How Does Your Garden Grow

Leaf Rollers

2009-08-30T18:12:00.000-07:00

I searched the web a little bit today to find information on leaf rollers since I have had such a problem with them this year. I have found empty cocoons on leaves that I didn't unroll right away so I knew that those nasty little green worns were coming from some kind of Moth or Butterfly. I was hoping they were coming from a butterfly . . . They don't. . . They don't even come from a pretty moth. Its an ugly grayish brown moth.

I have always handled these by either removing the infested leaf but I had so many this year that my canna lilies were looking really sparse. My second technique is to start from the bottom, run my fingernail through the stitching and unrolling the leaf. I clean out the leaf and feed the worm to my fish. Unfortunately the leaf is still badly scarred on at least one side after this.

I've read about another method in which insecticide soap is put into the end of the rolled up leaf to kill the worm but I suspect that this method will kill the leaf as well.

Since moths are attracted to light the trick might be just planting them someplace where there won't be a lot of light at night.

Its nearly over

2009-08-29T20:02:00.001-07:00

The gardening season is nearly over now. Its turning off colder faster than usual . My garden has really not done well at all this year. I have had a lot more problems with leaf rollers than ever before. I can't seem to get rid of them this year. The only thing that has done well in my garden this year is the cypress vine and anyone who has grown that knows that there is no stopping it. It came up even after I put down weed and feed (which does not actually kill the weeds, it inhibits the germination of seeds).

I cleaned some more leaves and gunk out of the Koi Pond again today. Thats such a nasty stinky job. I have to be careful when doing this so I can avoid injuring any fish. The pond water gets so cloudy and nasty that the fish seem to wander around completely lost.

Dirty Koi Pond.

2009-08-02T09:07:00.000-07:00

I spent a little bit of time in the garden this morning cleaning out my Koi Pond. I haven't really done any cleaning on it in a few years other than trying to fish out the leaves that fall into it and I never get them all. Today I reached down into it and with my bare hands I pulled out handles of dirty, nasty, rotten, leaves, with smelly bubbles of methane gas coming up. Yuk, yuk, yuk!!

My koi pond is set up to catch run off water that comes down the hillside and through a dry stream bed. It seemed like a good idea at the time. If I ever build another small Koi Pond like this I won't set it up to fill with run off water. I will actually do my best to keep run off water out of it unless its water coming off of a roof. I would like to have a truly huge Koi pond though. One thats wide and runs the width of the property.

My Raspberries

2009-06-27T21:50:00.000-07:00

These are my wonderful organic raspberries. They are organic because they are neglected. I planted them at the top of the hill along an old barbed wire fence and after 3 years of hardly a berry I gave up on them. Then last year the 10 acres next to us was purchased and they cleared out a lot of trees. Suddenly the plant was covered in berries. I know the picture is a little faded. My 9 year old digital camera finally quit on me and I only have a cell phone to take pictures with at the moment. The color on it sucks. I can't say that ignoring them for 7 years is recommended, but I did finally get berries out of it.

My Blood Banana

2009-06-21T21:17:00.000-07:00

I have 3 Banana trees and all three are very small. There blood Banana's. I got a small 1 foot tall tree very cheaply from a greenhouse that had a little one and just stuck it in a pot. It had two little shoots coming up from the sides of it. After having it in the ground for a few months the "pups" on the sides were large enough to separate (about 6 inches tall) so I moved the gravel away from the base of the plant and used a knife to gently slice through the pups connecting with the mother plant. I am told its important to keep most of the pups away from this kind of banana to make it grow taller. Otherwise it will stay small and bush like instead of tree like.

Banana trees take lots of water and lots fertilizer. I use weed and feed which only has to be redone every 3 months. I have a unique way of watering it. I adjust the water hose nozel so that it drips steadily and then just put it at the base of the plant. This works very well.