Gardening – Chef Tom Cooks ! https://cheftomcooks.com A friendly cooking and recipe blog. Fri, 14 Aug 2009 22:48:22 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.0.8 My Vegetable Garden Update https://cheftomcooks.com/2009/08/14/my-vegetable-garden-update/ https://cheftomcooks.com/2009/08/14/my-vegetable-garden-update/#comments Fri, 14 Aug 2009 22:48:22 +0000 http://cheftomcooks.com/?p=893 While I have a moment, I wanted to give you all an update on my vegetable garden. I reported a couple weeks back that my garden was under attack by bunnies and bugs and slugs. Oh my! Some of my plants just did not make it, but many of them are still doing well. Today I was able to pick a zucchini and a lonely cherry tomato off my plants. My Hot Portugal Peppers are starting to turn a deep red and will be ready for picking very soon. Here are some pictures of my healthy plants.

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]]> https://cheftomcooks.com/2009/08/14/my-vegetable-garden-update/feed/ 1 Will I ever solve my Garden Pest Problem ?? https://cheftomcooks.com/2009/07/14/will-i-ever-solve-my-garden-pest-problem/ https://cheftomcooks.com/2009/07/14/will-i-ever-solve-my-garden-pest-problem/#comments Tue, 14 Jul 2009 19:32:24 +0000 http://cheftomcooks.com/?p=736 A few weeks back I started my vegetable garden. I am growing a variety of tomatoes, peppers, zucchini and squash. Things started good, but I’m having pest problems. Bugs began appearing on my plants. Leaves were getting holes and turning yellow or shriveling up. In addition, when flowers opened up on my zucchini plants, something came along and ate them all overnight. I live in Long Island, NY in a residential area. It is common for us to have rabbits, birds, and squirrels.

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I wanted to take a moment and describe my garden pest problems, tell you about the solutions I tried, and to ask for some suggestions. First, I’d like to show you some pictures I took today of my problem plants. I apologize for the blurry pictures, I need a new digital camera badly!

You can scroll through the photos by using the arrows below each picture.

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My garden problems:

  • Something is eating the leaves on my pepper plants.
  • I have aphids all over my plants.
  • Slugs are going after my zucchini and squash plants.  By the morning I find my buds on the ground.  Slug trails all over the leaves.

Here are some of the remedies I tried:

  • Lady Bugs – They say lady bugs are the gardens best friend.  They hang out and eat most of the bugs you don’t want like aphids.  I purchased a bunch of live lady bugs and released them at night as directed.  They stuck around for awhile, but after a few days they were all gone.
  • Fence – I put a wire fence around the garden to keep out rabbits and especially my dog!
  • Marigolds – They say Marigolds are good for keeping some bugs away.  I planted a ring of them around my garden but did not notice much difference.
  • Beer – Yes, beer,  if you leave a shallow container of beer near your garden it will attract and kill the slugs, but you must change the dish daily.
  • Constant Attention – Whenever possible, I try to observe my plants and hand pick any pests off.  At night I’ll go out with a flashlight and flick off any slugs I see on my plants.

What experiences have you had with your garden ?

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