I found these four Oregon Springs waiting for me in the garden this morning.
Monthly Archives: August 2011
All Green Flying Bug
I have discovered that if you spend long enough and watch closely enough, you will find out what you need to know about your garden. This morning, I went to check on the peach tree and pluck the hopeless ones from the branches. After about ten minutes of doing this, I finally spotted an all green flying insect (she’s in the pic above but you can’t really see her). She was nearly perfectly camouflaged with the unripened peaches. I don’t know if this is what’s plaguing my tree, but it’s the first possible predator I’ve seen after the ants. When I went to Shannon’s on Friday (biding my time till the second plane was leaving JFK for N’awlins), I was told that the peaches with the gooey stuff coming out of them definitely have to go. There will be no eating them. I wondered whether they would go bad on their own, turning brown and soft, if I didn’t pick them. I have seen some like that (see pic above of “The Bad”). Joe at Shannon’s said that it was a sign of a bug who had gotten into the fruit. If I understand what he said correctly, the gooey stuff is the juice of the flesh seeped out after the bug enters or leaves the fruit. I doubt it’s the flying green thing which looked like she was happy to just hang outside the fruit and pick at it a little.
I Got Globally Warmed
And I am not alone.
Victims (not quite casualties but close): hostas and carrots and maybe the cukes too but the latter did produce. They just slowed down during and after the wicked heatwave we had.
So I made it to The Big Easy. But my troubles are not all at an end, my friend. I don’t like what I’m hearing. I met a gardener from Oklahoma who said they’ve been without rain for about two months. Said she went away for two days and came back to find her petunias and other flowers all wilted or dead. Another friend outside Chicago put as her Facebook status that someone had murdered her cilantro (I think that same killer was on the loose in my herb garden). When I was talking to a fellow reveler in Carmel, IN a couple weeks ago, she had to stop mid-sentence because it started to rain, something they hadn’t seen in many weeks (may also have been a couple months). She and her father commented that a lot of people would be stating out their windows at that moment. All other folks, too, across the country have been telling me their global warming woes. Hope about you?
QUESTION: what’s your take on this wacky weather? Are we getting globally warmed? What does your garden have to say about it? Are you changing your approach in response? Will this change what you do next year? How so?
Go ahead … Gimme the dirt!
I Had Trouble in Getting to Big Easy
The day started out rotten. Up at 4 a.m. (okay, well 4:30), only to miss my flight to New Orleans, despite my best efforts. Made it all the way to JFK, raced inside like a lunatic, wheeled luggage flying behind me, only to find out I’d have to pay an additional $80 for the next flight this afternoon, couldn’t check my bags until at least after 1:00, and would have to trek it back home in the meantime to wait (which meant another $100 in cab fare to get home and back again later). Sooooooo, while still in a spectacularly foul mood, I headed out back to check on the garden.
I had major renovations done on my house in the last six months. I find that when I’m in a good mood I look at the changes and am pleased as punch I laid out the money for it. When I’m grumpy, I see the tiniest nicks and chips in the new paint or corner spots where the moulding isn’t perfectly straight, or that infuriating little dribble of paint that hardened under the counter ledge in the opening between the dining room and kitchen, and think about the dollars wasted. This morning I found the same phenomenon occurs in the garden. I went out there and all I saw were the problems. Although the first heirloom tomato ripened, this morning all I could see was the split at the top. While the peach tree is producing lots of fruit despite some early season troubles, all I saw this morning were problems that I don’t remember being there a few days ago. (In May, I sprayed it with copper fungicide but not in the amount Shannon’s recommended — I try to go easy with that stuff even thought it’s organic. It’s still copper being sprayed on a tree that produces fruit I fully intend to eat.)
So, although I didn’t skip through the garden this morning, peppering self-congratulations, I did identify some problems that need fixing. Of course, my mood is a little improved after getting up close and personal with the plants; that never fails. Eternal happiness and sprightliness, however, can be a dangerous thing. I don’t know that I would have spotted those issues if I weren’t such a grumpy gardener this morning.
I do feel like the guy in Dr. Seuss’ I Had Trouble In Getting to Solla Sollew. He left all the pesky troubles he was having at home to get to the beautiful city of Solla Sollew (on the banks oft he beautiful River Wah-hoo, where they never have troubles, at least very few), but found that the journey wasn’t quite as easy as he had expected. After an exhausting bout of difficulties getting to SS, he arrives to find that the city is suffering from a key-slapping slippard who moved into the door, and now no one can get in and no one can get out. The town’s gone to pot and even the ever loyal doorman has decided to leave, off to the City of Boola Boo Ball, where they never have troubles, no troubles at all. So, while I’d really like to kick off this vacation with a bloody mary, fixins courtesy of the garden, and chill till my flight at 3, I’ve decided to follow dude’s suggestions.
Declining the doorman’s invitation to follow him off to paradise, he tells us what he has decided to do:
…I started back home, to the Valey of Vung. I know I’ll have troubles. I’ll, maybe, get stung. I’ll always have troubles. I’ll, maybe, get bit by that green-headed Quail on the place where I sit. But I’ve bought a big bat. I’m all ready, you see. Now my troubles are going to have troubles with me!
Watch out ants. I’m going to Shannon’s to buy my big bat.
Who Did This?
Here is the third and fourth (and hopefully the last) of my peach tree troubles. The gash on the peach is the only one like it that I’ve seen (but obviously I don’t want to see anymore). The stream of peach juice (I’m assuming that’s what it is) which has oozed and hardened, however, can be spotted on a good number of the peaches. Does anyone recognize this or know how to treat it (assuming it’s not too late) organically?
More Peach Tree Trouble
Could it be ants who have done this damage to the leaves? Close examination of the branches identifies a few small reddish brown ants but no other sign of predators.
Peach Tree Problems
Can anyone identify this issue? Brown spots appearing on several of the fruit. But, wait, there’s more…
revelgardener 