I was heading out to harvest some swiss chard this afternoon, and saw this bug crawling around the garden:
This little guy appears pretty scary upon first look. Your instinct might be to squash now and ask questions later, but you'd be making a big mistake. This is actually the larval stage of a lady beetle (more commonly referred to as a lady bug). Insects go through a couple of different life stages before reaching their mature form that we are accustomed to recognizing. As in the case of lady beetles, many insect's larval and pupal stages look nothing like the adult, so it pays to become familiar with the life stages of the common insects in your garden, beneficial or pest. A lady beetle's life cycle is egg-larvae-pupae-adult.
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| Lady Beetle pupae |
When you see the larval or adult stage of a lady beetle chances are that you have some aphids around. Aphids are soft bodied insects that hang out on the undersides of leaves, stems and flowers sucking out tasty plant juices and reproducing faster than rabbits. They'll cause the plant to look twisted and deformed. Larval and adult lady bugs consider aphids a delicacy and will gobble them up as fast as they can. If you let them, they will keep your aphid population at a tolerable level and you won't have to raise a finger.
I think that when it comes to pests in a vegetable garden it's important to realize that we don't have to eradicate every aphid, cabbage looper or cucumber beetle that we see. As long as we keep the populations down at a level where we can tolerate the damage we'll actually be encouraging lady beetles and other beneficials into our garden to dine creating an equilibrium between the predator/prey relationship of vegetable garden pests and beneficial insects.
To encourage beneficial insects in your garden try some of the following tips:
1. Have insect pests to serve as a food source
2. Grow plants whose flowers serve as a pollen and nectar source for beneficial bugs. Try parsley, dill, cilantro, fennel, sunflowers, coneflowers, yarrow, asters, and golden rod.
3. Mulch around plants to provide a home for beneficial ground beetles.
4. If the weather has been dry, provide a shallow bowl of water with stones in it so your beneficials can enjoy a drink but not drown.
5. Include trees, shrubs and perennials in your yard for other food sources and places to live.
Remember, pesticides (organic or otherwise) are used to kill living things. Unfortunately, pesticides can't tell the difference between garden enemies and beneficial insects... so try the tips above before you resort to spraying.
It's a great time of year to get a couple blueberry plants in the ground! Not only do they produce delicious fruit, but they have attractive blooms in the spring. Here's one from my garden, just about to bloom:
Blueberries are acid loving shrubs that grow really well in our Southeast climate and native soil. Their roots are in the upper 6-8” of the soil. If you're planting a blueberry bush, make sure to mulch around the base of each plant to keep moisture in the root zone.
Plant new blueberry shrubs in the early spring or fall. After planting, cut the plant back by 1/3 and do not allow it to flower or fruit the 1st year. I know it's tough to sacrifice a year of delicious harvested fruit... but trust me, your discipline will be rewarded. This technique will ensure the plant is well established and able to support fruit set in subsequent years (a "fruit set" is the collection of flowers on a plant that mature into healthy fruit).
For Southeastern homeowners, I recommend Rabbiteye blueberries, Vaccinium ashei. They flower late, protecting them from frosts, and are vigorous growers. A few choice cultivars: ‘Climax’, ‘Premier’, ‘Alapaha’ and ‘Ochlockonee’.
Blueberries require cross-pollination for good fruit set. This means at least 2 (if not 3) different cultivars should be planted in close proximity to ensure good pollination. Putting them anywhere in the same yard should do the trick.
An attractive shrub for the home landscape, blueberries possess beautiful blue-green leaves that turn red and yellow in the fall.
Check back in July for blueberry recipes, when the berries are ripe and ready for picking!
As your baby tomato plants mature here are a few maintenance tips to follow to help them produce the most luscious tangy fruits for you as possible.
Each week take a look at the new growth of your plant. Make sure that the new shoots are well supported early on with a cage so they can support the weight of the fruit later. Attach new shoot to a cage or other kind of support with vine tape. I’ve found that vine tape works best for me as it will loosen as the branches expand in width with age and not cut into them.
Also make sure you are de-suckering your tomato branches. De-suckering removes extra leaf a stem growth that the plant allowing the plant to put more energy into producing fruit. Take a look at each stem. At every point where a leaf emerges from the stem so will a sucker. Take your fingers (hopefully the sucker will be so small and supple that you can remove it with your fingers, if not use pruners) and pinch out this extra growth.
It is ok to leave some suckers, especially when your tomato plant is young so that you have a multi-branching plant.
