Skip to main content

Some Jerkoff is Eating Our Spinach

And by jerkoff, I clearly mean insect.

We have been noticing these little holes in our baby spinach:





I'm pretty sure it's a bug because,  1) If it were rabbits, I feel they would be at the edges of the leaf, not dead center, and 2) we haven't seen any bunny impress so what else could it be?

I did a quick Google this morning - what insect is eating my spinach in Colorado - and I found some rather vague references to beetles, praying mantis, and "other leaf eaters."  I have caught no one in the act.  So my guess is some coward insect is going this at night.

Two days ago I put on my natural pesticide of Dawn soap, Listerine, water, and cayenne pepper (recipe found here).  So far I haven't seen new chew holes, but I plan to reapply this mixture every few days as I'm sure it washes off with our waterings.  The blogs I've found this recipe on make no mention of how often it should be used, so I'm just rolling with it.

Other than this development, everyone is doing well.  Broccoli and cauliflower seem to be flourishing.  The peas are starting to attach to their trellis.  Strawberries are up.  Shallots are up.  And so is our first zucchini.

Over Memorial weekend, we plan to get the rest of our warm weather friends in the ground - tomatoes, pepper, cucumber, and spaghetti squash.

Anyone have any trips and tricks for the jerkoffs - let me know!!!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

My Little Review of Smart Gardener

My good friend introduced me to Smart Gardener via Pinterest .  The description was something along the lines of, "this site plans your garden for you."  As a new gardener, I was skeptical.  Sounds a little too good to be true, but I checked it out anyways. At first I was enamored.  It allows for garden planning in 4 steps: 1.  Layout your garden - you are able to choose the square footage of an in-ground garden, or choose from a variety of containers/raised beds.  Cool! 2. Select your plants - this is limited by season, and you cannot mix cool weather and warm weather vegetables.  Not cool!  Varieties of vegetables are also limited if you are looking for something specific, but you can add them manually. 3. View your plan - you get a little image with your selected plants on it, plus the space they require in your garden (square footage), planting depths, seed spacing, plant dimensions, and what to plant next to each other or not (F...

Plant Problem #1: Zucchini

So I guess now that our garden has moved passed the infancy stage, we are starting to notice some issues as everyone is getting bigger. I had a mild heart attack taking a closer look at my zucchini this weekend.  Mainly this: Can you see that gnarly baby zucchini.  What the hell is that?? Called grandpa (duh), he said it just didn't pollinate correctly - trim off and move on.  So I did.  Here is close-up grossness. Otherwise, our zucchinis are looking beautiful.  I've been admiring all the blossoms and wondering if I should try and cook them.  I've seen it done on Chopped after all....   I hope that I'm complaining about how much zucchini I have in a couple of months, desperately trying to pawn it off on poor saps.  My poor parents - they are going to get it from me AND grandpa!

Dear April - You Suck

Today was supposed to be the day Winter Storm Walda dumped 6-12 inches of snow on us.  Schools closed down the night before.  I brought work home to work from home.  The day before major storm, I wrestled with the idea of putting some sort of cover on the ground to protect what we've planted.  My husband jury-rigged one of those big blue tarps, just in case. After talking to some work people and my grandpa, I was told to not tarp.  The snow would be all the insulation everything needed to survive.  I called my husband.  He already put the tarp down. I asked him to take it up.  He did.  All on the same day he had a root canal.  Who feels like the worse wife ever?  Me. Then guess what happens? Absolutely nothing.  Those 6-12 inches became a dusting with a lot of wind, but not much else.  So the next debate happened.  Should we tarp now?  Grandpa said yes, not gonna hurt it.  Husband said no, that the tarp ...