Birds can be both a pest and an ally in the garden. Birds help with pest control eating a wide variety of insects including aphids, caterpillars, mosquitos, and spiders. On the downside, they will also steal seeds and eat your tomatoes!
The harlequin bugs, or stink bugs, are primarily black with brightly colored markings in orange, red, or yellow on the wings. It lays its barrel-shaped eggs in clusters. These bugs pierce the plant and suck out the juices, causing them to wilt and turn brown. If left untreated, the plant will eventually die.
Thrips are tiny straw-colored insects with two pairs of wings. They can damage plants by sucking out their juices causing discoloration and even death!
Cutworms are the caterpillar of a brown or gray night-flying moth. The caterpillars are black, gray, or brown and are about an inch and a half long. These jerks can go through your entire garden of new seedlings extremely quickly! It’s important to watch out for them in your garden and do your best to protect again them. They look like little brown worms, and they like to spin around into circles around the plant, cutting it off at the base.
We don’t have to worry about deer here in the city, but those of you in the country know all too well how destructive and challenging deer can be. They can jump over any fence shorter than 8 feet, and there are very few things they won’t eat.
Aphids are tiny insects that can usually be found in groups on the undersides of leaves and stems. A few aphids can’t do much, but they reproduce quickly, are born pregnant, and can take over a plant in no time at all!
Cucumber beetles look similar to ladybugs. They can either be spotted or striped with yellow and black coloring. The adults feed on stems, foliage, and flowers. The larvae weaken the plant by feeding on the roots. They also spread bacterial wilt and squash mosaic virus.
Beans are a staple in our house. It’s something that we always have on-hand in our fridge to eat on with our meals. Dried beans are so much more cost efficient for us than canned and we don’t have to worry about all the preservatives! I used to cook these beans on the stove after soaking them overnight and then boiling them on the stove for several hours. It was so time consuming and I am not one to plan ahead that well! The Instant Pot changed my life in this area! I can now take completely dried beans and cook them in the Instant Pot and they are ready within the hour. These black beans not only taste great, but are just so simple to make!
This is an update and tour of our zone 7 Oklahoma urban backyard organic food farm! I show what we’re currently growing, talk about what we are planting right now, and share some tips and lessons I’ve learned from the summer! Dale SpoonemoreDale Spoonemore is the visionary co-founder of “From Seed to Spoon,” a groundbreaking platform that has revolutionized the way individuals approach gardening. His journey from a novice gardener to a leading advocate for […]
This is an update on our lettuce, cabbage, and cilantro planted 7/30/2017. We also plant another round of carrots, beans, peas, and lettuce! Here’s a link to the seeding square we used to plant in the video: Dale SpoonemoreDale Spoonemore is the visionary co-founder of “From Seed to Spoon,” a groundbreaking platform that has revolutionized the way individuals approach gardening. His journey from a novice gardener to a leading advocate for sustainable living and […]
