Bunny Be Gone

Strawberries Eaten...

After it rained all day on Friday I went out into Patch early Saturday morning to pick the strawberries that had been red and ripening for the last two to three days. When I got out there all but one were gone. I was shocked. I kept looking around to see if I'd missed them somehow. Since all the containers with seascapes in them are round and I can't see the back and front at the same time I thought somehow I was missing them. Then I saw it, a juice red berry on the ground. It had a small big toothed bite taken out of it but otherwise it was intact. I picked it up and put it in my basket. (Don't worry I didn't eat it.) I finally accepted that something, now I knew bunnies, had eaten al the ripened berries. I quickly put the basket down got the wheelbarrow and put the 5G and 8G bucket in it and rolled them over to the glass table in the driveway. When I was do e situating the buckets I went back to Patch with plastic black netting in hand. I wrapped the netting around the Topsy Turvy and Shepherd hook hoping it would be enough to keep animals at bay. When I was done I grabbed the basket with the bitten berry and went inside to slice it open. I just wanted to view the quality of what I'd grown. The second I slice into it it started dripping, and I mean dripping,  juice. It was the most perfect and juicy strawberry I'd ever seen. I went for a part towel not realizing I had juice on my glove and left juice stains on it. That's how juicy it was, juice was everywhere. That made it all the more disappointing that I couldn't taste it. 

This morning I went back out to see if anymore berries had been eaten and they were all there. I was so glad to see that the netting had worked and moving. The containers to the table had too. I don't have any ripe berries yet but I will soon and hopefully my defenses will work through my first harvest and beyond. I couldn't bare not getting to taste even one ripe and juicy berry after all of the attention and love I've put into growing them. I've paid more attention to those 3 containers than Patch and Potagar put together so I better get some berries.

Eaten by bunnies along with the rest.

Captain Jack's

DeadBug Garden Dust...

It was a really cloudy and dark day so for most of the morning I thought it was raining, I didn't think to actually check because I was being lazy but around 2pm I went out and it was dry but dark. I went out to check on everything and when I got to Patch I noticed that the radishes had more holes. A lot more. So I went inside to grab the powder, organic pesticide that Mr. S. had gotten along with the Diatom-Earth. It's called Captain Jack's. At first I thought you mixed the powder with water and sprayed it on because the label had liquid conversions on it. For what reason I still don't know, but you don't mix it with water you just dust the plants with it. Makes sense, considering its called Garden Dust. Once I figured that out I went back outside with the dust and started applying it to the radishes. It was difficult because a bunch was pouring out of the salt shaker-like holes and all I needed to do was dust the foliage, bottom and top, but I was dusting the leaves and the soil and myself. So I closed the shaker top and started squeezing. That worked really well. The powder still came out in thin burst with the cap completely closed. I used my fingers to get all the extra powder all over the radish leaves then used the squeeze method to lightly dust the lettuce and the strawberry leaves. It stated very specifically that it was safe for berries and since the bugs eating the radish leaves wouldn't be able to anymore I figured they'd try moving over to my prized berries. While I was dusting the berry leaves I noticed that the 5G bucket plants had shot up about 4 inches but they still don't have any berries growing. They are by far the largest and greenest of the plants but no berries. It's really weird. They don't have any runners yet so that shouldn't be the issue but they just aren't producing berries. I think I may have over planted the container. Online it said that you could fill the bucket and at Home Depot they have tiny containers with 4-5 plants that have berries but I don't know that's the only reason I can think of to explain the lack of berries. Anyway, I'll try some fertilizer (more) and see what happens. Otherwise I might just let the bucket produce runners and new plants for next year. After dusting Patch I dusted the lettuce in Potagar and the green beans. I saw some large pests today, for the first time. I very large bunny and I realized that they always bolt up the hill so I deduced that there must be a hole in the fence by the neighbors house. They aren't getting in through any other fence because we've kept them closed and check everywhere but back there. It's a little creepy dark and overgrown back there. I'll have to check tomorrow. 

After I dusted the green beans I decided to thin them out a little more. I don't want everything to be slow so I am really trying to thin everything down. Now there is about 11 plants in each plot, 2 more and we'll be good. I've been putting all the bean plants I thin in a plastic cup with a little water and the ones i thinned days ago are still green and strong. I might try planting them in a container. I also thinned the spinach. After that I filled a container with plans to plant the thinned beans but I decided to plant a cucumber plant instead. The cucumbers are the only plant that we didn't have an assigned plot for so I figured even if they don't grown fruit it'll be a nice experiment and the foliage will look great. 

Finally, I brought the greenhouse inside and watered the plants in there and the lemon balm. The rain was sure to come and it did just a few minutes after bringing the house in...

Dusted lettuce. It's finally gaining some height and is almost ready to harvest the first leaves. I'm going to go with the continuous harvest method for these and the spinach. Beautiful, I love that green color!

5G strawberry bucket. They've grown about 4 inches taller, but no berries. Dusted.

Dusted 5G bucket from the top.

Lemon Balm seeds on a paper towel. I hadn't looked at this test in awhile and did today and noticed that the lemon balm seeds germinated extremely well on the paper towel. It took them about 3 weeks to get to this stage with "grown up" leaves. 

Dusted radishes. You can see that I didn't know what I was doing here compared to the berries and lettuce. The bugs immediately moved so it works and its organic. The rain doesn't wash it right off but do use the squeeze method. It lightly dusts the entire plant, top and bottom, and looks much nicer. Saves too.