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SOMETHING IS IN MY TOMATO BED! YIKES!
So this morning I found a big hole and a pile of dirt right in the middle of my tomato bed. We have either ground hogs or woodchucks around here(is there a difference?) so I'm thinking it's probably them. Is there any thing I can do to make them leave or deter them! Thanks!
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Tick removal
I'd be keen to know how people remove ticks from themselves. We moved from an inland country area with no ticks, to a coastal hinterland area with many. I'd say, between the 2 of us in 3 yrs we've had at least 10 each, firmly attached. Mostly so small you can hardly see them. We've tried various methods. Drown tick in…
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Squash Vine Borers
Does anyone have a suggestion as to the variety of Squash that the borers do not like. My plants get big and beautiful and I get a good initial harvest then it all dies off due to the borers. I am in Texas
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How I Beat Aphids This Year (I think?)
In the past I have used soap sprays with neem, or shot them off with the garden hose. I had a friend tell me that aphids are attracted to ailing plants, and it was so frustrating at the time because it really didn't answer my question, which was what to do with about the aphids taking over my garden. This year I started to…
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Earwig control
Help! We have HORDES of earwigs around here. They love the dry climate and sandy soil. They're eating and spoiling a big portion of my precious apricot crop. I tried putting thick, double sided tape around the tree trunk and limbs to trap them, but the buggers just skittle right over it. The chickens are loose every day…
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Rock chucks!
Sigh. Now, in addition to all the gophers, the deer who snack on our crops nightly, the hawks in our neighbor's trees, the foxes, the hordes of earwigs, and all the other wild critters around here, we now have a rock chuck who just took up residence underneath our shed in the orchard pasture! Does anybody know what rock…
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Too Much Heat and Humidity For The Garden
Up until three weeks ago I was proud of my garden this year. Everything seemed to be going along quite well considering how hard our Spring was because of an early Spring and then two months of late winter following that. But I made it thru it with a lot of help from row covers. But the last three weeks, high heat (usually…
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Adventures in High Performance Gardening 26 - Who are the worst PESTS!?
Lynn and Marjory here again in our adventures series ready to share some tips on what to do about the annoying things in garden life... Can you guess who's the biggest pest in my garden!? Last week I forgot a few things and of course, Lynn saved the garden once again. But then, I needed her healing touch to save even more…
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Toad
I was watering my plants when I was suprised by a large frog straddling a hole in the dirt in one of my baskets. I actually noticed the frog because I saw another small hole first. Then on the opposite side of the basket I saw the frog. At first I thought it was laying eggs but that's kinda crazy because they lay eggs in…
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How do I heal my Peach Tree ???
Hi, I have a peach tree that has grown big & beautiful over several years since I planted it as a starter tree I purchased. It gives us amazing blossoms in spring & tons of peaches form yet they many prematurely fall off & the rest half rot before they ripen on the tree :( I got rid of leaf curl but now its been about 2…
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Phytophthora on Pepper Plant?
I checked it out on line but I'm not going to listen to Google for advice. I come here to hear from the experts! As if this new gardener isn' challenged enough with end rot on my tomatoes, I found brown parts on all three pepper plants that aren't close to each other! But the strange thing...is the peppers are coming in…
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Tomato End Rot?
I'm new to gardening so I think that's what it's called. I planted 18 San Marzano tomato plants (did I know that if you plant 18 seeds, you get 18 plants? - Call me lucky or dumb!) , and I see a brown circle on the bottom of some of these little green tomatoes.. Within several of them, I see some tomatoes have it, and some…
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Elderberries at our lagoon: Will they "come clean"?
I've discovered an elderberry bush growing, of all places, on the back dam of our household lagoon. Just in passing I mentioned this to my chiropractor who is very much into natural health. She was not put out in the least about using berries from it. Her exact words were, "As long as no one in your household is on…
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WOODY BEETS. HELP!!!!!!!
So, I harvested a couple of beets this morning only to find that they were woody! The only thing I can think of is that it was very dry pretty much all of June. Advice would be appreciated!
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Bacterial Wilt and winter squash
So we have four plantings of winter squash, in five different places. I pulled up a plant on Tuesday, because it had many wilted leaves, some yellow, and I found several striped cucumber beetles on it. Since then some of my other squashes, in a different planting, had a few yellow leaves near the base. I could find no…
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Japanese beetles
I have been removing Japanese beetles from my plants by hand. I have seen traps in other gardens. What is your best strategy for getting rid of these pesky beetles?
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Pea plants and a white powder
I recently ripped out some of my pea plants as they were about done and it was time to plant some more cucumbers. While ripping them out I noticed a white powder coming off of the leaves. They had no signs of distress, is this normal and I just never paid attention to it or is it something to be concerned about. I mainly…
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Webworms
So I have lived at my place for a couple of years now in Southeastern AL and the native persimmon tree gets webworms each year and they destroy all of the fruit. In investigating I can remove the webs or I can spray with Bacillus thuringiensis var. kurstaki. I am unfamiliar with both the worms and the spray so I knew this…
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Neem Oil
I've used neem oil sporadically over the years. It has been effective if I catch things in time. I discovered the start of some powdery mildew on my squash so yesterday I plucked and sprayed. I'd like to hear your thoughts and experience on using it as a natural fungicide and pesticide. Thanks in advance