Pea Trellis, Peanut?

Early Morning...

I woke up very early this morning, around 7am, to spray the grass in the far beds. I realized that the beds get the best sun from when it comes up around 8am to about 12pm so to burn the grass properly I needed to spray before the sun. I grabbed the EcoSmart and sprayed all the grass and for good measure I spray again with the vinegar/detergent mixture I had left in a spray bottle. Then I went back inside. 

Early Afternoon...

I had plans to go to the salon with my Mom today so I wanted to get the watering done before I had to leave at 2pm. I filled the watering can, grabbed a peanut plant, the shovel, and headed over to Patch Market first. I wasn't sure I'd have time for everything before I left but I wanted to get the Peanut plant into my bed before the sun moved. I planted the Peanut, watered everything, and pulled out the jalapeño sign. 

I ran out of time rushed inside to change and left. 

Peanut plant.

Strawberry blooms overnight.

Late Afternoon...

When I got home I changed and went out to do some more watering and planting. I wanted to plant the pepper plants and put the green bean trellises up. Before I did that I went I to Patch Market to show Mike my strawberry flowers. I'd noticed that they'd all bloomed overnight and wanted to show them off. After he left I noticed that there was clover on the left side of my bed. All of the sudden it made sense that I had those red velvet mites that like clover. I didn't know why they'd shown up without the proper food, maybe radishes were a type of clover leaf was one thought, but no there was actual clover. So I went I side to grab the vinegar mix and sprayed the clover until it was soaked. I'm hoping the little red nasties will move on now. The radishes are gone and now the clovers smell bad and will die. 

When I was done spraying I grabbed the pepper plants and looked on the back of there labels to try to figure out the spacing. I couldn't figure out my plan for that box without the Potagar Schoultz diagram from Smart Gardener. I went inside pulled up the diagram/plan and went back out. We'd have one extra pepper plant. I planted the golden bell & jalapeño pepper to the left of the green beans and the red beauty peppers in the 2x2 plot left. I watered the peppers and sprayed them with epsom salt. Now that those were placed and the bed was full I was able to insert the trellises without worrying about the space the legs were taking up in the surrounding spaces. I made a tepee trellis by leaning 2 square wooden trellises against each other for support and aesthetics. 

I was going to plant the remaining pepper plant in a 12x12inch container but the Mosquitos were eating me alive and I'm allergic. I forgot about those pests during my craze and fear over the others. They are actually the bugs in least afraid of but they affect me the most. If I get more than 3-4 bites I get a fever. So I ran inside. 

Once inside I grabbed the nail polish remover and the jalapeño marker I'd brought in and removed the nail polish. I grabbed black and brownish polish and painted the word "peanuts" and pictures of 3 peanuts in there she'll on the tile. I blew on it to dry it and quickly ran back out to switch out the paper marker, that read Have you ever seen a peanut grow?, for the tile one in the bed. 

I ran back in to avoid any bites and I put everything away then of to shower.

Pepper plants; Golden bell (L), Jalapeno (M), Red Beauty (Front R).

Trellises over peas.

Caterpillars

I went out this morning to check on the garden and water things if the sun had dried everything out. It hadn't so I moved into Patch. I sat on the sidewalk and had a good look at my radishes and noticed that almost every single one except for the smallest had a visible red bulb coming up out of the soil. I then noticed that the biggest bulb belonged to one of the shortest plants. I don't think that their ready to harvest just yet but a few more days and I think we'll be having radishes at the Cortes house or they will, not me. I only planted them because I am a beginner and wanted something that was quick and easy to start with... I'll be giving this crop to my mom and the next rotation of radishes to AFAC. I figure that's a great way to do it since I promised them to my mom but also want to give to the hungry of Arlington. 

While I was looking at the radishes, admiring the bulbs, I noticed that there were tiny bright orange-red bugs all over the brick and all over the radish leaves. They look like a version of tic that sucks plant blood. I think these tiny insects are the cause of the enormous holes in the radish leaves. Luckily, they aren't affecting the root development and they are easily killed. When I saw them all over I went inside to make a spray bottle full of soap and baking soda to spray on the leaves. I sprayed on the radish leaf covered with red "tics" first and it killed them. The mix didn't just wash them off or cause them to scurry, it killed them. After seeing that the mix actually demolished them I sprayed the mixture all over the brick walls and strawberry buckets. To be honest I think the brick wall is what attracted them to my bed to begin with, I used to see them all over the brick ledge of my window as a child but never saw them otherwise. So maybe a brick bed isn't such a good idea. 

I've been googling all day and finally found them they are red spider mites and I did the exact right thing by spraying them with dish soap but unlike my initial thought it won't keep them away. The soap only kills this type of bug on contact. I'll put out some diatom-earth tomorrow, if I'm not too scared.

After spraying with the mixture I went inside to make a vinegar, soap, & water mixture for the weeds. I started spraying the weeds when I saw it... yes, the first caterpillar of the year. A gypsy moth larvae. Yuck! It's the insect/worm I fear the absolute most. I fear it so much I based my decision on wether or not to start a garden on the fact that I didn't see 1 caterpillar last spring. So, I figured they had kind of died out of this area. I hope I wasn't wrong in assuming that because if they start popping up all over I won't be gardening until they turn into moths. That's probably weeks. I didn't amend the beds or plant the sweet potatoes because every time I tried to go outside I felt a caterpillar crawling on me. Yeah, they drive me extremely crazy. I hate them. Here's hoping I won't see anymore. They did cut down the tree where they used to nest so hopefully that was a rare straggler.