Tropicals & Tender Perennials: The last straw, 1 by SherryLike

SherryLike wrote:
FWIW, I spent two growing seasons as a slave to brugs, I might as well have had a ball and chain around each ankle. I also bought every kind of snake oil, tonic and fert, bug spray, powders, yada, yada. This year I said, nope, not doing that again. Every single brug I wintered in the ground came up, and I put about, I dunno how many bubbler babies in the ground too. Then I went upon my merry way, planted annuals and other plants of interest. 'One day', I looked at the brugs coming up, about 6 or 8 inches and they looked like Swiss cheese, others looked like they had a leaf virus, or something I'd never seen, others grew out those leather-like, turned under leaves and some had obviously been chewed on by cats, and then there was the slug/snail damage. I said, oh, my goodness, girls, I'm so sorry, if you cannot make it on your own, I'm going to have to say bye-bye and I went on about my business and did not do a single thing, nada. I don't think I asked about a single bug, but don't hold me to that, maybe in a moment of weakness. Thing is, amazingly, all is well, they look better than ever and my wintered outside brugs, Eternity, Pink Favorite, Miss Pretty (Kell's second year seedling), bloomed unusually early, last of April, and have flushed all season, so far. I've used little fertilizer, very little bug stuff, Sevin for my potato vines and Cutter for mosquitoes, close to the ground, and only around the area where we sit. On other little thing, I have let my baby Bantams into the garden and they do love bugs. I have to straighten the mulch after they leave but they don't damage the plants at all, certainly less than stray animals. We call the peeps, 'bug babies', they love anything that moves. I will post a couple of photos of pixs I just made, so that you can see my bug free brugs.