Topic: Planning for next year's garden (Thinking about cold frames, greenhouses & potti

[wvchat]

I figure most of your perennials will be ok.  I've had to run the redi-heater on my sidewalk for hours to get it to thaw.  I think it must have had 6" solid ice on it.  I had lost my snow shovel so my back walk became a mess.  I hope this stuff will melt off now and go away.  I've definitely had enough.  Today we broke down and run a loader down our driveway.  It's been a solid sheet of ice for weeks.

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[libby]

Here are recipes for dealing with common problems in the garden:

1.Soap Spray Insecticide
■1 tablespoon of liquid soap
■1 gallon of water
Mix ingedients in a sprayer and apply to both sides of plant leaves to get rid of aphids, spider mites, and whiteflies. Reapply after rain or as needed.

2.Garlic Spray Insecticide – for aphids, whiteflies, and spider mites
■1 whole garlic bulb
■2 cups of water
■1 gallon of water
Combine in blender the entire garlic bulb and two cups water, and blend on high speed until garlic is finely pureed. Put in storage container and set aside for a day. Strain out pulp, and then mix liquid with one gallon water in sprayer. Spray tops and bottoms of leaves thoroughly. Apply about once a week, and after a rain.

3.Baking Soda Spray – treats powdery mildew and other fungus (tomato blight)
■1 gallon of water
■3 tablespoons of baking soda
■1 teaspoon of dishwashing liquid
Mix all the ingredients in a sprayer and apply to leaves of affected. It is best to remove leaves that are seriously infested if possible. Treat every one or two weeks.

4.Milk Spray – treats powdery mildew and other fungus
■1 quart of milk
■1 quart of water
Mix milk and water in a sprayer and treat infected plants. Three separate treatments a week apart should control the disease.

5.Garlic & Pepper Spray – gets rid of cabbageworms, catepillars, hornworms, aphids, flea beetles, and other insects
■6 cloves of garlic
■1 tbsp dried hot pepper
■1 minced onion
■1 tsp liquid soap
■1 gallon of hot water
Blend all ingredients and let sit for 1 to 2 days. Strain and use as spray. Ground cayenne or red hot pepper can also be sprinkled on the leaves of plants (apply when leaves are slightly damp) to repel chewing insects or added to the planting hole with bone meal or fertilizer to keep squirrels, chipmunks, dogs and other mammals away from your gardens. Be sure to reapply after rain.

6.Sprinkle flour on small cabbage heads to get rid of cabbageworms. The flour swells up inside the worms, killing them.

7.Snail & Slig Trap – Place a small, shallow saucer full of stale beer to get rid of snails and slugs. The snails and slugs are drawn to the beer, but then drown once they climb in the saucer.

8.Sowbug Traps
■1 small plastic container (tupperware bowl)
■2 tbsp of cornmeal
Cut a small hole at the base of the container, large enough and close enough to the bottom to allow sowbugs to climb in. Place cornmeal in container. Place container into area infested with sowbugs. After feeding on the cornmeal, the bugs will drink and then explode! (Replace cornmeal frequently.)

9.Sticky Traps – for whiteflies and fungus gnats
■1-2 Tbsp. Vaseline or preferably, non-petroleum Jelly
■4”x8” plastic cards or cardboard
■Waterproof yellow paint
Apply paint onto both sides of the card and let it dry. Once the paint is dry, apply
non-petroleum jelly liberally over both sides of the card. Place the card just above the plant canopy.

10.Ant Traps – for killing ants in the garden
■1/4 cup of sugar
■1/4 cup of borax
Mix the sugar and borax, then sprinkle around any hills and travel paths. The ant will think it is all sugar and take the borax back to the nest. The borax is poisonous to ants.

11.Critter Spray – for getting rid of rabbits, deer, dogs and other four-legged critters
■4 tsp dry mustard
■3 tsp cayanne pepper
■2 tbsp chili powder
■1 tbsp Tabasco sauce
■2 quarts of warm water
Mix all the ingredients in a sprayer and apply around the border of your garden. Those pesky deer or rabbits won’t dare enter your garden.
(I always grate irish spring soap and sprinkle around the garden to repel deer and it
seems to work quite well)  I may have to apply it 2 to 3 times during a full garden season

12.To get rid of earworms in corn, apply one drop of mineral oil to the tip of each ear of corn when silks begin to brown. Reapply every 5 to 6 days for 3 applications per season

http://www.veggiegardener.com/blog/12-homemade-natural-remedies-for-the-garden/

Thanks! Sounds like what I used to read in Organic Gardening. My back yard is very small, but I plan to try for a small garden this year. My biggest problems are slugs, squirrels, and ants.

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[libby]

WV, you were right about my perennials surviving. The only one that showed any damage was a small nandina that had just begun to take off last fall, showing some reddening of the leaves and a few tiny red berries before we got all that snow.
Part of the main stem was broken off near the top, and so were some of the lesser ones, but it's growing. I pruned back the worst damage today.Today I also did some raking and picking leaves out of my rock garden, and underneath was bright green growth on almost everything. The only thing I lost completely was a beautiful annual - a creeping ground cover with small bright blue flowers that my daughter brought me. A young neighbor told me it was from the morning glory family. I want to find it and plant it again.

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[wvchat]

Great,  I am so ready for spring and gardening. 

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