Thursday, May 29, 2014

A Good Bug


I am still weeding away at the garden. I got the Cowpea section and the Tobacco row weeded and mulched today which meant another 10 wheel barrow loads of barn waste. I think I remember now why I gave up on growing the Cowpeas. They take a long time to germinate and then grow kinda slow at first which allows the Redroot Pigweed to over take them easily. In just a matter of a few days the little Cowpea plants were submerged in a sea of Pigweed and were really hard to find when I was finally able to get out there and pull up the weeds today.

I ended up murdering three or four little Cowpea plants by mistake. I think next year I may start these in little pots to get an edge on the rapid weed growth. It is amazing how much like Cowpeas the Pigweed looks from the top.

It all worked out ok though as the Mrs. has been BI$%ing at me to plant her Okra (Yuck) and I wasn't really sure where I was going to work em in because I was out of space. So I just filled up the empty spots with her Okra (Yuck) plants.

Recently the Small-Hold has been suffering a beetle plague of almost Biblical size. These huge green and black beetles are literally everywhere. I had one crawling on my foot last night in the house. The first reaction is ewwww squish em, but don't. These guys known as Fiery Searchers are really good beetles to have around, especially in your garden and fruit trees. You see they stalk, attack and eat caterpillars or worms like Tent Caterpillars, Cut worms, that type of thing and they do a pretty good job of it too. Whenever I see one I immediately pull a Kymber (Otherwise known as Rubber-Maid) and capture it for release back into the wild. I saved two of em out of my water tub in the garden this morning as well.

So that's about it. After working myself half to death on the garden I had to throw together four more brood chambers for the bees as a neighbor came by in need so I gave him the only two I had put together, painted and ready to go. I know he will pay me back but that won't help me if I catch another swarm in the next few days will it?  So I just got back inside from that little project.

I have a car run to make tomorrow back into Eastern Kansas so I won't be around until late. I guess another tractor time post is in order for the morning.

Keep Prepping Everyone!!!

 


15 comments:

  1. Lady Bugs are good bugs too, right? I once opened my apartment and hundreds of Lady Bugs were all over the ceiling and the walls. I was going to spray them but my daughter insisted we carefully pick them all off the surfaces and release them outside.

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    1. Harry - ladybugs are especially good for your garden and i am glad that your daughter insisted on carefully picking them up and releasing them outside - she knows what she's talking about. and in faery lore, ladybugs are faeries taking a bodily shape - isn't that awesome?

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    2. Harry,

      Lady bugs are great to have around however, there is another bug very similar to the lady bug that isn't good to have in your garden there called Asian Lady Beetle.

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    3. Ya Sandy we get those fake Ladybugs here too and they piss me off they are so hard to tell from the good ones.

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  2. I haven't seen those beetles but I don't usually kill bugs unless I see them eating something important. We got rain last night so I will be working on new weeds this weekend.
    Tell those tractor girls to do some weeding, it could be entertaining.

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    1. Sf - Ya like I am ever gonna help weeding from anyone :)

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  3. I did NOT know that about those beetles !

    and what's wrong with okra? My husband likes it's battered and fried and it thickens soup quickly.
    Too bad my rogue chickens scratched mine out and killed them.

    -fjord

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    1. Fjord - To each his or her own but to me Okra simply taste like grass. I could clump up some of the fescue growing in the field and fry it up and to me it would taste just like Okra. Yuck :)

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  4. listen wiener - i am incredibly proud of you for taking almost 3 yrs to give me a nick-name. have you watched any of Todd Margaret yet?

    there's a line in there where someone says to another person "it comes and goes eh?"

    i will always be reminded of you when i watch the show and hear that line - bahahahahahah! oh buddy - you have GOT to watch this show!

    much love, ya wiener. your friend,
    The Rubber-Maid

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    1. kymber - No I haven't watched it yet I am trying to find a source for it,,,shhhhh...

      Rubber Maid made sense what with your tire fetish and all :)

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  5. Sounds good sir! I actually like okra - planted at least 8 in hopes one would make it. I will either be completely bereft or buried in pickled okra come fall.

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    1. TB - I just cannot stand the taste of the stuff. It's like eating grass and I am a carnivore unless the plant is really tasty :)

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  6. You could try the way we plant peas and some climbing beans. We use old house rain gutters. The length we have are 10ft long, free off freecycle. Fill them with compost and soil and plant the seeds. Once well established take to the planting site and hoe a shallow depression about the size of the guttering. Put guttering in the depressio, lift one end and slide guttering out leaving all the seedlings in situ ready to firm up around. This saves an enormous amout of time in planting and replanting as well as minimising losses from mice. It also means that our entire crop can be started under cover in our polytunnels whilst occupying just a few saw horses with minimum weeding.

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    1. Anon - That is an interesting idea and would work for the seedlings quite well I think. I might even try that next year rather than sowing the seeds directly. I don't see how it would stop the weed problem because the weeds come up everywhere once it gets too wet and keeps me out of the garden for a few days. That happens a couple of times each Spring until I get it mulched. Also I cannot mulch until after the lambs leave the barn each Spring which usually doesn't happen until about the end of May first part of June.

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  7. Obviously I don't know your weather conditions but here we don't plant out the seedlings until the last week of may. We also mulch as soon as we've dropped them in and watered them. Being organic any type of pesticide or herbicide is a no no so we have to surpress weeds as best we can. Old cardboard between rows works well and is cheap and compost able.

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