Gardening

I have high hopes every spring when I bring home new plants.  My new plants usually look bright and green.  By the end of the summer, though, some of them are ready to just give up.  That’s ok.  At least I’ve learned a little more than I knew before.  This summer I’ve been learning about plant pests and how to recognize them.  I’ve certainly had plenty of opportunity!  My plants have all kinds of issues, as you’ll see.

I used to have a gardenia.  It died a long, slow death.  I didn’t know what the problem was, so I didn’t know how to treat it!  In hopes that it might save other plants from the sad, sad fate of my gardenia, here are a few pictures to help you identify a few plant pests.

1.  A squiggly line on a leaf might look like some kind of plant disease, but it is actually from a leaf miner.  Leaf miners are larvae of moths or flies, and they tunnel through the leaf, leaving their trail behind them.  I pluck off the leaf if I see something like this:

2.  A dark knobby bump on the stem might look like a natural part of the plant, but it is actually an insect called scale.  What you see is really a hard shell over a bug that feeds on the plant sap.  Scale varies in colors and size.  Sometimes you can just scrape or flick it off the plant stem.  Other common advice is to apply rubbing alcohol to it with a cotton swab.

3.  I think these are the worst.  What looks like some kind of white fungus is really mealybugs.  These white, fuzzy bugs cause a mess.  They feed on the plant sap, weakening the plant and eventually killing it.  If you notice these, you can wash them off with water or wipe them off with a cloth to get rid of them.

4.  A pest that is hard to see is spider mites.  These bugs are tiny, red dots that reside on the dry underside of leaves.  When they feed on the plants, it gives the leaves a speckled, stippled appearance. The leaves eventually become dry and yellowed. You might also notice a few strands of web around the leaves.  Spider mites can be hard to treat once they become established.  If you catch them early enough, you can wash them off with water.

Using water is a common preventive measure against pests.  The water washes off the dirt or dust that can harbor mites, and it usually takes care of the bugs and eggs that hide among the leaves.  This is especially important for house plants that don’t get rained on regularly.  I’ve had some success spraying or dunking my plants in soapy water.  On my last post about plant pests, Jessica mentioned that garlic spray seemed to help with bugs in her garden.  Any more ideas for how to take care of plant problems?

The benefit of organic gardening is that you don’t spray toxic insecticides on plants you’re going to eat.  The challenge is paying attention to your plants to prevent problems before they get bigger.

I noticed a bug was attracted to my basil plant.  First there was only one or two, but then there started to be more.  I wondered if they were little grasshoppers, but I didn’t see any chewed up leaves.  The leaves started to turn pale and yellow, and they folded inward instead of laying flat.  

I did a little research and realized these were leafhoppers.

Leafhoppers are sap-sucking bugs.  They are pests because they will drain the life out of your plants.  If you sit and watch them, you’ll see honeydew drops coming out of the tail end.  Every few seconds, another little drop forms.  

They come in many species.  This red-banded leafhopper landed on my spearmint.

I tried to get rid of them with a solution of soapy water, but even when I sprayed them directly, they didn’t budge.  I flicked them off, and they kept coming back.  I was stumped.  Then I decided to cover the basil with netting.  I bought tulle from the craft store, arranged it over the plant, and secured it with a rubberband around the rim of the pot.

Notice how sickly and yellow the leaves look?  This was a couple of weeks ago, when I first covered the basil with the netting.  Now that the bugs can’t get to the plant, it’s thriving again.  I gave it an extra boost of compost, and the new leaves are growing vibrant green. 

Next we’ll look at common plant pests you might not recognize.

Three months ago I started a project to learn how to compost. Many of the skills I want to learn how to do (like beekeeping and raising chickens) will have to wait until we have a house and some land. Composting on the other hand, is something I can do right now in my very own apartment.

Composting is an amazing process. Instead of going in the trash, all of my banana peels, coffee grounds, tea bags, egg cartons, and other scraps got tossed into the compost bin. In just three months time, they were transformed into something I really wanted: rich, dark, organic fertilizer for my plants.

To enrich and speed up the composting process, I added red worms to the compost bin. This is called vermicomposting, or vermiculture. The worms help to break down the food and turn the soil so that it remains aerated. I created a tutorial with step by step photos if you want to learn how to make your own compost bin.

In the beginning, the bin with food and paper scraps looked like this:

And just three months later, it had turned into this:

Harvesting the compost:

For the final two weeks, I placed new food scraps on only one side of the bin.  Then I stopped feeding them to give them a chance to finish up all the leftover food.  Many of the worms moved toward the side of the bin that still had food and bedding.  When it was time for harvest, I scooped out the compost from the other side, and sorted through it to rescue any worms that should have stayed in the bin.  And yes, I sorted it by hand, which was really not too bad.  I had thought the worms were pretty creepy at first, but by this time I viewed them as little working worms that I had a responsibility for.  I collected only half of the compost, since the other half would have required too much sorting.  

After I had collected the compost I wanted, I had enough to cover the soil for every single one of my patio plants and herbs.  I just put the compost directly on the soil, covered it with mulch, and watered the plants.  The rest of the compost bin contents went into a bucket temporarily, and I started the bin again with fresh bedding and new food.  Then I added the worms and remaining compost back in, and covered it to start the process again.

My big question answered:  did the bin have any smell?

Surprisingly, and amazingly, no!  The bin and the compost did not have any unpleasant smell, which was my main concern.  The one time I noticed an odor, I performed some bin maintenance, and that took care of it.

What I wish I had known:

Before I went out of town for a few days, I gave the worms an extra big portion of food.  When I came back from the trip, there were fruit flies in my kitchen!  That’s when I questioned the very thing I’m sure some of you are already asking:  Am I COMPLETELY NUTS?  I moved the worm bin outside (the spring weather was mild), and stopped adding food for a while so the fruit flies wouldn’t be attracted to it.  To take extra precautions against fruit flies next time, I keep the fruit scraps in a container in the fridge, and microwave the food before adding it to the bin. 

Was it worth it:

Yes! The miracle of turning something discarded into something valuable, the acquisition of a useful skill, the small amount of time and effort, and being one step closer to my goal of having a natural, sustainable lifestyle are all reasons why I’ll keep composting.

I figured if the Dervaes family can grow their urban homestead on a 1/5 acre city lot, then I could probably fit a few more herbs on my patio. As if I needed a reason to have more plants.  It’s getting a little bit crowded out there.

Garlic chives

Chocolate mint.  I need to find a good recipe to use this.

Spearmint (Southern iced tea necessity)

Basil

I love the baby basil leaves with their spring green color this time of year.

Somehow this red salvia came home with me as well.

Lavender

Italian Parsley.  I use this one a lot.

I can’t wait to use these herbs to cook some frittatas. I especially love the recipe for Kuku-ye Sabsi. I’ve made it several times using whatever fresh herbs I had, and it’s unexpectedly delicious.

Hello! This post is about my compost bin as I try to recycle food into natural fertilizer and learn about vermicomposting, which uses worms to break down compost quicker. I hope you stay, but if you would prefer to read about something else, you might like to skip ahead to something prettier.

A worm compost bin does not have any smell, and that’s true…most of the time. When I noticed a slight odor after the first month, it was time to do a little maintenance.

I examined the bin after only one month, and I was impressed with how much compost had already formed.  The worms had done a lot. (You won’t be able to see them in this photo; they don’t like light.)

1. I stirred the contents of the bin with a stick to unpack the material and distribute air. It was better already. 
2. Even though I had been adding more bedding every now and then, I added a new thick layer of moistened, shredded corrugated cardboard. 
3. I added one more solid piece of moist cardboard over the top of the bedding, underneath the lid to discourage fruit flies,.

The worms like the bin and stay in there.  I only spend a little time every few days adding food scraps. The worms aren’t eating as much as I thought they would. It might be due to a change in food from what they were used to before, or maybe there is not a full pound of worms. It’s hard to know. At least as they multiply, they will gradually eat more.  

I learned that adding excess water to the bin was not a good idea.  I had heard from several sources that if you add water to the bin, it would drip out of the bottom as “worm tea” and would be a good fertilizer. Since then I’ve read other opinions about what worm tea really is and how it differs from leachate, which is the name for the excess liquid from the bottom of the compost bin.

When I added extra water to the bin, I created a problem. The water compacted the material so the air couldn’t flow and it caused anaerobic conditions inside the bin.  This is what made the bad odor — it’s a warning sign that conditions in the bin are unfavorable. Additionally, there is a risk with using leachate on plants since it is made from unfinished compost: it can contain pathogens harmful to humans and plants. The excess water also reduces the nutrients in the finished compost by washing them out of the bin.

Worm tea on the other hand, is made by soaking finished vermicompost in aerated water to create a liquid with helpful aerobic microorganisms. This worm tea, as well as the compost itself, provides nutrients, helps the plant resist disease, and helps the soil retain water for drought-resistance. In a few more weeks I’ll be able to harvest the finished compost for my plants.

Related post: How to Make a Worm Compost Bin