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So far we have at tomato plant, dill, garlic cloves, and parsley planted in addition to our flowers, but I don't know what to do to make them bug free and safe to eat. HELP! |
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use Diatomaceous Earth. read that whole page carefully. what i do is water my garden in the evenings and sprinkle DE on it overnight. the water gets it to stick. but keep in mind that it washes off easily too, so you have to reapply if it rains. (btw, little known fact - DE also works on getting rid of head lice.) a good way to kill fire ants for good is to dump a heap of dry molasses on the nest. eri, check out this site for good info on gardening in texas, and this site for info on organic gardening. |
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also, this might sound gross, but i'll often times leave the bugs alone, and i'll just scrape the eggs they leave on the green leafy vegetables before eating or cooking. and another good tip i learned early this year is to work some granite sand into your soil. it doesn't do anything to keep bugs away, but holy hell is it loaded with trace minerals and nutrients. it's like rocket fuel for plants. |
Any recommendations on herbs and stuff to grow that end up getting used a lot? Veggies are easy to figure out what you want, though I have never grown any, but herbs and such are new to me. |
are you adding compost into your soil, eri? also, you can put cloches over plants that seem to be attracting lots of bugs, even a liter soda bottle with the top cut off will work. |
I read something about using coffee grounds as compost? On one of the links Sarah gave me. I thought that would be easiest, being in this apartment. We have a skunk and possum in the area and I don't want to attract them too much, not to mention the 50 million stray cats that love to climb over my patio wall. I have noticed black dots on the bottom of the leaves of my roses and other flowers, but just black dots. I am thinking they are some kind of eggs, but not sure. I saw a lot of stuff on that link from Sarah about ways to kill them organically and will try them as soon as we get paid again. Question....has anyone tried the garlic to keep bugs off of tomato plants? I have garlic cloves I could plant right now, but am afraid it is too easy. Just thought I would see if anyone has tried this before. |
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plain garlic powder works, but i don't know about garlic. herbs: parsley, flat leaf parsley, and cilantro grow easily in all kinds of weather. obviously cilantro is common in these parts and used in everything. i love the shit. rosemary grows well, but i find it hard to use fresh rosemary when cooking, and when i dry it, it tastes bitter. i don't know how the stuff you buy at the store in jars ends up tasting so good. mint grows like mad. i've grown regular mint, pineapple mint, and currently am growing chocolate mint. the more you abuse mint, the better it grows. same with basil and purple basil and holy basil and thai basil. it's really hard to kill it. i also grow italian oregano (very small, smooth, tear-drop shaped leaves, as opposed to regular oregano which has huge, furry leaves), marjoram, french thyme, and dill. marjoram, thyme, and dill are more delicate and will require shade and LOTS of water in texas summer heat. i also grow chamomile. you pinch the flower heads off and simmer them in water and strain for tea. it is way more effective as a sedative than dried chamomile flowers or chamomile tea you buy in a box. and it tastes better too. also supposedly has a very mild laxative effect, but i haven't noticed that at all. eri, the trouble with starting a garden right now is that you're a little late. planting season in texas starts in late february through march. there's not much you can plant now that will sprout and grow well in the heat. you can plant okra, beans, and MAYBE tomato and squash seedlings if they are already well-developed. in the fall you can plant lettuce, spinach, leafy greens, broccoli, cauliflower, beets, carrots, etc. those plants need cooler temperatures to sprout. in the spring you can plant just about anything if you start early enough and protect your plants if there's a late-spring freeze. |
take what you like. stick it in the ground. hope for the best. water regularly. you'd be surprised what grows. so are you guys glad to be leaving san antonio? i have a good friend that just arrived, from a 12 day drive across the country and he said san antonio was the pits. appeared that everyone he saw passing through town appeared to be on crack, mental ward escapee, on a special ed field trip or a combination there of. |
Imagine if you will a combination of Gardena and Kansas City (70% Gardena 30% KC) and there you have San Antonio. I don't hate it here, at all. I have definately been worse places. I was curious to see Alabama. I at least want to get out of this apartment complex in the next year. Things just didn't work out that way. Hayley is doing really well in school here. She has come an amazing distance in this past school year, and I kinda want to keep her here for that. I am afraid of what the curriculum would be like somewhere else, especially somewhere I have never been. I am not planting too much right now, cuz I know it is late in the season to start planting, but I am doing some. I am putting most of my herbs in a window box, inside my kitchen. I can better control the temperature and the amount of light from there. I just hope my cats won't eat the stuff before I can use it!!!!! Chamomile sounds great. I do plan to do some carrots this fall. I am afraid to try brocolli or cauliflower or leafy greens because of my mother. She had a garden on their ranch and would bring me brocolli and cauliflower and it was always filled with worms. Little green worms. I tried to clean them off but always found more. It grossed me out, so I am afraid if I grow them I will end up with the same little green worms!!!! |
alabama is a bit more backwoods. my friend, driving cross country, who has lived in the south most of his life, explored the deep south, along the pan handle and was generally uncomfortable. its still very segregated, dilapidated and a bit scary. "but we are in a hispanic apartment complex, so we have issues with a lot of our neighbors." why? because they're hispanic you have issues? i dont see the connection. |
So I am annoyed at what goes on around here and how out of control things are and when trying to be a responsible neighbor (mind my business unless I am directly effected) then they blame their culture as a reason for me to fucking deal with all of the shit their kids have done to my home. Only the hispanics here pull this shit. I haven't had any problems like this with any of the other races here. Just the hispanics. It's weird, but it royally pisses me off. |
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that doesnt even make any sense. there must be a translation problem or they are playing a joke on the white girl. |
I don't really care if they are playing a joke on me or not. It's fucking annoying either way. They piss me off, either way. Back to gardening.....I am thinking that this is a rather mild climate (meaning no harsh seasonal changes, but some subtle ones) so as long as the plants are protected from freezes or too much heat, shouldn't you be able to plant year round here? Serioulsy, a Texas winter is in the 50's during the day and typically the 40's at night with occasional drops below freezing, but you would bring them in from that weather anyways wouldn't you? Just a thought. We just don't really have SEVERE weather here, unless you count last years floods. |
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My mom's had that book for years. Swears by it. |
Do you have any hispanic friends who would call their bullshit what it really is? Or, maybe you could just get the police to explain that to them. Preferably a hispanic police officer... |
I think I have seen that book somewhere before. I will have to look into it. |
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