Monday, November 23, 2009

Hiding in Plain Sight

I was working in the garden today doing some much needed clean up when I went over to bed 3 to see how the brocolli was doing, when I came upon a leaf that was nothing more than a skeleton of it's former self. Knowing only one thing that could do this much damage I started my hunt...




Right there hiding in plain sight I found it...yes that would be a cabbage looper. As I kept searching I found a total of six on this plant and one more on another. I really should have sprayed BT earlier in the month when I came across the first looper.



As I was hunting loopers I also found gray aphids happily sucking the live out of my brocolli floret. Nothing a good sharp stream of water couldn't handle. I will need to check on the brocolli more often to keep these peats at bay.



On a more pleasant note the sugar snap peas gave me a nice little harvest today.



This English cucumber will be ready for picking in a few days. This will be my last one for the season.



The brussels sprouts in bed 1 are growing very slowly. But what can you expect when they are only getting one to two hours of sun. Yes sadly it is that time of year when I have little to no sun in the garden.



Photo below: Brussels sprouts



Photo below: Bed 2 at 1:30 this afternoon. This is the bed that gets the most sun this time of year.



Bed 2 at 3:00 this afternoon. I planted some lettuce and spinach in some of the empty squares.



Photo below: It's getting too cold for the basil so I pulled out what was left.




Photo below: The carrots in bed 3 get about two hours of filtered sun.



Photo below: Bed 3 all cleaned up and ready for spring.



Photo Below: Bed 4 gets no sun at all. I had planted lettuce and spinach but they are slow to grow.



I may get one or two small harvests out of bed 4.



Photo Below: Butterhead lettuce.



This weekend we will finish building the potato bins. I promise to post some photos when they are completed.

3 comments:

  1. Those cabbage loopers can sure do some damage. I've found that the only way to keep my cole crops intact is to inspect every leaf daily. I know...pretty pathetic, but very effective. It's so sad that your garden gets so little sunlight in the winter months. I feel fortunate to have an area that has plentiful sunshine throughout the year.

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  2. EG hope you are feeling better. Yes those loopers are little devils. I don't want to spray anything in my garden if I can help it and since I'm off work all this week I will be on looper patrol. You are very fortunate to have a sunny garden. Come February I will get alittle more sun and then it's all good from there.

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  3. Liisa - I'm feeling somewhat better, but the coughing will take a long time to get over. My personal feelings about spraying chemicals, is that if there are no pollinators present (which are not necessary for cole crops), I get pretty aggressive. BT works great for caterpillars, but my main problem with the cabbage earlier in the year were slugs. I'll do something different next year.

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