Monday, February 14, 2011

Lettuce & Ladybugs & Love

George prepared a container garden box by drilling some holes for air & drainage in his old storage tub. This past weekend we took a little trip to the East Bay Nursery and purchased a couple of lettuce starter plants so I can start growing a salad :) It's a variety of red leaf and romaine. We'll see how it does especially since the rain is back this week.

We are still figuring out how to approach composting and are leaning towards vermiculture.

While at the nursery, George noticed a 'Ladybug House' in a kit you can buy. Then we saw it cost something like $37 and we put it back. After a little Google research, he was able to build a cute little Ladybug House from extra wood scraps we had, and I painted it our aqua blue color. It has a 'Shabby Chic' worn look to it.

Apparently you just put a little sponge soaked in sugar water to attract them and then it becomes a little safe haven for them to feast on aphids and last year our plum trees had a lot of aphids! We are just starting to see blossoms now. Well see how it goes and report back.

On another note, all the daffodils have bloomed and we decided to move the bougainvillea to a sunnier spot on the deck. George is building a wood planter box for that. A picture will follow.
So now the nasturtium can take over that whole space, and it will!

and.... Happy Valentine's Day......
It's nice to work on things together w/someone you love.
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5 comments:

  1. AnonymousFebruary 15, 2011 at 9:23 PM

    I have an indoor worm composting bin (doesn't stink at all!) and you are welcome to get a starter pint of red worms (the preferred vermiculture worms) from my thriving colony. I couldn't find an email address on your site though so let me know how to get in touch, I'm near west Street but about 10 blocks north of you.
    Claire

    ReplyDelete
  2. laurenjanelleFebruary 17, 2011 at 10:38 AM

    It's great that you're able to work in the garden in February.

    ReplyDelete
  3. AndreaFebruary 17, 2011 at 11:47 AM

    Hi Claire,
    Thanks, we'd love to take you up on the free offer! I want to learn more about the vermiculture process. We will probably set that up in our backyard shed area. You can email me here - bookbag@ymail.com

    Hi Laurenjanelle,
    We were glad to get a nice start on the garden. Especially since we have stormy weather this week!

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  4. AnonymousJune 2, 2011 at 3:35 PM

    Hi! Love your ladybug house idea. I had aphids all over my roses this winter and need to attract more ladybugs to the garden!
    -Liz

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  5. GeorgeAguilarJune 2, 2011 at 4:47 PM

    Hi Liz,

    Well we had high hopes that the little blue house would attract some ladybugs. When the aphids began to appear on our plum trees, we walked to our garden center and bought a small container of live lady bugs and set them free in our garden.

    It's been a few months now and we still see many of them around our garden however they don't seem to care for the house. In any event, there is aphid/food for them and they are doing a good job getting fat and happy on aphids.

    Thanks for posting.

    ReplyDelete

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