NEED PROOF THAT VINEGAR IS A WEED-TERMINATOR? Just look at the weeds growing along a pea-stone path in my Herb Garden. These were photographed yesterday afternoon, just moments before I sprayed them with cheap, undiluted, store-brand white vinegar. Here's what all that greenery looked like this morning: Read more » Got Weeds? Use Vinegar, Not Roundup
June 16, 2011
NEED PROOF THAT VINEGAR IS A WEED-TERMINATOR? Just look at the weeds growing along a pea-stone path in my Herb Garden. These were photographed yesterday afternoon, just moments before I sprayed them with cheap, undiluted, store-brand white vinegar. Here's what all that greenery looked like this morning: Read more » One Way to Deal with Carpenter Bees
May 27, 2011
LAST NIGHT, I headed out under the cloak of darkness in order to deal with destructive carpenter bees. For weeks these insects, which resemble bumble bees, have been drilling nesting-holes in the pressure-treated fence posts which enclose my Herb Garden. You can see one such bee in action in the photo up top. A Google… Read more »
Garden Bullies
May 18, 2011
ARE YOU WAGING WAR WITH AN INVASIVE PLANT, TOO? My nemesis du jour is wild sumac (Rhus glabra). Just last week, I removed a grove of this vengeful bully from an area near my Kitchen Garden. It retaliated — and how! — by sending scores of tenacious tentacles under a fence and into my veggie… Read more »
Who Ate My Lupins?
July 8, 2010
LUPINS, winter-sown here in January, and later planted in the Serpentine Garden, had just last week set their small, green buds. How I looked forward to showing you these flowers as they matured into giant spires of purple, yellow, and pink! But while making “the rounds” this morning, I discovered that every fat bud had… Read more »
Waging War On Japanese Beetles
June 28, 2010
HAVE JAPANESE BEETLES (POPILLIA JAPONICA) FOUND THEIR WAY TO YOUR GARDEN, TOO? You might find the following roundup of treatments helpful, should you care to wage war against them. First up, my own experience with Fruit Tree Spray Concentrate, the great promise that wasn’t: Bonide Fruit Tree Spray. Although Bonide claims this spray kills beetles… Read more »
My Mosquito-Repelling Wristband
April 28, 2010
BESIDES A WATCH AND A WEDDING BAND, I never wear jewelry; rings and things interfere with my writing, gardening, and piano-playing interests. Nevertheless, I do wear a scented, bright-yellow bracelet while gardening at dusk. This odd bit of adornment is called the “Super Band,” and it keeps mosquitoes away: Made of polyethelene that’s been saturated… Read more »
Companion Plants for Pest Control
April 8, 2010
"COMPANION PLANTING" -- the theory that certain plants benefit each other when grown in close proximity -- has proven an effective means of pest-control here at A Garden for the House. Last summer, rabbits immediately stopped munching my cosmos and zinnias after I edged the plants with fragrant lavender. And onions, when planted around the vegetable beds, have surely repelled moles, voles and certain insects, too. Now, what other plants are thought to aid each other in the garden?
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