Post by chrysanthemum on Mar 29, 2021 21:02:11 GMT -6
I was sitting in our family room today, and the older children were gathering some supplies in the adjoining room which is used as a school supply room, a craft room, and my seed starting and seedling room. I’ve had a fair number of large seedlings coming in at night because of some high winds and cold temperatures. Here’s a shot of some of my collection that get rolled into a corner periodically. (Not pictured I also have herbs, lettuce, cucumbers, and roselle that are still much smaller.). The table is mostly tomatoes. Peppers and eggplant are on the wooden cart.
Aphids managed to find my Chinese Cabbage (the planter on the furniture dolly on the deck), and before I found them, they managed to spread to one of my favorite peppers, a fish pepper that got started inside at the end of November. I sprayed the undersides of the Chinese Cabbage with lots of water and an application of neem oil. All the plants got a good spraying, but the fish pepper has also been getting rinsed upside down under the faucet periodically.
I had hoped not to bring the plants back inside again this spring, especially as the confines seed-starting room could lead to more aphid spread, but this week has turned colder at night. We even have some forecast temperatures in the mid thirties, so I’ve been holding off on planting as much as I have wanted to get those plants in the ground. It will be the latest I’ve ever put tomatoes in the ground down here. The basic idea on growing plants in this climate is that you must start them early, grow them big, rush them in, and protect them if you have to. (This is not at all how I learned to garden in Virginia, but the heat in the summers changes things down here.) I’m not rushing this year, and I hope I don’t regret it when the heat comes.
All of this story is background to what I heard this afternoon.
”Mommy, there’s a cute frog on the windowsill.”
“Is he a big one or tree frog?”
”One of the little ones.”
”Is he a green one or a gray one?”
Stage whisper one child to another, “I don’t think that she understands that the frog is on the inside of the window. What do you think she’ll do?”
I will admit to being a wimp when I’m being notified about tarantulas and scorpions in the house, but a tree frog is no big deal. I hopped up, took a look, and got him in my cupped hands. My son opened the door, and I took him to the blueberry bushes which had been freshly watered so that he could recover from his trauma. All the while, I was wondering just why there had been a frog in my house. It finally dawned on my that he had probably taken up a nice comfy perch in one of my plants (maybe the Chinese cabbage) and been brought in for the night last night. I don’t know if tree frogs eat aphids.
We see lots of tree frogs in our garden during the summer. We live in an arid climate, so we figure that watered plants with lots of shady foliage is like an oasis to the little guys. We also see lots of lizards, mostly green anoles that change color as you watch them depending on where they’ve chosen to hide. I’d have a much harder time catching one of them if I brought one into the house by mistake, but I hope to put a lot of plants in the garden this coming Saturday.
Aphids managed to find my Chinese Cabbage (the planter on the furniture dolly on the deck), and before I found them, they managed to spread to one of my favorite peppers, a fish pepper that got started inside at the end of November. I sprayed the undersides of the Chinese Cabbage with lots of water and an application of neem oil. All the plants got a good spraying, but the fish pepper has also been getting rinsed upside down under the faucet periodically.
I had hoped not to bring the plants back inside again this spring, especially as the confines seed-starting room could lead to more aphid spread, but this week has turned colder at night. We even have some forecast temperatures in the mid thirties, so I’ve been holding off on planting as much as I have wanted to get those plants in the ground. It will be the latest I’ve ever put tomatoes in the ground down here. The basic idea on growing plants in this climate is that you must start them early, grow them big, rush them in, and protect them if you have to. (This is not at all how I learned to garden in Virginia, but the heat in the summers changes things down here.) I’m not rushing this year, and I hope I don’t regret it when the heat comes.
All of this story is background to what I heard this afternoon.
”Mommy, there’s a cute frog on the windowsill.”
“Is he a big one or tree frog?”
”One of the little ones.”
”Is he a green one or a gray one?”
Stage whisper one child to another, “I don’t think that she understands that the frog is on the inside of the window. What do you think she’ll do?”
I will admit to being a wimp when I’m being notified about tarantulas and scorpions in the house, but a tree frog is no big deal. I hopped up, took a look, and got him in my cupped hands. My son opened the door, and I took him to the blueberry bushes which had been freshly watered so that he could recover from his trauma. All the while, I was wondering just why there had been a frog in my house. It finally dawned on my that he had probably taken up a nice comfy perch in one of my plants (maybe the Chinese cabbage) and been brought in for the night last night. I don’t know if tree frogs eat aphids.
We see lots of tree frogs in our garden during the summer. We live in an arid climate, so we figure that watered plants with lots of shady foliage is like an oasis to the little guys. We also see lots of lizards, mostly green anoles that change color as you watch them depending on where they’ve chosen to hide. I’d have a much harder time catching one of them if I brought one into the house by mistake, but I hope to put a lot of plants in the garden this coming Saturday.