Do you have a vegetable garden?

Harvested handful of raspberries and blackberries at cost of some scratched up hands. Also corn.

 

I live in an apartment so no room for a garden but my friends have a big backyard garden and tons of tall trees lining their property. Looking forward to tasting what they’re growing!

 

Tomatoes, several varieties, and green beans.

 

Funny I just went to Chucks Produce because I was craving some heirlooms.

$7.99 a lb though. Ick

Those are heirlooms in your picture right?

 

Yes. And organic.

 

That crop must have you just tickled pink

 

Just harvested more tomatoes. Going to have to start giving them away soon.

 

Harvest this season is way down from normal. Nothing to give away. Everything bad that could happen, did.

One bright happy report. Every year, I plant something new. This year it was 2 varieties of Japanese melons. Both are doing great. Hope they taste as good as they look.

 

One of the many garden battles I am fighting this season is a heavy invasion of codling moths. They can wipe out an entire fruit orchard. I am using 4 different methods trying to save what remains of the orchard that didn't die off from the -39 winter freeze. One of the methods has caused a new problem.

Using 1/2 gallon jugs with a recipe of molassas, apple cider vineger, and water, attracks the moths, and they drown. This morning, all of the moth traps were empty and out of place.

Security cameras caught the guilty rascal. Now I have a bear problem.

 

That sucks!

Have you considered a more permaculture type setup that encourages predator species to live in your garden?

 

Bears can be a nuisance, but they are pretty nomadic and don’t usually stick around an area causing mischief for long. We get the occasional bear through, tipping trash cans and whatnot but it’s usually a different one each time and they dont hang out. Hit him once with a sligshot or bb gun he will be gone. Even a loud yell will do it alot of the time.

 

Birds and bats are the predators of the codling moth. I have several bird feeding stations, that get hammered, so plenty of birds around. Just way to many moths. Also have 3 electric bug zappers. Each one kills hundreds to thousands of moths, every night.

On a side note. Yesterday, I had a heart warming encounter with a hummingbird. While watering the garden by hose. The hummingbird landed on a plant cage about a foot from me. Watched for a while, then few around close by, as if it was pointing out areas that needed water. Than it landed near me again, and supervised my work.