So today my super sweet husband came home from work with a "present" for me. He had went to home depot and bought all the fun stuff that I want to plant in my new garden that he is building me. Basil, tomatos, peppers, eggplant, and on and on. He has built me this awesome, huge garden that I begged and begged for under the condition that it would be MY garden and I had to take care of it. That was fine by me, I figured you plant the seeds, water them, and pick the food. Maybe pull a weed here or there. So we are trying to finish up the yard and deciding what trees to plant and I was on this Arizona Gardening website and chat forum looking for tree info when I came across a post titles "Pests and more pests". I clicked on it and I shouldn't have. This is what it said:
Hey all,
I'm from Seattle but I now I live here in Phoenix and container garden from a balcony. Anyway, I thought the number of garden pests in Phoenix would be few but they are much more of a problem here for me than they ever were pack home in the Pacific NW.
I have spider mites on my bananas, fungus gnats everywhere, aphids on my hibiscus and rose, and I'm sure they're aiming for the tomato!!!!
I have used insecticidal soap and have had good success and will use ladybugs soon but does anyone else have such a pest problem here?
I about crapped my self. I didn't think of this.
And here are a few of the responses:
Does anyone know how to get rid of the "green capitellars" on my basil? They are the ones that are on the underneath of the leaves and leave black droppings? They are moving to my tomatoe plants and doing the same thing! I have everything growing in pots on my patio. I go out everyday and pick them off by hand. But I am sick of them! Any help please!!!!
Pick them off BY HAND?!?!?! Good grief! Black droppings????? Kill me now......
my az. mesquite tree has long string like things coming down from the leaves and small branches. They also have small green things in the strings that look like bugs or leaves. Are they bugs and is this normal for an arizona mesquite tree to do this?
long string like things?
*shudder*
And basically no solutions just a bunch of other people chiming in about disgusting bugs, pests, etc that they have in their garden. I am in way over my head.
In the words of Miss Tula Belle "Uhhhhhh- Ohhhhh"
Anybody looking for a part time gardening gig? Can I call my exterminator when I see these pests? Is that allowed? What am I going to do? Crap....
7 comments:
thats f in disgusting! thanks for the warning, ill stick to the produce dept, eww good luck.
Good luck girl!! Don't think I could do it.....I'm super freaked out about bugs and the AZ bugs are very intimidating to me. But I do have my citrus trees that could attract stuff...eeek!
Ok so here's something I learned this year in good ol' canada while I was organizing my beautiful garden:
Citronella is a bug deterrant
I planted cintronella plants on all 4 corners of my patio outside. We had very limited bugs, on our trees and on our arms.
In addition, there are sprays for outdoor plants and bugs. My inside banana tree had spider mites ALL over it, and I bought inside spray and all the bugs were gone (thank goodness - they were disgusting). But there is outdoor spray - NOT raid, because you can't eat your plants then. But there is actual safe plant bug killers out there. Good luck!
Ummmm, its just bugs and NO you cannot have the bug man spray your garden...totally defeats the purpose of growing your own organic veggies. Chances are you wont have many buggies...the heat here kills em' I will help you garden...I love it! If you do find one, just put it in a gladware like you did the cockroach. LOL
The Citronella is a good solution. Matter of fact I bought you some Mimosa roll on lotion in Singapore for the next mosquito season. It's all natural and I've used it for years. Very hard to find. Put a drop on your pulse points and it keeps the bugs away so the kids won't get bits. BUT you may just have to become an organic farmer and buy lady bugs. They ate all the bad stuff. You can buy them and they will live in your garden. And unless they are full, bright RED they aren't Lady Bugs. The ones that are a lighter color are a Chinese bad bug that distroy plants.
Christa you're post is hilarious!! You are making me LOL. We wondered how this veggie garden would work, now we're really curious.
Another tip: Bay leaves wrapped in cheese cloth.
Thanks Denise, Gayle, and Mom for the tips! I will combine them all to maximize my un-bug-liness.
Jac- You are so domesticated! I didn't know you were the gardener in your house! I totally thought that was Josh's thing. I will totally take you up on the help though, it can be a part time thing in your spare time. Do you charge by the hour or bug killed? LOL
Kaisha and Megan- Glad you are feeling my pain. I thought I was being a wimp but at least I am not alone. I am seriously scared to stick my hands in some of these plants and pull it out with God-knows-what on it. Yikes!
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