Clothesline Fun

I love the smell of clothes right off the clothesline...I'm hoping it's going to be a fun memory for the kids too!!

Ladybugs

We have been dealing with an infestation of aphids for months now.  At first, we thought the cold would kill them off, but those things could out-stand a nuclear bomb!  So, after many sleepless nights staring at the computer screen trying to find one little ounce of information that would end my aphid nightmares (I was seriously having nightmares about getting swarmed by the darn things) ...enter stage left, ladybugs...

Apparently, aphids are like Double Chocolate Chip Fudge Cake to ladybugs.  They can eat up to 1000 aphids in a day (wonder what that much chocolate cake would do to me, ladybugs must have one heck of a metabolism)!!!!!  So, off I went on my search to find where to buy ladybugs.  Amazing, you can buy those little aphid eating boogers on amazon.com...what will they think of next!!

My precious little bag of predators arrived yesterday.  It was a little creepy holding a bag of 1500 crawling insects, but the kids sure did get a kick out of it!!

The instructions said to rinse the bag in cold tap water and refrigerate until they could be released at dusk...weird, but ok.  I don't care how weird it sounded, it worked!!!!! The little buggies slowed down so we could just pour them right over the most infected area of the garden.

I'm not sure if they like their new home, or they just ate too much cake and couldn't move, but they were still here this morning...I'll let you know if it works...

 

Prepping for Spring

The weather is still cool, but I am so getting the itch to start planting!!  Here's the plan for Spring...

Tomatoes:

We still have some fall planted tomatoes that made it through this horrible winter (with some tender loving care).  Seems like the Roma's and cherries we planted were pretty cold resistant.  Believe it or not, they are actually flowering in 40 degree weather!!  We have also started some seedlings.  We'll be doing all potted tomatoes this spring, so to feed a family of five tomato eating freaks and have still have a few left for sauces,  we are planning on 10-15 plants.

Bell Peppers, Black-Eyed Peas, Eggplant:
These will also be potted and we have started their seedlings.  It'll have to warm up a hair to transplant these...hopefully in a few weeks.  The plan is 3-4 eggplant plants, 3-4 bell pepper plants and 2 large pots of peas (5-6 plants per pot).

Squash, Broccolli, Cauliflower, Cucumbers:

We've made some space for these to fill in to the landscaping in the front yard so they can be planted in the ground.  We usually do cucumbers in pots, but I'm curious to see what they will do in the ground.  3-4 summer squash plants will be more than enough if we hand pollinate, 6-7 cucumber plants (they blend so well in the landscape that we can have quite few).  There are a few broccoli and cauliflower that made it through the winter also.  We'll keep starting seeds and try to stagger the planting of broccoli/cauliflower so we have them maturing for harvest at different times.  I found a seed that is supposedly heat resistant, so we will see how long into the summer they last.

Lettuce, Spinach, Greens:

We'll spread another round of lettuce seeds in the raised bed this weekend to fill in the plants we lose over the winter.  Same goes for the spinach, even though it didn't do too well in the fall...we'll see.  Greens are still thriving from the fall.  We have a minor problem with aphids though.  I'm going to try the ladybug trick and see how that works...keep you posted on the outcome.

Pumkin:
I have some pumpkin seeds that a friend gave me that supposedly like to vine up, so I'm hoping I can train just one plant up the lamp post...this is a big "we'll see".   I think I'll plant those seeds directly in the ground this weekend also.

Whew...so much to do...can't wait!!!  If you are wanting to plant any of these vegetables in the spring its not too late to start seedlings now.