Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Greenhouse update: The weed seeds are up but the carrots are not!

Oh, well, give it time! (Though patience is not my strong point)

On the down side there was a light brown scum on the underside of the plastic that covered the main bed. I looked at it more carefully: Yep. Aphids! I can only theorize that the increase in warmth and humidity at night made all of the eggs hatch. In the past I have thrown a few ladybugs in to keep them down, but I didn't see any this year.

I have an infestation of aphids of BIBLICAL proportions! Half of those lovely salad greens are gone, and even the tulips are damaged! I rinsed tonight's salad greens 6 times, after a 4 hour soak! And, I went over every leaf with a fine toothed comb. Bugs are part of the ecosystem but that does not mean that I have to eat them.

There is a second split in the plastic tonight: the Midwest is famous for its wind, and it has been howling all day today. Tomorrow when the drizzle stops I will go out with a roll of tape. The split is up too high for me to get all of it but the plastic only needs to last a few more weeks.

The plastic tarp cost me about $100, but there was enough for more than 2 covers. That will work out for $33-$50 a year, depending how much is left in the roll. That would buy a lot of vegetables, but the REAL purpose is recreation for the Mama! It gives me a break, and 9 months of a hobby might just be worth the $30 odd dollars.

 I have a little plastic step stool to sit on that I can pull up to a bed before I weed it, and make my plans for what to do in there next..This winter I often needed a light spring jacket while I worked in the greenhouse, but since it was well below freezing outside it was really very nice!

2 comments:

  1. Oh no! Just the thought of finding a bug in my lettuce is enough to make me lose my appetite. I hope you didn't get any surprises HH.

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