First Time Newbie Ruins Large Healthy Veggie Garden ! : {

City boy moved to the country 2 yrs ago, REALLY enjoying the serenity & lifestyle. Spent MANY hours preparing first large veggie garden. All doing great, until yesterday. I nominate myself now for "Gardening Idiot of the Year Award."

While weeding the fire ants got me. At that point my brain apparently disengaged for a while. Grabbed the only bag of fire ant killer (first time veggie gardner, right?) around. Afterwards I decide to read the bag ....

Sigh....

Im so sorry for your loss. Perhaps it was good that you had one of those "events" early in your gardening career. There will be many. Gardening is just like that. That's why we are so thrilled when we succeed. Any one who gardens knows we were just "lucky" that year.

The good news is that it's still early so you can replant.

I have no experience with fire ant killer. What did you do and why was it bad? Is anything salvagble?

OTOH, I DO have experience with fire ants. I needed to use my bee sting kit (injectable epinephrine) due to the serious allergic reaction. A vinegar and baking soda paste fixed the pain.

I think the severe pain you were in mitigates anything you did, so you DID NOT win the Gardening Idiot of the Year award. I don't think you even made honorable mention or the semi-finals.

Good luck with your new veggies.

You poor soul!!!!! Don't feel bad, if I'd seen a snake I'd have trampled everything in sight, probably including the snake, trying to get out of there. I can only imagine what it must have been like being attacked by fire ants. You could have been forgiven if you'd gotten a flame thrower and torched the whole thing trying to get them. Please L-rd don't let them infiltrate Maryland!

Are you sure its a total loss? Your plants want to live as much as you do. I hope they will recover.

I think it's a question of contaminated soil now and eating veggies with pesticide in them. I dont know the chemical in fire ant killer...havent looked it up but I doubt it will kill the plants. Might kill the gardner however.

No, the plants are doing fine. Just contaminated them with "Over and Out" fire ant granules. Active indredient fipronil. Says on the directions NOT for vegetable gardens. I only put it around the onions, where I encountered the fire ants.

The reason I say "idiot of the year" is for reading instructions AFTER application.

I am keeping plants for now (they look so healty) but will research this pesticide and probably not eat anything. Grrrr...

Here is a link to fact sheet on fipronil. Kinda good news.


http--npic.orst.edu-factsheets-fipronil.pdf

flyinglocksmith - I'm an experienced gardener - so to make you feel a little better, here's an idiotic thing I did recently.

I like to mix my own potting soil, to which I always add a small amount of "trace minerals."

Now, if you add to much in the way of trace minerals, it will surely kill your plants. So what idiotic thing did I do? I dropped the container into the bucket of potting soil spilling waaaay to much of it.

I tried to compensate by adding even more of my homemade potting mix - but my mistake completely threw off the recipe. What did I get for my troubles?

Well, I sowed the seeds as usual, and some even sprouted. But most did not, and those that did quickly died!

What did I do next? I went to WMart and purchase some premixed potting soil!

So, don't feel bad, we all make mistakes - some worse than others :)

Thanks for the link steadycam - will look at it shortly.

Honeybee - Heck I've killed a bunch of seedlings so far this year. That's why I was freaking (bumming) after the incident.

Here's what I did as a first time gardner :
My neighbor came over w/tractor and disc plow approx 25x75 feet area
Spent several afternoons raking & pulling out grass & weeds
Ran tiller over it going deep
Piled in bunches of leaves, dried horse manure, and saved wood ashes
(I smoke meat with oak, pecan & hickory wood)
Ran tiller over it again two sessions
Raked nice smooth furrows lengthwise as area is on slight slope
Dug 12" x 12" deep holes, sprinkled a little Miracle Grow slow release at bottom
Got nice veggie plants at several nurseries and filled w/Miracle Grow potting soil
Installed drip irrigation system - dripper on each plant (except onions)
Plants going like crazy - already putting on fruit
Poison food w/chemical !! : {

flyinglocksmith - you did eleven things right (smile)

Try this link, the one steadycam3 gave did not work for me

http://www.npic.orst.edu/factsheets/fipronil.pdf

Ya-maybe not so bad! Read all about the stuff. Also I only put a small amount in one area.
That was just too much work not to be able to eat. Now I will see what the deer, rabbits, raccoons, and birds don't get.

flyinglocksmith - I have raccoons come through the garden once in awhile, but they are more interested in earthworms than veggies.

I've seen rabbits in the front yard, but the fence keeps them out of the back yard where the garden is.

As for deer - if they can't see where they will land, they won't jump. I don't know why deer don't jump our fence, except maybe the smell of the dogs keeps them out.

More good news! Your onions won't have fleas!!! (Fipronil is an active ingredient in FrontLine topical flea preventive for dogs and cats).

If you only put it around the onions, just dispose of the onions and plant some flowers. Maybe some that attract beneficial bugs. The ant killer doesn't affect the rest of your garden, does it?