Something Old and Something New

It's been a busy couple of weeks, both in and out of the garden, mainly because I've been trying to get all of the veg and annuals in the ground as well as keep on top of the weeding.  The garden practically exploded with growth once the weather warmed up in early May - during which time I was away, of course! - so I've been doing a big ol' game of catch-up every since.  I feel as if I'm behind, but in fact, I actually think that I'm way ahead of where I normally am at this time of year as I've been devoting several hours to the garden every single day.

Unfortunately, that also means that I've been neglecting my blog writing and reading, which I'll apologize for - I'm setting aside some time to catch up on that today.

It's been a while so let's start off with a little bit of gorgeousness, shall we:

Bright Lights® Pink Osteospermum

This guy just started to bloom last week and I'm smitten.  I received several new introductions from Proven Winners this year including this African daisy - I can't get over the pale pink/purple ombre colouration on the petals.  This is only the first bloom but I'm expecting great things as it's supposed to be more heat tolerant than other African daisies - I'll keep you posted on how it does.  I'm growing a variety of annuals in pots this year - a first! - but that's a topic for another post.

I'm all about the realities of gardening, not just the glamour shots, so lets take a look at how the weeding is going.  It's been a tough job this year, especially in the newly mulched garden expansion on the west side of the property.  Even though I used cardboard & mulch to squash the grass/weeds, bits of grass and persistent weeds still tend to poke through in the first year or two.  So long as I keep on top of it (which is the key!), they are relatively easy to remove and each year it will get progressively easier.

Top of photo:  What I'm dealing with in the worst sections.
Bottom of photo:  Weeded but needs a mulch top-up.

Tougher to eradicate is the buckthorn, wild grape and wild honeysuckle seedlings that seem to be popping up all over the place.  The area at the side of the house is particularly bad and needs to be dealt with sooner rather than later:

A variable buffet of weeds and invasives:
Buckthorn, wild grape, Queen Anne's lace, goldenrod, bindweed
and wild honeysuckle (likely tatarian)

The edges that I created last year in the west border are now only faintly perceptible.  I usually find that when I create a new bed/edge, it takes at least a couple of seasons to get the edge to "stick" as I remove excess soil that tends to fill the "valley", deal with uneven spots and remove rocks that don't allow the edger to get all the way down.  I'm now in the process of re-edging to get that nice, crisp separation between the bed and grass.

The 'Before' shot

The veg garden is humming along - everything has been planted, albeit much more slowly than I anticipated.  Well, everything except the beans - I still have 2 beds to finish up on but then we are golden.  The weather has cooled down significantly over the past week - great news for the gardener as my hours in the garden have been much more comfortable but some of the transplants are sulking, especially the tomatoes & eggplant.

I'm using straw this year under the tomatoes in an effort to prevent or at least delay
the inevitable early/late blight that seems to show up every year.

When I wonder where all my time has been going, all I have to do is look at how awesome the veg area looks this year.  As I've said before, the more I do it, the easier it gets with fewer weeds/grassy bits each and every year.

There have been a couple of pest issues in the veg garden this spring (surprised?  I thought not.)  First, let's talk about Something Old - my "friend" leek moth.  Not on the leeks (I'm actually not growing any this year), not on the onions, but on the garlic.

I have never seen this much damage in the garlic bed before

While the onion beds are netted - you can see them in the rear of the tomato/eggplant photo - the garlic is not.  Up until now, that's not been an issue - the garlic has sustained a bit of damage in the past, primarily to the scapes, but it's been minimal.  This year, the moth larva are going crazy on the garlic even before the scapes emerge.

A load of frass and 2 larva hiding in the leaves

I'm trying to find them in the leaves and hand squish them, but it's a struggle.  I guess this means that garlic will be added to the list of beds that have to be netted each year.

And now for the "Something New".  Every year I seem to get a surprising new pest in the garden and 2018 is no exception.  I've noticed asparagus beetles and their larva on the ferns.  Not happy.

Asparagus Beetle Larva

I've tried squishing them and picking them off but there are just SO many of them.  I keep at it though - my plan is to go out there and try to do 15 minutes of picking/squishing each and every day.  At the very least, that should make a dent in them.  There is a bit of good news amongst the ferns - I've seen several lacewings out and about.  Hurray for the good guys!

Netting will deal with the leek moths, but I'm uncertain how to handle the asparagus beetles.  I'm wondering if I've contributed to this problem by using the dried out ferns to cover the asparagus beds over the past winter.  This year, all the ferns will be chipped and composted once they die down in the fall and I'll be using fresh straw to cover the beds for the winter.  Not sure if there is anything else I can do to prevent their overwintering - I think some research is in order and, of course, if anyone has any suggestions on dealing with these critters, I'd love to hear them.