Share my passion for all things gardening!
I wanted to do a follow-up to my July 13 post (“Keeping the birds out of the cherries“) so you’d know how things are going. You’ll recall I recently purchased some 2”-wide holographic bird scare ribbon in an attempt to keep birds away from the ripening cherries. Well, it has worked great! While it hasn’t completely kept the robins out of the […]
Read moreYou might recall I’ve written in the past about how there are some types of stink bugs that cause an awful lot of damage to edible crops like veggies and fruits. (see these posts: Stink bug news and Invasion of the stink bugs) While at Manito Park last week, my husband saw something a bit worrisome to both of us. […]
Read moreThis is what floating row cover looks like. It’s terrific! Here is a link to my column in today’s edition of The Spokesman-Review: Products boost plant health organically. This one’s about how I garden organically through the use of some very helpful, environmentally-friendly products. I hope you’ll find it interesting and useful. I also wanted to mention that due to […]
Read moreOver the years, I’ve written about my battles with leaf miners, which are the larvae that tunnel in between the cells in the leaves of spinach, beets and Swiss chard. How do they get there in the first place? Well, the adult is a fly that lays eggs on the leaves. Once the eggs hatch, the maggots do their damage […]
Read moreI’m one of those live-and-let-live kind of folks. I love animals and I do my best to embrace both the good and bad critters because I know they all play an important role in our environment. However, there are some critters that cross the line with me. One that immediately comes to mind is the paper wasp. I have a […]
Read moreLast fall, I posted information on stink bugs as they were damaging the produce in my garden. I am wondering if they’re going to be an even worse problem this year and intend to keep my eyes open for the little stinkers (no pun intended). They damaged our artichokes and tomatoes last summer, which did not make me happy one […]
Read moreSpotted Wing Drosophila: Photos courtesy of Beverly Gerdeman, PhD, WSU Research Associate and WSU Whatcom County Extension. Even if you can’t pronounce the name of this dreaded insect, you need to know about this — especially if you grow fruit trees or berry plants. The Spotted Wing Drosophila (or SWD), Drosophila suzukii, has been found in Spokane and it is […]
Read moreI know that sounds like a “B” movie but it appears local gardeners are starting to have problems with stink bugs eating their vegetable and fruit crops and that is worrisome to me. I think a lot of us grew up thinking stink bugs were those large black beetles that smelled nasty if you stepped on them. It turns out […]
Read moreYesterday, a friend of mine was asking what floating row covers are since I mention them frequently in my columns. I decided it wouldn’t hurt to do a post about this topic because it’s one of my favorite tools for growing a productive vegetable garden. Floating row cover is a lightweight, woven fabric that looks very much like the interfacing […]
Read moreAs you know, birds absolutely love to eat cherries. We have a few cherry trees in our little orchard and every year, it’s a battle to keep them from robbing our harvest. Last year, we covered our trees with huge sheets of floating row cover — partly to keep the cherry fruit flies from laying their eggs on the cherries […]
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