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Hello fellow gardeners, We are first time garden owners and while learning on the go is fun, some advice would be appreciated. We have a young apple tree that we planted last autumn, and while its growing nicely this season, i am worried about the trunk. Its very thin, and we live in a windy place. I want the tree to be high, branches cutrently starting somewhere at 1,8meters and trunk is just 1,5cm wide all the way from the bottom to the top. So far i have it tied to 3 posts for stability, but i read somewhere that it hinders the growth of trunk? Should i keep cutting the branches until the trunk is thicker or should i leave it for nature to sort out? If cutting the branches is inevitable, should i just shorten them or cut them fully? If i would remove the posts now , it would break in half within few days.. Thanks
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TLDR: Kill the beetles, save the frogs, save my plants, how?!
So this year I started 2 new garden patches in my back yard, in addition to my annual vegetable garden. I planted a large sunflower garden with a variety of different types, and a native pollinator garden with a bunch of fun plants new to me (bugbane, cardinal plant, bee balm, a couple different phloxes, asters, and some mint to scare the rest into shape).
I noticed a ton of damage on my sunflowers and a bit on my natives that I though was consistent with slugs, so I set some traps. Saw nothing for a few days so I went out at night to find an absolute ton of asiatic garden beetles in my sunflower patch. I then spent the better part of all of last weeks nights hand picking them off of my plants and drowning them in soapy water, but noticed no decrease night to night. So 2 days ago I broke and went to buy a sprayer, some cold pressed neem oil and pyrethrin (not permethrin) and started spraying at night. I’m super uncomfortable spraying anything so this was not an easy decision for me
I think it’s maybe helping, and sure as hell ended my aphid problem on one of my large perennial sunflowers, but tonight I did a little walk around and realized my native garden was also infested (especially the mint and bee balm) and also noticed a large number of tiny frogs within the sunflower and native patch. They’re perched on leaves, acting as pest control, just not well enough.
Upon further research I found that both neem oil (especially cold pressed) and pyrethrins can both be at least mildly toxic to frogs
So now I’m super conflicted in a few different ways. I love amphibians and of course would ideally like to rely on them and my natural biodiversity I’ve been trying to foster for pest control, but it seems to just not be working. I put in that native garden, not just for pollinators but also to feed native insects and butterflies so neem oil feels wrong. But if I don’t do something about the beetles, all my new shoots and existing leaves will be gone in weeks. I just don’t know what to do.
Sorry for the rant but I’m at wits end with these bastard beetles, and the sleep deprivation may be getting to me. Any advice anyone has would be appreciated
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For most of this year we have been battling our garden pests with nothing but a hand vac, hand picking eggs, and beneficial nematodes.
The nematodes really helped control the potato and cucumber beetle populations. Japanese beetles were easily reduced in number by vacuuming. We lost a few battles to vine borers but I've got some BT to shoot directly into the stem for next year! For awhile the hand vac and picking eggs was really helping with the squash bugs, but they are very persistent pests. The eastern Leaffooted bugs have joined the war and I am now losing.
We own honey bees and there are a TON of other pollinators in our garden (including the endangered southern plains bumble bee!). We also have a lot of tiny warroirs fighting the good fight- like spiders... so many spiders, crickets, lady bugs, lighting bugs, and parasitic wasps. I find dead nymphs around the spider hangouts regularly but it's just not enough.
I'm thinking of using neem oil, but will it hurt my little soldiers and pollinators? I know to apply it late in the day and I know there will be some losses but I want to use something that will do the most damage to the pests with the least harm to the other bugs. Is there something that targets coreidae type bugs specifically? What's your go to when the goin gets tough?
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I'm wanting to start growing mushyrooms. As they're 1/idk my fav things to eat.
What do I do, how do I do? I'd really like to not buy mushrooms when I wanna pig out. Yk?
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First year gardening, things are going great. Is it too late to plant some seeds in mid July? Any suggestions. Might be a stupid question but I’m hooked! I was thinking carrots, shisito peppers, or small melons, or cherry tomatoes. Would love to hear! Thanks! FYI I live in NE Ohio.
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Hi there. I'm moving into a house that has a pretty established stand of thistles and some cockle burs. I've seen mention of people cutting thistles off at the soil, then painting the cut with horticultural vinegar. I was curious if anyone has tried that with thistles (or cockle burs) and had success with actually killing the root of the plant.
I'm not sure what type of thistles I have, but I've attached some pictures if that's helpful. It looks like I have two different kinds.
First type:
Second type: