What's going on in your garden (2024)?

[Barriehie]

My garden is all done for this year. The purple creole garlic I planted first of the month is sprouting right along!

Working on grass free edges, paths, mulching, and tilling the mulch in.

 

[karadekoolaid]

Welcome to Cooking Bites.
Looks good!
my big problem is insects; slugs, snails, grasshoppers, ants, caterpillars, mantis. They chew on the new leaves and destroy the plants. THEN there's fungus. I seem to spend more time protecting my plants than actually growing them!

 

[badjak]

My biggest problem is water ....
It's been very very hot here

 

[Barriehie]

Thank you! Trust me, we've lots of bugs in Georgia... Aphids were the big issue this year. Insecticidal soap and/or neem was the resolver.

 

[karadekoolaid]

Neem sounds good.
Anything to do with insecticides is guaranteed to break the bank, because the garden centres charge top dollar.

 

[Barriehie]

This Castille soap you can get at Walmart for around $16/qt. is insecticidal and works well on soft bodied bugs. I've used 1/3 of this bottle this year. 3 pumps in a qt. spray bottle, then fill with water, works well. I don't use any actual insecticides.

 

[Barriehie]

My biggest problem is water ....
It's been very very hot here

Feel you on dry. I lived in Nevada for decades and when it rains you take a picture..

 

[badjak]

This Castille soap you can get at Walmart for around $16/qt. is insecticidal and works well on soft bodied bugs. I've used 1/3 of this bottle this year. 3 pumps in a qt. spray bottle, then fill with water, works well. I don't use any actual insecticides. View attachment 120938

I use teepol which is uncented dish washer
Plus chili and garlic based homemade insecticides

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

My biggest problem is water ....
It's been very very hot here

Yeah, ditto.
And kangaroos/wallabies. They hop fences with ease, rather like red deer which we also have and easy what they want. And don't start me on the native birds that simply destroy anything that grows just for the fun of it. 2 years ago, they wiped out my entire garlic supply for a year inside an hour.

 

[karadekoolaid]

Thanks, all. I'll have to look for the soap; there's bound to be some somewhere in the chemists or supermarket!
Perhaps the problem with the garden is that I left Caracas in November 2021 and didn't return until April 2023. With 1,000 sq.mts of garden, and only a bloke to cut the grass, I suppose I was asking for trouble. Anyway, I'm getting there. Recovered about 30 orchids from oblivion, restored the bromeliads to their former glory, ripped out a whole load of invasive weeds; I'm getting there.