yard and places that fill up with water. Storage containers for outdoor use. Wheelbarrows. Outdoor seats. Unused or poor draining flower pots. Yard decorations (watch those garden gnomes under mushrooms or holding shovels). Heck, even the drip catcher on your grill. Make sure you empty standing water, or turn over what you can so it doesn't collect to begin with. But you are not going to get every mosquito out of your yard, even if you do every single thing mentioned here and then some. So take precautions. Wear a bug repellent of some kind. On this page I have directions for making your own bug repellent soap, and you can even make your own oil to put in to that soap! The arm bands work well, but they don't cover a great area. If you have it on your wrist, they may still go for the leg opposite the band. So put one on your ankle, too. Wear long pants in the garden, and tuck your pants into your socks. Clip a dryer sheet to the back of your shirt while you mow the lawn. I know, that sounds bizarre, but it actually works and I don't know why. My dad did it for ten years with no issues. Have one on you when we weed, too. You can also buy mosquito repelling clothing, although I don't know how well they work or how long the repellent qualities last. I would assume it eventually washes out. You could also rock this outfit: That's a dashing fit of sexy, am I right? If you actually thought that was great, you can get both items separate here. That should make the next family cookout more interesting! I've often dreamed of having a bubble made of mosquito netting to wear over my entire body to keep all insects at a safe distance, so I shouldn't make fun. Because if someone makes that mesh bubble, I am buying two!
Anyway, in all seriousness, just be smart. Dress right. Get rid of standing water. Get helpful plants. Use bug repellent of some kind. If you do get bites, watch them closely. Get in touch with your doctor at the first signs of anything weird showing up on your skin or any sick feelings, especially if you have been traveling. Enjoy the outdoors! Oh yes, the gardening season is finally here! I am so very far behind, and on top of that, we have been having some rough weather. I finally got all the plants in the ground, but the rains here have been so bad, I actually lost four of my tomato plants to drowning. I replaced them, but I don't think most of them are growing well, so we may not get anything out of them, other than the two cherry tomatoes that seem to be making it. I did go a little flower heavy this year. At the end of last season we lost all of our bushes around the front of the house. They had been struggling for a few years, but during last summer they finally lost the battle. We took them up and replaced them with holly bushes on one side and a raised flower bed on the other. Here is the walking tour, enjoy! This is not an all inclusive list of things to do. There are plenty of those online to find. What I am going to share with you right now are things I actually tried myself. No plugs to anything I have not tried. My garden is full of critters. The animals I can count on coming through my yard during the year are as follows: deer, rabbits, squirrels, chipmunks, coyote, bobcat, stray cats, fox, snakes (both venomous and not), frogs, lizards, birds of prey, and regular birds. There are also bear in the area, although we have not seen one in our yard yet... here's hoping we never do! This list also does not include insects. Our main garden issue is the deer, rabbits, and squirrels. The frogs and lizards do live in and hang out in the garden, but they are welcomed and treated well, and they seem to have figured it out because they don't run away anymore. The frogs will allow me to relocate them to safer grounds, and one decided he was going to attempt to hibernate for the winter in my hand. I'm sure he was surprised when he woke up inside one of my frog houses. Most of the lizards are fairly small, although this year our resident lizard - because last year there was only one, now there are a ton of them - came out to say hey while I was doing my initial weeding about a week ago. My, how he's grown. I had named him Godzilla last year, and he apparently took that as a challenge. Unfortunately, we're starting off with the damaging critters on a bad foot. My mother - whom I moved back in with due to medical issues in the family - had been feeding the deer for years. DON'T FEED THE DEER! I know, they're cute... don't feed them if you want a garden. Your garden is a buffet to them, and no they will not respect your garden because you fed them. Just don't feed them. They come back if you do. This has effected the gardens of everyone in the area. They absolutely decimated most of the gardens last year. As of right now, we have a herd of about six deer who are in the yard almost constantly. They fight with each other constantly, too. And over the winter they completely tore the entire backyard apart. We have almost no grass left at all, because what they didn't eat they just tore apart while fighting. They also destroyed most of the decorative plants I had out in the raised bed for the winter. Here is what I have used in my yard and the rate of success: Garden netting: This works to a point. I have found that it tangles very easily and makes it very difficult to get to your plants. It made getting tomatoes on the bottoms of the plants very difficult. It doesn't really deter the deer for long, they do eventually figure out that they can push it down. The squirrels will also drop out of the trees or crawl under it. Marigolds: I found these worked very well, and we will most certainly be planting a lot of these this year. Apparently, the taste of them is extremely bitter and the deer avoid them. Last year I had a brave soul approach my veggie garden by the house. It was lined with marigolds. As it approached, it went for the golden flowers and froze, mouth open. She slowly closed her mouth and backed away. I assume she caught a whiff and knew what they were. The only plants that got eaten last year were ones marigolds were not planted in front of. Repels-All Animal Repellent Granules: This is designed for keeping a whole host of animals out of your garden, but I thought this also worked pretty well. It is non-toxic, so it won't hurt your pets, your plants, or the critters. It does, however, stink. It smells like very fresh garlic. You need to spread it liberally around your garden, and it coats the ground in a white dandruff looking sheet. You will need to replace this stuff on the regular, especially after a rain. It handled nightly watering well, but I still had to put it down about once a week. Havahart Deer Off Weatherproof Deer Repellent, 6-Pack, 6 Stations: I got these for the winter time because we had an extremely wet winter and I wanted to keep the deer out of my violas and decorative kale. But I also didn't want to be out there every day putting down the granules. As much as I love gardening, I needed a break. They... sort of worked. I put six out there, I can't find three of them now. And the deer still ate my decorative kale. They left the violas and the weeds, though. Bird Suet: Not just any bird suet. Hot pepper suet! The birds aren't bothered by it, but the other critters won't even approach it. I watched this year as a deer came over and then walked away. One squirrel did decide to try it, and he put on a nice little show in the yard and then drank a lot of water out of the bird bath. We haven't had squirrels anywhere near it since. This is what it looks like unpackaged: The smell isn't incredibly strong, but there is a smell. I love this because it helped keep the birds fed during the winter and we weren't worried about deer and squirrels not only eating the stuff but tearing down the hooks we hang the feeders on and destroying the feeders. If you live in a hotter climate or put this out during the summer, make sure to get the no melt variety or you are going to have a mess on your hands. The melting variety is fine in the winter, although it may freeze. Cayenne Pepper: This did the trick until I was able to find the hot pepper suet and also the deer repellent granules. I don't see this as a good long term option because it can get mighty expensive and it not only washes away but can be blown away as well. Hot sauce also works, but again, it washes away and can get very pricey. For the insects: Sevin Dust: Another wash away warning, but this is great stuff if you want something really safe for a veggie garden that won't harm kids, pets, and other animals. I had a serious ant problem last summer, as well as grasshoppers and a few other nasties. This stuff really did the trick and kept my garden alive. It was only nominally effective against grasshoppers, but the damage wasn't as bad as it could have been. It does not deter bees, which is a good thing. Garden Safe Fungicide 3: This is, primarily, a fungicide, but it also has something in it to deter insects. And it is safe for organic gardening. I am actually currently using this product for trees, not my garden. It has not been tested on my garden yet. We had a woodpecker come through and really beat up some trees I have along the side of the house. Here are some pictures. If you have an issue with groups of holes, I highly suggest not looking at these. I have an issue with groups of holes, but I can't stop staring at them. LOL! That is only one of the three trees. It is the worst effected, but all those holes are in one tree. And that isn't even all the holes! This poor tree is really in a lot of trouble.
The answer I found online was to protect the tree with a fungicide and something to keep insects from moving into the holes. Now, obviously, we need to discuss these trees with the exterminator the next time he comes through, because the woodpecker obviously found these trees fruitful and we need to do something about that. In the meantime, I purchased the Garden Safe Fungicide 3 to take care of both the possible fungus issue as well as the bug issue. It takes a treatment once a day for seven to twelve days. Be aware, with the amount of ground I have to cover, these bottles only last two days. I am covering a ton of ground, though. The stuff comes out and absorbs rather well. The stream function allows me to spray higher in the tree without needing a ladder, too. It gets into the holes and immediately absorbs. So far, we haven't had an issue with anything trying to move into the holes, and the holes even appear to be darkening up. They won't close for a long time, but they are showing signs of not having been disturbed in a while. So it appears to be working. So far, that is what I have. This year I will be using most of this stuff again. The netting is going away and I am building a much more substantial setup including wooden stakes and screens, which will have hinged doors with latches so I can walk in to get veggies off the plants. Here's to the deer not tearing them out! Gardening season is coming once again, and with it comes the barrage of magazine and newspaper articles about what you need to plant. I am, of course, hitting these pretty hard because while I want to grow some edibles - I have been banned from planting eggplant this year since we had almost 20 fruits last year and everyone is still sick of them - I also have decided to try to get a lot of plants that assist pollinators. I apparently did a good job with that last year without trying, since we had a variety of bees and butterflies all over the yard. This year, I want to entice my new little friends. As every year goes, herbs are a huge deal. I grow a few, but only in containers. I am terribly afraid of herbs, and you will soon understand why. However, an always popular flowering plant is the passion flower. When we first moved here in 2002, we were looking for good landscaping ideas. It was suggested to us that having a passion flower would make the yard interesting because of the unique flowers, and they were a perfect addition to a small trellis we had purchased to hide our trash cans. The woman at the garden center showed us pictures, and we were instantly in love with them. Little alien flowers, they were perfect. We bought a started vine and were instructed on the care. Apparently, passion flowers are very fragile and can be killed easily without proper care. That was the biggest load of horse manure I have ever seen shoveled. We planted our passion flower, and in a short time, it had climbed the trellis and wrapped itself around it rather elegantly. Soon, pods began to form, and those eventually cracked open to reveal our little alien flowers. We were thrilled! This was the last time our passion flower ever bloomed, and the last time we were glad we had purchased it. The next year, the passion flower didn't return. We assumed it had died over the winter because we had a rather harsh winter that year. We said oh well and moved on with our lives. We replaced it with a climbing rose that bloomed lovely orange flowers, and it filled out enough to actually keep the cans behind it from being visible from the street. The next summer... we realized our mistake. The passion flower returned. It has returned every year since. This year, it didn't even stop growing during the winter. It is no longer by the trellis. Now... it is everywhere. The entire side of the house we had originally planted it on is covered in vines - vines that never bloom, mind you, just big, ugly vines - and we are constantly tearing them up. They tighten around other plants and kill them off. They've torn wires from our A/C units. They've climbed trees. I found one hanging from our roof two floors up! Eventually, they moved to the back of the house. My lavender is currently being held hostage, but all the plants are usually covered in them yearly. They love climbing my tomato plants. They climb the back porch. I've had to cut away at them after wrapping around my grill. And they move fast. I was grilling the night before and came out the next night and had to cut the vines down again. They are under the porch. They are across the yard climbing bird feeders and trees. My neighbors are pulling them out of their yards. Last summer, a neighbor four houses down - on a curve, because this is a cul-de-sac - pulled a good pile of passion flower vines from her yard. We're known all over the neighborhood and the people with the vines. What began as a unique garden idea has left us with a nightmare that won't end. Here some more photographs. Mind you, this is in February, not the height of the season when they are really attacking. This is just the start. Enjoy the below gallery of nightmares, click each to enlarge and get a description. The only thing as bothersome in my yard right now is the mint. I have no pictures of the mint, because it has not spawned from the depths of hell to grace us with it's presence yet. Give it a few weeks.
The mint, too, has spread through our entire neighborhood and grows in massive quantity in the yard. If there is dirt there, there is mint growing from it. We've tried mulch. We've tried weed killer. I've actually dug out the dirt to the clay underneath and put down new dirt. I use a garden tiller at the start of the season. I go out every single day and pull mint out of my garden. Mint will actually grow in bunches, and if you are lucky enough to get a good grip and pull up a root, you may find yourself pulling a root that stretches several feet and connects to a bunch at the other end of the garden. That has happened more than a few times. It smells lovely, and I've pulled it up for use in teas, soaps, and as a natural air freshener. Heck, I've just munched the leaves. Deer are supposed to hate it... they don't. The deer fight with each other to get at it. The rabbits have the freshest breath in the area. But the stuff is everywhere. I spend most of my time in the garden yanking mint up out of the ground. If it wasn't for the mint, I'd spend very little time weeding my garden. It has taken over. I've got mint wrapping around passion flower vines that wrapping around mint. It is insane back there! And it makes you nuts because you'll spend hours on your knees and weed the garden down to clean dirt, all the plants are happy and mint and weed free. You go out the next night for nightly watering time and all the frickin' mint is back!!!!! I've never seen anything grow this fast. We've been battling mint since we moved in. We had other problems when we first moved in, but we've largely solved most of those problems. The mint is apparently unsolvable. I've spent a good deal of time researching how to manage the mint, and everything says keep pulling it, it will run out of energy eventually and stop growing. Well, I've been pulling mint faithfully for thirteen years and it isn't getting any better! Thank God I have a neighbor that likes mint juleps! The worst part? We never planted mint. I don't have a lot of use for mint, personally. I've found some uses, but to be honest, I don't want it around and I don't need it. We believe a previous neighbor planted mint in her yard, because the neighbor who moved in there later on seems to have even more mint in her yard than we do. Any new plant you want to bring to your yard needs to be thoroughly researched, and that means personal research, not just asking the person who is trying to sell the plants to you. A lot of plants are gorgeous and regularly suggested as good growers, but what no one ever tells you is that they can be invasive. Mint is very invasive. I'm not saying don't grow mint. But you may want to consider a container garden for your herbs like I do. It keeps them out of the soil and may help prevent them from spreading across your entire state like tasty little bits of kudzu wannabes. Strawberries are also invasive, as are bleeding hearts. Other plants will multiply. My mother planted lilies. We love them, but every year there are more of them. They are low maintenance and actually suck themselves back into the ground when they get cold in winter. But when they come back in spring, we can count on a minimum of four new ones. Those are easily pulled up and shared with neighbors who usually gladly accept them or give them to friends. Succulents are big recently, and I love succulents. And cactus. The good thing about cactus is that they have pups that are attached to them, usually. I have one cactus right now, and she's about 12 years old. She has two pups. Each of those pups has a pup that grew in last summer. You can remove cactus pups and replant them to make new cactus plants to give away or to put around your house or garden. They are slow growing. Please research how to remove cactus pups before you attempt it, because it isn't as easy as just twisting them off. You have to do some special care or the pups and the originals. I don't remove the pups, personally, I let them go natural. I have one succulent also, a hawarthia. I paid 25 cents for this plant and it was teeny tiny when I got it. I could carry it around on a teaspoon it was so small. That damn plant is now the size of a head of cabbage, and that is just the original plant. It is an indoor potted plant, and I had to repot it. I counted the duplication, and we're up to 25 plants of various sizes. They all squeeze together and appear to be one giant plant, but it isn't. The succulent and the cactus are an interesting study in plant life. A few years ago, I got ambitious and took the succulent to the state fair as an entry. She didn't place - and I think she was ripped off, she was much better looking than those other plants and I told her so; I may be biased, I am her mama - but she was required to be on display in the green house for the duration of the fair, which I believe was two weeks. She almost didn't make it. And neither did the cactus. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. Both plants fell into ill health and began to discolor. I was worried about the cactus because she is long and thin - I believe she was just at a foot tall at this point. She easily could have fallen over and split in half, leaving me with nothing but her pups to rush and remove. And she was weakening, so I was keeping a constant eye on her. And that year I spent almost every day at the fair, because I was in constant contact with the succulent (that they weren't caring for at all... I actually had to bring her dirt because they removed dirt to check her roots and never replaced it). When the fair ended, I rushed to get the succulent and get her home where I could better care for her. She went right back into her old spot... on the table directly next to the cactus. Within five days, both plants were well. The color came back, mid sections strengthened, and they began accepting water. Yep! They missed each other! And the succulent made a new plant to rejoice. Joy. Anyway. Research is important when introducing a new plant to your garden, especially if you are going to put them directly into the soil. If you are planning a succulent garden, a container is a good move. Research pairings, because I've watched pre-grouped succulents and cactus kill each other, and it isn't pretty. One is always stronger than the others and may choke out the rest of them. If you repot a cactus or succulent to give it more room, it will reproduce and fill the space. I recommend stopping at some point before you get overrun. Any plant that reproduces or may become invasive is best grown in a container. Be wary of them all. And try to remain as native as you can. Plants native to your area will always function better. But they may reproduce easier, too.
I was just going through here and Instagram marveling at my garden. It seems like just yesterday that I put the "tiny plant platoon" into the ground... and this past Monday I had to say goodbye.
As Fall is coming, the garden began to die. We had a really excellent season.
The bell pepper plant has become my inspiration for life. That poor thing... it got eaten down completely by bugs (we actually had a grasshopper problem this year. Sevin seems to help cut down on the amount of them and saved the plants... lost some leaves, and there was some damage, but it wasn't as bad as it could have been). I mean, to the ground. It was a one inch stick. It grew back and began to form a pepper. Then the deer ignored all the plants... except the bell pepper. It was once again eaten to the ground. It grew back again. The tomato plants over grew the pepper... it continued to grow (I didn't realize how much until the other day... it is two feet tall). I do not expect a pepper from this plant this year, but that is fine by me. I tore up all the plants and let it stay. It now has mesh just to protect it, and is happily getting all the sun and water on that side of the garden all to itself. That it's reward for being the most tenacious plant on Earth. Be the bell pepper. The habanero... it spent too much time hanging out with the eggplant. We pulled down our first four peppers yesterday. There are twelve more waiting to ripen, and about 20 to 30 more just forming. I am going to have more of these peppers than I know what to do with! The rosemary and oregano have been moved to the side to prep for harvest. The marigolds grew to amazing size and they worked for the purpose I intended... mine was the only garden to survive the deer this year. I highly recommend this tactic against deer. The marigolds grew nice and big and filled out to almost a wall of plants... and the blooms were constant and cheerful. They were perfect. I have not pulled them up even though right now they are starting to fall over and don't look as good, but they are defending the bell pepper. The deer are starting to approach, though. The garden sage is starting to fade as well, but is still by the habanero to keep deer away. It worked well, too... to a point. The deer did ignore it to grab that cantaloupe it was right in front of. But I don't think the deer will hurt the habanero... they'll eat one pepper and learn their mistake. The milkweed were amazing! They grew tall and were constantly flowering. They were constantly blowing seeds, too, so I think we'll have plenty of milkweed next year. Mom wanted them to attract butterflies, which they did. However, the butterflies almost seemed to prefer the marigolds. Hummingbirds, however... they loved the milkweed and the rose of sharon next to them. We had a lot of hummingbirds this year. A lot. Speaking of animals... we seemed to have a lot this year. Aside from hummingbirds, we had an abundance of varying varieties of butterflies. And bees. I was so thrilled about the bees. There were at least three different kinds that called our yard home for at least a portion of the summer, including a ground variety. Bees have been having a tough go of it, so I did my best to cultivate their health. Which attracted more bees. I'm not a fan of being around bees, so this was tough for me. But we got cool with each other pretty quick. I had taken to watering plants in the evening, and the bees came out to collect water from the garden. I was also putting the hose down on the rocks, and some began to venture over to drink that way, as well. Real light flow on the rocks so they could get their footing and they were happy bees. However, they somehow figured out I was the bringer of water... the large, fuzzy ones began to come out and bounce off my forehead on a nightly basis. If they did that, I dropped the hose. Anyway, one night I must have upset a wasp or six and had a mighty problem. I began trying to fend them off and working my way back to the house, even with the hose still on the ground running. Before I knew what happened, there were bees everywhere. I watched the ground bees come up, the big fuzzy ones came from one side of the house, and another group came from the other side of the house. And they went after the wasps. After killing all of them, the bees went to the hose and then left. There wasn't a wasp in my yard the rest of the summer. So yeah, I'm cool with bees now. LOL! We also had frogs. My dogs wanted so badly to eat the frogs, but she was unsuccessful. If you don't have tree frogs around your property, you missing a treat. They poop big and a lot, which is a bad thing because it makes everything gross. But they are so funny you just let it go. I had one take a ride on the garden hose because I didn't realize he was in there while I was unwinding it. He was very dizzy at the end of that, and it was hysterical watching him try to jump away. Another moved in to my grill, which was a bad idea. Thankfully this was discovered before I fired it up. I don't know why, but he must have sensed something was wrong when I was trying to get at him in the grill and must have realized I was trying to help him... because he jumped right into my hand and sat there until I walked him all the way across the yard and into a bush. They normally don't stay there as you get close to them, but he, for some reason, jumped right into my hand and didn't seem at all bothered by it. It was kind of cool, really. Well, that is the state of the garden. I'll have plenty of garden info for you... we're going shopping for some Winter color to add to the yard, so I'll have some news on that eventually. We're also removing two groups of large bushes that are mostly dead. Mom is going to replace one side, probably, with azalea bushes. The other side... fairy garden! I am doing that just to mess with the neighborhood kids, but I thought it would be a lot of fun. So stay tuned for the building of that. I already got the most gorgeous little house for it at a craft fair, so I am really excited about it. I may be replacing some wooden frames around windows outside of the house, too. So stay tuned for that lesson as well. Hey, when we do DIY, we do DIY! It's a problem every year during various seasons and for so many reasons. We usually get ants in our kitchen, although one year... we have a Rose of Sharon outside the master bedroom window. It was a lovely day out, so all the windows got opened. When we opened the window by the Rose of Sharon... it was like an ant waterfall! We actually had to call an exterminator to come in to handle it, because walls and walls of ants just kept on coming in through the screen.
The obvious answer is to keep away anything that might be attracting the ants. Crumbs, sugar, etc. But that doesn't always work. So what do you do, especially if you have kids and/or pets? In my house, we use two remedies that work for us every time.
Some other ideas I have heard from neighbors and during online research:
I have a fan club out in my garden. The bugs seem to fight each other for a place on my skin. I've been bitten by everything this year... chiggers, mosquitoes, fire ants, regular ants... you name it. The only thing not bothering me is the bees. And I have made peace with the bees. I even have a pet bee. LOL! A few of them have figured out how to "ask" me for water. When they do certain tricks or fly at my face and veer off, I tend to place the hose down on the stones for them and they gather for a drink where they are safe from drowning. We've come to an understanding... you don't sting me or make me crazy, I'll keep you watered and protect your hive. I've even planted flowers by their hive and they have taken great advantage of them. The rest of them are eaters. Even now, my legs are covered in bug bites. There are two things you can do to relieve the itching. One is therapeutic grade lemongrass essential oil placed directly on the bite (a little goes a long way). This works pretty well for honest mosquito bites, but not so well on ant and chigger bites. You can get lemongrass oil through my doTerra page. The other is a cream you can make yourself. I have used it on all of my bites and it works really well. For the most part, one application seems to do the trick. No, really. Get a very small glass jar, one of the ones you see all the time and wonder what people could possibly do with that. Yeah, get one of those. Inside, mix the following:
Make sure it is therapeutic grade oil that can be topically applied. Again, if you need some, I use doTerra for mine, and you can get it through my doTerra page. You'll be getting the best essential oils on the market (most can be used topically and even be ingested) and you'll be supporting this page. Anyway, apparently adding one drop of Frankincense oil will also sooth poison ivy, but I have not personally tried this. This mixture is great for kids. It can be tasted - although it won't taste good - and kids can apply it themselves. I would not apply this to any bites that have been opened or have scratches around them. The peppermint alone with burn like sin. The aloe gel will be clear when you put it in the container, but it will fog when you add the oils. Don't worry. You didn't ruin it. Mix the ingredients well. Store in a cool, dry place. And remember, less is more. This mixture should last you all season, unless you have a record number of bites this season. I've actually already applied this to 23 bites and have not made a dent in the mixture. Avoid using this on the face, especially around the eyes. It will sting if it gets into the eyes. This won't take the bite away. But as I said, in most cases, one application did the trick for the itch. I've had two bites that required more, both were ant bites. You can reapply this every hour as needed. Source: JoyinmyKitchen.com As you can probably guess, I am pretty cheap. Especially right now that I am between jobs and don't have a steady check coming in. But with it being spring, I also like having a garden full of veggies for my cooking. What is a girl to do? Well, I'd rather spend my cash on plants and seeds instead of stuff to fight the horrific weed issues we have in our yard. Due to an invasive lawn type and the mysterious growth of a whole lot of mint we never planted, our garden beds are subject to the horrors of weeds like you have never seen before. And over the years we have tried every kind of ground covering you can possibly imagine, built brick barriers, stone barriers, wood barriers, etc. We've tried a few sprays. Nothing works well. So this year, we took some hints from locals who have been growing down here for decades, and began saving our newspapers. Now, I know, with the advent of tablets and other mobile devices, a lot of people have switched off of newspaper. However, you can get plenty of newsprint at art supply or craft supply stores, and it is cheaper than most of the weed fighting ground covers you find at hardware and garden stores. The added benefit is that it is fully biodegradable and won't mess with your soil. It's also a great way of recycling for a good cause. We do still read actual newspapers in my house regardless of our tablets, computers, and smart phones. So we just saved those as we finished them up. If you are buying paper, make sure to stick with newsprint. It isn't pretty, but you're just covering it with dirt anyway. No one is ever going to see it. Besides, you don't want a heavy paper because you still have to dig through it, your plants still have to live with it, and you do want it to break down over time, and newsprint breaks down a little faster. Basically, you don't want it to still be there next season. Newsprint will do that for you. We started out by tilling the soil, as you can see in my post right bellow this one. We did get an electric tiller for the first time ever this year, so that was a quick job for once. We replenish the soil yearly, so the soil we turned up was still really nice and rich. But it got some of that mint up, as well as some other weeds that had taken. From there, we removed the big pieces and then began laying out the paper. As you can see, our garden is two tiered. We're working on the top tier where the veggies go. The bottom tier needs some work because the stones are getting in the way of the tiller. But you can get an idea by looking at that what we're up against weed wise. There is some mint visible, but the invasive lawn has really had it's way with that lower tier. OK, so what you want to do is lay out the paper so that it covers as much of the soil as possible. Wet it as you go. It helps hold moisture for a little while under the new soil to assist with the plants you are putting in, but mostly it anchors the paper down so it isn't blowing all over your yard while you try to finish. Once all the paper is down, carefully empty your bags of fresh soil right on top of the paper, spreading it out and covering up all of the paper. This is actually the tricky part. If you are using bags like the one you can see it the back of the above image, cut the top portion from the left top corner to the right bottom corner and tear the bag open as best you can. Then slowly turn it over. That was the best way I found to dump the soil without moving or shredding the wet paper too much. It will happen, don't worry about it. Just try to move it around the best you can. But by going slowly you can reduce how much of that happens. When you are done, it should resemble this: Lightly moisten the soil - and if you are like me, hose down the house mercilessly and squirt the family dog a few times gently with the hose so she feels included and slightly confused - and begin to plant.
When planting, unless you heaped soil on there like crazy, you will have to dig through the paper to plant. We just layered it, so that is what we ended up doing, but the soil underneath all of this was still very healthy. If your soil isn't healthy, heap the new stuff on there until you don't need to dig through the paper. And that's it! Now, you can bring forth the tiny plant platoon! |
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I've had a few people ask about my garden since I posted photos of the start of it. During the gardening season, I post all of my garden photos to my Instagram page. Be aware, it is not a dedicated garden Instagram, so other life events, random photos, and copious amounts of pictures of my dog may come forward in there as well, especially out of gardening season. But to watch my garden grow visit my Instagram page here: https://instagram.com/deacon303/ |