The Lasagna Garden Brigade #2 (Continued)

Lucy could have the guardian role on this one! LOL

I have fun reading your post , sounds like you are good friends in a neighborhood. Such friendly bunch!!! Been busy with my ebay store and finally picking up but I will be posting some more pix and off course our lawn. Our new baby is doing well and I get pictures almost everyday. I wish you could see his room and the furnishings. It is such extravagance unlike when we had our baby, budget was very tight!!! LOL!!! wE did not have $0.25 to dry diapers!!LOL!!! I have a golf game the next 3 days but I will be stopping by. Have a good day. Belle

Hi Belle

Can't wait for more pic of both! Have a good game.

We decided to just play 9 holes because when we went to #10 we were following the men morning blitz and there are 25-30 men's and most of them walk. DH is with the group that is why they are all slim, i don't know where DH finds his energy to walk all most of the time. It would have taken us 3 hours or more to play 9 holes so we just had lunch at the club.These me are so fit and if I am not married I can flirt with them LOL!!! That is why a lot of girls go to Myrtle Beach because there are 100's of men without wives. They leave there wives behind!! That is why I had to learn to play because I want to be with my DH when he goes on outings. LOL!!!
Here are more pix of the yard. this is the front. We had azaleas but DH decided to plant the palm and it is supposed to be slow growing. they are 3 years old

This message was edited Mar 11, 2010 4:36 PM

and another

I clicked so quick so no pix. so here is another one. this are bonsais that i made.

This is the front foyer and notice the different rocks. We collect them all over the place, beaches including Hawaii. DH arranges them in Spring and he gets a lot of compliment with it!! LOL!!! I just let him do it, he had taken over some of my work even bringing some tropicals into the garage.

another pix. I hope I had not posted the lawn. We have a 7 zone sprinkler system and 8 faucets so I do not have to get so stressed out watering!! LOL!!!. If you have time read about some of the treads on the retirees.

Last one for tonight are my plumeria collection which totals almost 50 .

Good night to all of you friendly ladies, I have to volunteer at the food pantry tomorrow morning then play golf in the afternoon. We give groceries to the poor 4 times a week at my Church. It is very fulfilling for me. Belle

This message was edited Sep 30, 2009 5:58 AM

Thanks for the pictures Belle. Lawn looks wonderful. NOT going to show it to my DH. LOL I am going to show him your plumerias. He has about that many himself.

I think I saw a spot for a Goth Garden? :) I did notice a dark foliage plant in one of your beds. That's a sure sign. Right Cue?

Let's go back to the lasagna gardening. After all the plants go on dormancy meaning the perinials. Dh dumps some of the shredded leaves to my beds. He blows all the leaves on a big pile and shreds it with the mower. We do not waste anything and by spring all the compost goes to all the beds, adds at least 4 inches of bag mulch and wala!! No weeds!!! plants are healthy!!!

As far as my plumeria they all come in and i stated previously that I now make my gardening stress free and so what i do is hire someone to bring them in to the sun room while DH is playing golf because it is a big hassle. She also make sure all the drip pans are clean. I used to be a slave of my garden when I was working but now that I am retired for 2 years I like to do what makes me happy and fulfilled!! LOL!!.We had this sun room added so we can relax but it is loaded with tropical plants till MAy. Later. Belle

bellieg you have beautiful gardens...I'd love to just walk around your yard and enjoy the beauty...Trish

I thank you Trish!! It took a long time before we are both happy with the whole yard. The maintenance is not that bad now, I used to take vacation to get it ready for spring. We have a lot of compliments but can't really stay out long because we have lots of mosquitoes. Belle

I picked up another load of goat poo last night and made some good progress on another lasagna bed today. Used a tarp in DH's new truck this time. Clean up was much easier! :)

Help Help Help!!!!!

Went to ionspect my LG today and found that every variety of squash I have now resembles swiss cheese.

closer inspection, the leaves are covered in webs with small green catepillars underneath and stems and leaves engulfed in what look slike dark green slimy eggs!

What ... IS...IT?????????

had to rip out several yellow squash plants as they were beyond salvaging, but want to save what I can... what should i do???

Do you have fruits already? If they are ready to be harvested I would harvest them and wash them in very mild chlorox water just to make sure that there are no larvae in them. I do not know how to eradicate the caterpillars and eggs. Perhaps someone will have better solution. Good luck!! Belle

Hi Cue

Sounds like army worms. Sevin if you want to go with an easy chemie. They eat everything!

apparently so. found them burrowing right thru the blossoms.

not having the best of luck with veggies this year. maybe i was just not meant to grow them. Having thoughts about just ripping whats left out and letting the LG sit over winter and just plant a flower garden there.

It's been a bad year for lots of people. I've been keeping up on the forums. Takes some major spraying to keep on top of the bugs. Loca has the organic thing down she might tell you how to get rid of army worms organically.

Don't give up! Veggie gardening is challenging, educational and rewarding. Shrubs are easy. Flowers are too in general but once you master tomatoes, okra, squash, beans, eggplant, peppers etc. you will have all the gardening skills to be self sufficient for the rest of your life. Look at Mekos she grew up raising a garden and she can sprout horse hair. LOL

lol - you're too funny seray...

cue - I don't have army worms here, but the worms I do have (cabbage loopers and hornworms - YUCK!!!) I just pick and squish ( or pay my boys to do it - lol). I do not know of an effective organic method to get rid of them. I remember army worms in Maine when I was a kid - an army alright! One year we had them by the thousands in the apple orchards. They're very destructive.

Here's what army worms look like after they get a little size. They like Brugs just as much as squash.

yup seray, thats what the little buggers that decimated my squash plants look like! I ripped all but the spaghetti squash out, there was just no salvaging the others...

hopefully, they wont get to my brugs.. since those are in the front of the house,.

I have not seen any of those here this year...thank goodness. But Cue I use a spray I make myself it seems to kill off most everything, I use water , liquid dawn and a couple of cloves of garlic. Everything runs or slides off....

Ewwwwwwwww! I forgot how gross they were!

They really are awful to find on your veggies. And even more on your Brugs!

I am scared of them!! I found a big caterpillar on my tomato plant and i screamed so much. Dh thought i saw a snake?? I can not handle anything in the garden with out gloves!! LOL!!! belle

Probably a hornworm - they scare me too... I scream like a girl (well, I am a girl, but you know what I mean...

Did it look like this? This is a small one and the color varies depending on what they are munching on. I found one last night on my Cape Honeysuckles that was 4" long and as big around as my DHs finger! They are creepy!

lol You're funny loca!

This is a tobacco worm that loves tomato plants. See the difference in the stripes. They are huge as well. They make Hummingbird moths that pollinate the Brugs!

LOL - looks like it's posing for you!! I got some of those too. We call those hornworms too. They're loving my peppers right now, and I even found some teeny tiny ones on my basil - lol.

Yes this is the one!! I am scared of them!! What I do is cut the leak and goes to my compost!!

Not a bug or cat to be found in my yard! And I haven't sprayed or anything! But it could be cuz everything is under 4-6 inches of snow! That's OK, rather have snow than bugs! Don't like creepy crawlies at all! Rather have snakes! LOL

You do have to cut the leaf or branch they're on. I tried to pull one off one time - eek! BIG mistake! It started thrashing around all crazy and scared the daylights out of me. I thought it was just another worm. That thing had a death grip on my tomato plant. So I cut the stem and cut the worm with my clippers and all this green nasty stuff went all over. It was still clinging to the stem even in death!

This is another lovely critter. It's called an orange dog. Looks like a twig or bird droppings and blends into the branch it's on totally. It is the caterpillar of the Giant Swallowtail butterfly. I touched one by accident on my lemon tree and these orange horns came out of it's face and it gave off a horrible smell I can't even describe - defence mechanism.

Wow That's interesting! I've never seen one of those.

Neither had I - ROTFLOL. When you plant it, they will come . . . all the creepy crawlies of the world gravitate to my back yard now...

I was killing baby ladybugs too for a while until I found out what they were. They're good guys but sure don't look like good guys! They eat more aphids at that stage than the adults do!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/13105441@N04/3593848178/in/photostream/

They are weird looking. I have a whole lot hatch out on my roses in FL. Can't get enough of them that's for sure. Aphids are my nemesis. LOL Can't stand them.

Now that I know they are good guys I think they're kinda cute - ROTFLOL!

I agree. Cute and squiggly. LOL

Good morning! I plan to start planting bulbs in my first lasagna bed this weekend, providing it's not raining. Wish me luck!

Good Luck Lolly!!! I'm curious about your experience doing that. I planted some and since they had to be 4-6" deep I had to dig through the banana leaves etc. to get them that deep. Hope it works!

I got my seeds from ebay for the black morning glory. She sent lots of extra seeds. Great seller. I'm about to order some Queen Anne's lace that has black foliage. Would you like some of those seeds for your Goth garden as well? It still has white flowers but the foliage is lacy black. :)