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Ladies (Ladybugs, that is)...I love you!

Category: Meadowing | Posted: Sat May 26, 2012 8:05 pm

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Well, last year's attempt (http://www.gardenstew.com/blog/e10426-3-aphids.html) at releasing ladybugs into my garden was unimpressive and largely ineffectual. I got busy and didn't try the soapy water trick, so that's still in my arsenal.

As previously noted, the "Bag-O-Ladybugs" departed within days...or did they?

Last year, every oxeye sunflower plant stem was covered with red aphids. This year, while I started with the same condition, it quickly evolved to this delightful scene:


Nature's Aphid Managment System (Ladybugs) ( photo / image / picture from jb19012's Garden )

Whether this new friend (and there are several others that I could find) was a hold-over or a passing migrant is unknown, but this little lady sure was great to see.

I recently read Doug Tallamy's book on native plant gardening. Great book, and a real testament to working with nature. The best thing I took away from the book, beside the fact that we HAVE to stop introducing invasives and non-native (if you don't know it, don't grow it), was that if you have no insect damage, then you probably don't have many native plants. As Doug notes so eloquently, there is an entire ecosystem built up around native plants and the insects, birds, animals, etc. (and WE are at the end of that chain) absolutely rely on them.

Good gardening, native gardening, to all.


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Aphids!

Category: Meadowing | Posted: Mon Jun 27, 2011 2:22 am

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Well, my most recent mistake was thinking that aphids were relatively harmless. They are mostly that, but they are no fun to walk around with in the back yard, so I'm embarking on a two step process to reduce the numbers (now easily in the hundreds of thousands) to something more manageable.

I've purchased a small package of ladybug (lady beetle) lures and I also have an order in for 1500 ladybugs.

We'll see if they have any effect!

All the best,
J

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Getting a Meadow

Category: Meadowing | Posted: Sun May 29, 2011 12:42 am

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OK, it's only been 10 months since my last (first) post. Hey, it's been a busy year!

Step one was to describe how I got the meadow, so here's that bit of background.

My son's 7th grade teacher, an incredible lady and truly engaging individual that I'm happy to know still and who continues to bring joy to all students she meets, informed my son that mowing lawns was BAD for the environment. Son immediately heads home and informs father, that would be me, that he is harming the environment with all the mowing and something must be done.

OK, says I, what are the alternatives to mowing? At which point, son describes the many benefits (per his teacher, no doubt) of a meadow and that HE would love to assist. Taking the bate, and being no shrinking violet from new challenges, I sprang into action to understand what the steps were to bring about such a thing.

I know you know how many resources are available online, so I won't bore you with a what I found, but suffice it to say that the steps involved first taking measurements of the property, making a plan (which my son really enjoyed doing), transferring the plan onto the ground (garden hoses work great for this), then proceeding with the de-grassing process.

This last step, I know now, is one of the most important and perhaps most difficult, since grass will grow anywhere it can and, despite the fact that I cannot CAUSE it to grow where I want it to, once it is established, killing it is darned difficult. [I will refrain from expletives.]

The next photos illustrate the dying process, but this took much longer than expected to get ready for the seeding process, which I will discuss next time.

[This is zoysia, by the way, and a grass I was not unhappy to lose. It's color is that same brown all winter long until well into the warm season. Though it appears to be only dying in one section, I ended up killing all of it so it would stop growing back into the garden spaces. With all the grass killer, I guess I wonder whether I really benefited the environment or not!]

Yours...in garden gloves.


Backyard at the start of the meadow conversion ( photo / image / picture from jb19012's Garden )






Grass dead, 2008 ( photo / image / picture from jb19012's Garden )





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The Blog Plan

Category: Meadowing | Posted: Sun Aug 29, 2010 9:06 pm

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Because I blog separately, I'm familiar with the drill, but I know I have to have some sort of plan in mind or I risk making my blog a rather boring and random walk through my scattered mind. Perhaps gardening is like that, indeed I hope so, but blogging shouldn't be.

Anyway, with some hope that I'll be able to maintain this with some regularity, here is my plan:

1. To recount how I came to have a meadow and what was there before.
2. To document the steps I've taken to get a meadow, such as it is depicted in "My Garden" and my photo gallery.
3. To document what I learn so that others might benefit from my mistakes, trials, and tribulations.
4. To always seek the input and suggestions of others as we, together, seek our way in the world of meadow gardening...meadowing, for short.

My thanks to the 7th grade teacher (you know who you are) who suggested a meadow to my son, who then came home and proudly announced that we were to have a meadow to save the planet. Two years later, I still agree, though perhaps not for just that reason -- those other reasons to be expounded upon in these posts.

My thanks to my son, always, for everything he gives me.

And my sincere thanks, as well, and good wishes to anyone who happens along this meandering path.

Good Meadowing


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