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Australia
I ran away from teaching to the country to grow veggies. There are also some chooks and a pair of troublesome goats who were so much trouble they had to go! My simple green life isn't always as simple or as green as I'd like...but I keep trying!

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Cup day


Melbourne Cup Day, is a special public holiday in this state, gazetted so  all good veggie gardeners can plant their tomatoes out.  

Well I am a bit ahead this year as the Spring has been mild and the frosts finished.  My tommies have been in for about ten days and are looking gooooood!  So I will have to find other things to do.

Over at the  Fat Bear Farm blog they have had success combatting caterpillars on their broccoli by sprinkling diatomaceous earth (DE).  

Coincidentally, yesterday I was wondering if DE would help around my strawberries to beat the millipedes and shield bugs that ruined my crop last year.  

Is there anything worse than picking a big, red, juicy strawberry and then turning it over to find it hollowed out by a millipede?  Yes... finding half a millipede in the big, red, juicy strawberry you have just taken a bite from.

Don't start me on shield bugs...they are copulating everywhere I look!  Soon there will hundreds and thousands of their progeny, skittering about and clustering on ripe fruit, sucking the moisture out of it.


Have your fun boys and girls...DE is on the way.


11 comments:

  1. Hey, what about earwigs??? Im going to find out some more about it...and would you look at the stems on those red roses Hazel, wow....

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  2. I planted my tommies ages ago and they are going strong. My cherry tomatoes that are in pots even have green babies on them. So today we planted lots of onions. Spring onions so we can eat them fresh in salads.

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  3. Did you have a win? I will have you all know that I won myself a whole dollar for choosing third place.

    I am a racing genius.

    And Hazel... I need to hang my head in shame... the lime tree is in the chicken coop, and I have never ever fed it. I would so be kicked out of any gardening society that probably wouldn't have me in the first place.

    ps yes yes, nice roses... what about your lovely nectarine tree? I think it was nectarine anyway.

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  4. I've wondered what those red bugs were. We have lots of them here too.

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  5. That DE sounds interesting! I'm having the same trouble with my strawbs this year (never grown them before). The chickens are more than happy to relive me to the sweet red buggy treats!
    I got some tomatoes in today!

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  6. I have a big problem with Moths have to get a net.
    All I can say about the strawberry is errrh.

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  7. oohh i have some in the shed i am going to try it on the strawberries too

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  8. Lovely roses! You might wish to try a little soapy water in a spray bottle on those shield bugs. Cheap and worked wonders on Box elder bugs in a previous garden.

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  9. Have fun Hazel! And those shield bugs looks rather cool!

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  10. Millipedes!! Mmm...wish I had some millipede repellant over the past 2 weeks...would have been really useful!

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  11. It's earwigs and snails out of control in my garden. One garden bed is being completely decimated overnight every time I plant it out. Perhaps that will have to be my sacrificial bed - to appease the garden gods.

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