No cabbageworms for a few days now. I have not bothered to reapply the Bt as the cabbages are growing beautifully and there is no sign of cabbageworm eggs on the undersides of the leaves. The aphids on the cabbages are suddenly being kept in check by an explosion of small spiders. This is a most welcome addition to the garden.

I am (insert fingers) this close to buying some ladybugs. I just can't help but wonder what would make them stick around. Would I pay all that money, release the little suckers and watch helplessly as they fly away? What makes my aphids better than the neighbors?

Bumblebees and wild bee populations around the UK are experiencing "catastrophic declines".

The bumblebees' behaviour of feeding on secretions from aphids could be a further sign of the problems facing the insects.

I have noticed that there have been a flurry of features on bee populations this year. It seems that as well as growing the right flowers for bees, we have to keep an active 'pest' population going for the bees as well.

see full article at the bbc

Well, there it is.  Pardon the long grass, we've been enduring several days of steady rain accompanied by some wonderful thunderstorms.  While the grass is enjoying it, we can't get out there to chop it down to a manageable height!

Easy construction, having a compound sliding saw makes doing this job a lot faster and really simple.  I followed these plans and we're quite pleased with it.  We made it higher so that we could make sure the dogs didn't "water" our little garden since we wanted to plant some edibles in there.

Here's one of our little basil plants.  Initially I thought that one of our storms had caused some damage but closer inspection has revealed that we've got a little aphid infestation.  The little hosers have eaten chunks out of the basil, sage and parsley.  Apparently some kind of soap and water concoction will make them go away.

So, I'm annoyed and slightly dejected that within one short week we've already had a problem.  I'm one to think positive so I have managed to convince myself that because we've had to deal with one issue that we're set for the summer. 

Oh the joys of being a novice gardener with very high hopes.

I let the bugs be and just watched. Within a few days, those ladybugs and their little alligator-looking young gobbled up all those aphids without any intervention on my part. It was a thing of beauty.

This year I have spotted a couple aphid infestations--none so far in the vegetable gardens--but those little sap-suckers and their accompanying hoard of honeydew-seeking ants have swarmed over a patch of goldenrod by Harry's front door, and are also eating up my columbine plants here at home.

But where are the ladybugs? Where last year they were numerous, this year I could count on two hands the number of aphid-eaters who are partaking of this feast. I know that at our two places it's not for a lack of winter cover--there's not enough time in the autumn to clean up every patch of fallen leaves and debris even if we wanted to.

I can't imagine that their population would have crashed completely--even with our late cold weather. Another interesting note is that all of the ladybugs I have seen are what we call the "old fashioned" red variety--not their aphid-munching but also human-pinching orange Asian lady beetle cousins.

At least I did see another aphid predator out and about last night--a green lacewing clinging to my pants when I took the dog out in the backyard. But I am interested to know if others have observed a significant drop in their local ladybug populations.

Let me know.

The reason they are such a pest is that they feed on plant sap, so as they move from plant to plant they can transfer diseases such as mosaic virus and if there are a lot of them feeding on a plant they can weaken it or even cause it to die. It is best to get rid of them as soon as you notice them rather than letting them build up, of course if you have lots of beneficial insects in you garden they will keep the aphids down by eating hundreds of them every day.

What are Aphids?
We usually think of aphids in terms of greenfly, blackfly or the woolly aphid (apple trees) but in fact, just to cheer you up, there are about 4000 different species but there are only around 500 in this country. Some will only dine on one particular plant while others will eat anything and everything.

Aphids contain sucking mouth parts called stylets, which are hardened and lead straight to the stomach. So they can easily pierce a stem or leaf of a plant to consume the sap. As they may have visited other plants before they get to yours they might have picked up a virus or disease which will be transferred to your plant when they bite into it. They are especially fond of young leaves, new shoots and buds, so you know where to look for them first.

The green apple aphid (Aphis pomi)

A, adult sexual female

B, adult male

C, young female

D, female laying an egg

E, eggs, which turn from green to black after they are laid (Enlarged about 20 times)

In the spring and summer there are only female aphids which give birth to live young - the population can double in 4 - 6 days. In the autumn they produce males to mate with and lay eggs that will hatch out in the spring.

Another problem is that sap goes in one end and sticky honeydew comes out the other end which can lead to a black Sooty Mould on the leaves. It is a fungi which does not do much in the way of damage other than blocking out the light which can lead to stunted plant growth.

Alternative ways get rid of Aphids.
From the practical to the bizarre there are lots of different ways to deal with aphids, here are a few of them:

The best way is to encourage beneficial insects who all like to eat aphids, ladybirds, hoverflies, lacewings & parasitic wasps. If you want to know more about them see my previous 'Beneficial Insects' post.

If you don't have too many aphids and you are not squeamish you can gently rub them off your plants, squishing them at the same time.

You can wash/blast them off with plain water with a hand sprayer on jet rather than spray or a pressure sprayer but be careful not to damage young or tender plants. You can buy special 'Bug Blaster' attachments for hoses that make very fine high pressure droplets that are supposed to be very good.

Not sure if this should be in the pesticide section below or not. My favourite way of dealing with aphids is to spray with a washing up liquid and water mixture (probably illegal as far as the EEC are concerned but I do have a lock on the garden gate). Aphids breathe through their skin and the spray suffocates them. My spray bottle holds about one litre and I add about half a teaspoon of washing up liquid and give it a shake before using.

Flour and water - Mix 2 to 4 tablespoons of fine white flour with water, a few drops of washing up liquid will help it stick, shake before use. This should be sprayed in the morning when the heat of the sun will dry the mixture out, the insects are left encrusted in flour, and they shrivel and die. Aphid en Croute, can't see it catching on. If you have tried and can recommend this method do let me know.

Sticky board traps - Aphids are attracted to yellow color. To make your own sticky trap, spread petroleum jelly or used motor oil on yellow painted plywood, 6 cm x 15 cm in size and up. Place traps near the plants but far apart enough to avoid leaves sticking to the board.

Aphids don't like wind and rain so the British summer can at times be of great help, so if bad weather is forecast wait until it is over to deal with any remaining aphids.

Sometimes mirrors or aluminium foil under plants confuses them and makes them fly upwards and away from the plants.

Using Pesticides to get rid of Aphids
All the ones listed here are approved for organic gardening, if you want to research and use more toxic things that is up to you. Do remember when you use pesticides on vegetables that sooner or later you are going to be eating them and do you want to be eating what you are spraying them with? I know they always say there is no residue after a certain amount of time but I am always wary of such claims. Please read the instructions very carefully before using as many products are toxic to ponds and can also kill bees and hoveflies etc too.

Insecticidal soap is defined as any of the potassium fatty acid soaps used to control many plant pests. It is sprayed on plants in the same manner as other insecticides, it works only on direct contact with the pests. The fatty acids disrupt the structure and permeability of the insect cell membranes. The cell contents are able to leak from the damaged cells, and the insect quickly dies. works best on soft-bodied insects such as aphids, mealybugs, spider mites, thrips, and whiteflies, so bees, wasp and ladybirds are relatively unaffected.

Derris Dust contains rotenone which occurs naturally in the roots and stems of several plants, as the name suggests it is a dust that you puff on to plants when it is dry. It is extremely toxic to insects (which is why it works so well) and aquatic life including fish. Despite this product being used successfully by gardeners for donkeys years the EEC has I think decided we need to be protected from it. Apparently rats injected with it can get Parkinson's disease, personally I have better things to do with my time than injecting rats with garden products. It is likely to be banned later this year, if it is you will have a year to use any existing stocks, after that if caught storing or using it you could be liable to a fine or imprisonment. The same is true of any homemade unregistered, unapproved garden sprays.

Growing Success produce a bug spray that contains natural oils that suffocate things like aphids, you can eat produce the same day as you spray it. I have not linked to their website as they do not give any detailed information eg on the bug spray page it states - 'Contact insecticide that kills insects at all stages by physical means. Will make up to 15 Litres.' - that's it! Very helpful.

Pyrethrum a natural insecticide made from the dried flower heads of Chrysanthemum cinerariafolium. The flowers are pulverized and the active components called pyrethrins, contained in the seed cases, are extracted. Pyrethrins attack the nervous systems of all insects, and inhibit female mosquitoes from biting. They are harmful to fish & bees, but are far less toxic to mammals and birds than many synthetic insecticides and are non-persistent, being biodegradable and also breaking down easily on exposure to light. They are considered to be amongst the safest insecticides for use around food. Spray with this late at night to avoid killing bees but you will probably murder a few ladybird, hoverfly and lacewing larva. There are lots of different pyrethrum formulas available. I would consider using this myself if all else failed.

All of the above are available from the Organic Gardening Catalogue and may be available in local garden outlets.

If I have missed any good products in this section please let me know the details.

Aphids and Ants
For a long time it was thought that ants were being helpful and attacking aphids, in fact they 'farm' the aphids and in doing so protect them from beneficial insects. Ants eat the honeydew secreted by the aphids and carry it back to the nest to feed the colony. They do eat the occasional aphid if they are running short of protein but they protect more than they eat. You can often see streams of ants running up and down the stems of aphid infested plants.

To get rid of the ants, get rid of the aphids. Or get rid of the ants first you can by cute little tins of ant killer (at a price) which have small holes at the base to let ants in and the tin protects pets/children from the poison, you leave them at the base of plants. The way that it used to be done before the EEC deemed such things as illegal was to mix icing sugar and borax powder together and put a teaspoon of the powder in a small lid (similar size to a vitamin bottle top) put it on the ground near to an infested plant and put a bigger lid (from a jam jar) over the top of it to keep out the rain, with a stone on top to keep pets away. It works very well for getting rid of ants from raised beds (where they can kill plants by moving all the soil away from the roots), so I am told.

Borax is a very useful product, gets rid of grease and stains on laundry (mix with soap flakes to remove grease from delicate fabrics) and can be added to washing up water and drains too. You can buy it from Boots or Hursts.

Scientists have discovered that ants use a drug on herds of aphids to make them move more slowly so they do not scatter and can be more easily "milked", you can read the full article in The Telegraph

Photo: Aphids on a rosebush - Lucis

Photo: Aphids and Ants - Richard Toller

The four inches of rain we got on Sunday not only has flooded much of southern Wisconsin, it also made my strawberries explode straight out of the ground:

Also, my little carrots are getting their adult carrot-tops:

And finally, a friend gave this plant to me, but I can't remember what it is. I think it's a lettuce of some sort?

Also, Mr. Larson (who used to live here) must have really liked potatoes. I now have potatoes popping up in every section of my garden: in the peas, in the corn, in the carrots, in the radishes, in the broccoli, in the pathway. It's crazy! (As crazy as things get in the garden, anyway.)

For once I am actually growing mine in the recommended sized pot which is 10"/25cms. You can add up to 30% manure to your compost as they like very rich soil, I did not have any so I added a small hand full of pelleted organic chicken manure and will feed with organic liquid seaweed which will hopefully make up for the lack of manure.

You can sow courgette seeds indoors in March and April, outdoors May and June, so you can still sow some seeds. They usually take about 8 - 18 days to germinate, it should be nearer 8 days this time of year. I normally sow mine in 3" pots and transplant into the 10" pot when they look like they have outgrown the small one. If you sow them early in the year do not plant out until late spring and all chance of frost is gone as they are very tender. Although it is not so much of a problem if you are growing them in pots as you can just bring them indoors for the night if frost is forecast.

They like a position in full sun if possible but don't let them dry out in hot weather. I have mulched my pots with bark or stones, it is amazing the difference mulching the pots makes, you don't realise quite how much water is lost due to evaporation. I tend to decide if they need watering or not by the weight of the pot as I normally water them by sticking them in a big bucket of water and letting them soak up what they need. Or you can poke your finger into the compost and check if it is still damp, if the leaves are starting to wilt water straight away.

I start to feed mine once a week or so with liquid organic tomato fertiliser once the courgettes start to form. If the compost is very dry water with plain water first or you could scorch the roots.

If you have grown courgettes before you will know that they tend to trail along the ground frequently growing at least a couple of inches a day with the courgettes forming all along the new growth. So to solve the problem of having them trailing all over the place I am going to grow mine up canes. I will put 3 or 4 pots together with a cane in each pot and tie the canes together at the top to make a wigwam. As the courgettes grow tie them to the cane preferably using that soft green garden string, as it does less damage to the plants, it is about 70p for a ball of it from the home and garden shop that I can't remember the proper name of in Pier Street. Pinch out the tips when they reach the top of the canes.

Harvest your courgettes when they are no more than 6" long by cutting them off with a sharp knife. Towards the end of the season you can let a few of them grow bigger so you have marrows.

Courgettes are extremely versatile they can be grated and eaten raw in salads, cooked as a side dish and there is a huge range of recipes in which they feature as the main ingredient.

Marigolds and nasturtiums are good companions for courgettes

Pests and diseases.
The most common problem that you will encounter growing courgettes is mildew caused by poor air-flow and dry roots. If it gets really bad you can spray the plants weekly with Potassium Bicarbonate or if all else fails Bordeaux Mixture which is copper sulphate and slaked lime both are available from The Organic Gardening Catalogue.

Slugs are very fond of young young courgette leaves but you do have less trouble with them in containers. A circle of salt on the ground around the pots in dry weather does tend to solve the problem.

They are also prone to cucumber mosaic virus which is spread by sap feeding insects, the worst culprit being aphids. The disease causes mottled, puckered leaves that eventually turn yellow and the courgettes go sort of lumpy and shrivelled. Keep plenty of plants that encourage beneficial insects near to them and eliminate aphids as soon as you see any. There is no cure for this disease, you can buy mosaic resistant varieties but it is no guarantee.

So, I managed to wash most of the specks off under the tap and I separated it from my other plants. I wasn't totally sure what it was until I checked it again this morning - aphids. I have seen some flitting around my indoor plants recently but had been so far ok, until last night. I've got as much of the aphids off as I can and I've put the plant outside for the day (well away from my other veg) in the hope that some natural predators may finish them off for me. But thank goodness I found the eggs before they hatched, let alone the damage they'd have done to my plants, my flat would have been infested. It's typical isn't, just as the snail problem seems to be lessening (if I were a snail I wouldn't want to risk going in my greenhouse right now, until I open the door to it in the mornings the temperature has recently been getting up to 40C, gently steamed snails then).

On a brighter note, chillies have started to appear on my chilli plants (which are also inside but so far aphid free). I am finding it absolutely fascinating seeing the chillies emerge from the flowers.

This year we bought greenhouse-raised tomato plants from the farmer's market which were already beginning to flower and were about 1 ft tall. We moved them out into the garden a few weeks ago and they are doing really well. We also tried once again to raise a few plants from seed but they are again, way too small.

Last year we were so frustrated and disgusted with our dismal results that we didn't even bother to properly close down the garden, we just left everything as it stood, weeds, dead plants and all, and so this year Peer had to completely dig the beds again.

Last year we had a very dark and wet growing season which no doubt contributed to our failed garden. This year we are having the opposite... it's way too hot and hardly a drop of rain so far. Using tap water to water our garden isn't even an option. Water is way too expensive here and it is just not the way it is done. You never see sprinklers or irrigation systems in our area, instead we use rainwater. Up until recently we didn't have a very large rainwater catch and so we hauled water in buckets from the creek that runs under our property. Now that we've got our large rain barrels hooked up, we fill watering cans from them and water the garden that way. We are having to water every 1-2 days currently and it's about an hour's job.

But here is what the garden looked like yesterday. We purposefully kept it small this year. We figure it is better to have a few smaller successes than one huge failure like last year. We've got potatoes, white cabbage, red cabbage, brussels sprouts, peas, broad beans, bush beans, pumpkins, cucumber, tomato, radishes, carrots, onions, garlic, spinach and sunflowers...a small amount of everything.

Another problem last year was the bugs. We had a HUGE amount of snails and slugs. We were determined not to treat them with anything poisonous, we want to let the land work out the balance between good bugs and bad bugs naturally, but damn, is it hard watching them devour and destroy all your hard work! We waited until nearly the end last year and then put down snail and slug bait. Not poisonous to anything but slugs and snails. It helped but was like spitting on a forest fire at that point. This year we began right away with the snail and slug bait and it is making a huge difference.

We definitely aren't pest free though. We started keeping out cucumber and pumpkin plants covered at night because we lost 2 plants during the first night to something which just bites the stems completely through down near the base. It didn't even bother to eat the plant just chewed them in half and left them laying there! I think it was slugs or snails but I'm not sure. The lids seem to be helping, I'm pushing them down about 2" into the dirt.

A closer view of our potatoes and cabbages, these seem to be doing really well.

Of course we've also got a ton of aphids. My MIL gave me a climbing rose bush last year for my birthday and I planted it beside my studio. Of course this year it has just about every kind of pest that a rose bush can have. Along with the tons of aphids, it's also got something that is completely chewing the flower buds in half. I haven't seen what is doing that but I'm first going to focus on the aphids...more about that in my next post.

Containers

Anything that you can put soil in can be a garden container. Some organic gardeners prefer to use natural containers, such as those made from wood or clay, but you can use anything. You can put a plant in an old toilet, a worn-out shoe, a milk carton or any other container that will hold dirt and won’t fall apart when it gets wet.

Make sure the container will drain; few plants like too much water. If necessary, you can drill a few drainage holes in the bottom of almost anything. Add about an inch of gravel or broken clay pots to the bottom of the pot. If you want to, you can put a layer of torn up newspaper or leaf mold on top of the gravel. The gravel helps ensure good drainage, and the leaf mold helps retain the water so the soil stays slightly moist.

Soil

Organic container gardening relies on organic, living soil. With a regular garden, you start with the soil you have and add organic material to it. With organic container gardening, you have to start out with organic soil.

Because you don’t have any subsoil, you need organic soil that will hold water without letting the plant’s roots get too wet. The best way to do that is to add peat moss to your organic soil. Compost and composted manure, mixed with peat moss, make great soil for organic container gardening. You can also use straight peat moss.

Plants

You can plant the same things in organic container gardening that you would in regular organic gardening. You can plant beans, tomatoes, peppers, lettuce, herbs, eggplant - anything you want to – just that they will be in containers. Make sure you have room for the plant, and that you use a container of the appropriate size. Zucchini takes up the same amount of room on your patio that it does in the garden - and it needs a pot big enough to contain the plant.

Technically, you should use organic seed and/or plants for organic container gardening. Unless you’re planning to sell organic produce, however, the choice is yours.

Organic Practices

Organic container gardening is well suited for organic gardening practices, especially where pest control is concerned. It’s much easier to pick tomato hornworms off of a container tomato than it is in a large garden. You can easily wash each leaf and stem of a plant with aphids when it’s in a pot on your patio. You will rarely have problems with cutworms in organic container gardening. Slugs will still go for your plants and diatomaceous earth will still deter them; just sprinkle it on the surface of the soil in the pot.

You can even use insect control with organic container gardening. Instead of buying a package of ladybugs or a praying mantis egg sac, just catch a few and put them on the plants that have insect infestations. Ladybugs will stay wherever there are aphids, and they will make short work of the aphids.

Organic container gardening will allow you to have plenty of healthy organic produce to feed your family. If you have a sheltered area and can provide enough light, you can have vegetables from organic container gardening all year round.

Check out my article below on Companion Planting, which also has a link to my companion planting list. This also works in container gardening.

And now I would like to offer you a Free copy of my Gardeners Journal so that you can easily document your gardening experience and track what you do. Click on "Subscribe to Master Gardener Girls' Gardening Blog by Email" and I will send you a copy of this file.

Happy Gardening from Master Gardener Girl!!

]]> http://bartoo4.wordpress.com/?p=39 Sat, 31 May 2008 15:16:39 +0000 bartoo4 http://bartoo4.wordpress.com/?p=39 I noticed the aphids last weekend and this weekend, they were joined by what I am learning is a similar tomato plant pest: white flies.

This site http://whatcom.wsu.edu/ag/homehort/pest/whiteflies.htm taught me all I need to know-- which is: I'm way behind on a control program and better start today.

The writer is in Washington, so I am not certain if what works in the Northwest will also work here in Central south, but we'll see if water spray to kill adults helps first.

(later that day...)

The 'hard spray of water from the hose' knocks the bugs off... but won't they just come right back? After all, they do have wings. I doubt I succeeded in drowning many in this manner-- I am not convinced this will work, but I glad the first intervention was to simple to try.

I checked the peppers and the mallow and didn't see any aphids, so I'm hoping that some useful critter has eaten all of the aphids. Also, there has been no more damage to my strawberry patch. Thank goodness for chicken wire! Who knew it could be useful for things besides chicken? It took me forever to put it around that little tiny strawberry patch, but if it keeps the bunnies out, it's worth it. Of course, there's always the chance that a rabbit or two will get in and be unable to escape the strawberry patch. This is, of course, my worst nightmare (today).  Last night Matthew came into the office where I was working and said with a smirk, "Hey, want to see two rabbits mating in your strawberry patch?" and I just about had a heart attack.  I AM A DELICATE FLOWER. DO NOT DO THIS TO ME.

Also, I took this picture of my baby basil plants today. Can you guess which way the window is relative to the pot?

I forgot to mention that some critter (I suspect rabbits) has been munching on my strawberry plants. I checked them yesterday morning and some of them had been nearly obliterated. So yesterday I put up chicken wire around the strawberry patch (it's about two feet high and about 3 inches are buried in the ground). So far, no more damage to the strawberries is visible. But if it's not rabbits who are doing the damage, the chicken wire won't do much good. I'll have to wait and see. We're thinking we might try to chicken wire the whole yard and just keep the rabbits out entirely, as that seems more elegant than trying to chicken wire just the garden patches.

(photo by Luc Viatour)

Organic Gardening for Dummies has these suggestions:

1. Blast them off with a hose
2. Introduce green lacewings or ladybugs
3. Use sticky yellow traps
4. Spray with insecticidal soap

I tried #1 two days ago; although a large number of aphids were gone, a bunch remained. So , now it's on to other methods. I'd love to introduce some ladybugs or green lacewings, but where do I find such things? I see there are some online retailers, but I wonder if a local garden store might have some as well.

Some goes for sticky yellow traps and insecticidal soap. Where do I get them? A garden store? The one that's just down the road sold me the sick mallow in the first place, so I don't terribly much trust them. Perhaps online really is the best option. And is insecticidal soap really organic? I'll have to look this up.

This sudden coordination is an important step in the genesis of a swarm, but the researchers had still to uncover why the locusts aligned so neatly. Now, working with the same group, Sepideh Bazazi at the University of Oxford has found part of the answer - they to march to avoid getting cannibalised by other locusts behind them. All the individuals in a dense group are after the same things - protein, salt and the like. If one stops moving, it risks acting as a source of these nutrients for others behind it. For locust groups, life is about moving with the crowd, or being eaten by it.

•   The title alone on this one should be enough: 'Aphids get superpowers through sex.'


•   Ed weighs in on the recent work that carbon nanotubes might produce similar biological effects as asbestos. He does note that the work is preliminary, and has not yet shown that inhaled nanotubes can migrate to the mesothelium, nor that the resulting inflammation can turn to mesothelioma (a process which is still mysterious in asbestos exposure, as noted here). Still, it is cause for concern, and definitely needs more research.


•   An interesting microbe, Hatena, and its unusual relationship with the algae Nephroselmis, give insights into the origins of endosymbiosis.

Classical music is dead! Long live classical music!

SOUND TRAVELLERS TAKES NEW MUSIC ON THE ROAD.
From June 2008, a collection of Australia’s most innovative classical musicians will be hitting the road to bring their diverse and exciting sounds to new audiences across the country, with the help of the Sound Travellers initiative.

The series of new music tours kicks off with collaborative performances by improvisation artists Alex Masso and Peter Farrar in early June, and will be followed in coming weeks by performances from Ensemble Offspring, Metalog, Colin Offord, and two special shows of Con Koukiatis’s Prayer Bells. Each performance will push the boundaries of contemporary classical music practice, and will give audiences the chance to experience something new and inspirational.

Funded by the Australia Council’s Music Board, Sound Travellers is a new project, created to allow some of the country’s most interesting music practitioners to promote and tour their art, in contemporary classical music, as well the diverse fields of as improvised jazz, and sound art/electronica.

"This is a fantastic initiative for both musicians and audiences. It is an opportunity to inspire, with the diversity and quality of music being produced all around Australia, to connect like-minded people who enjoy the richness of our uniquely Australian musical vocabulary and a chance for artists to exchange creative ideas." Joanne Kee, Director – Sound Travellers

Sound Travellers was created to support individuals and small to medium sized organizations touring new music. The artists that will be touring through the second half of the year will visit every State and will be travelling the length and breadth of the country, plus many of the places in between. A total of 13 tours, over 60 artists and more than a few road trips and flights with over 50,000 kilometres to be travelled, Sound Travellers are helping these musical journeys come to a place near you

"Ironically it is often easier for Australian artists to tour their work overseas than interstate. The Sound Travellers scheme goes some way to addressing the huge need to nurture ensemble-to-ensemble and musician-to-musician connections around the country." David Young, Aphids

www.soundtravellers.com.au

Sound Travellers is supported by the Australia Council, the Australian Government’s arts funding and advisory body, Performing Lines and Ceres Solutions.

TOUR DETAILS

JUNE 2008
Masso and Farrar
When Masso and Farrar kick off the series of dates, audiences will be treated to an exploration of the possibilities of purely improvised music. With stylistic influences harking back to 1960s jazz, Masso and Farrar are heavily influenced by Australian musicians working with new approaches to sound, forms and musical interaction. Both musicians have been heavily involved with the Splinter Orchestra; formed the group Quarantine with Rod Cooper (Melb) and Rory Brown; performed with the unique musician Gerard Crewdson; and in April 2008 with creative music legend Wadada Leo Smith. They are closely involved with the NOW now.

Tuesday 3rd June, The Make It Up Club @ Bar Open, Melbourne
Wednesday 4th June, The Brisbane Hotel, Hobart
Thursday 5th June, The Exeter Hotel, Adelaide
Saturday 7th June, Club Zho, Perth
Sunday 8th June, Audiopollen Social Club, Brisbane
Thursday 12th June, Venue tbc, Canberra

www.myspace.com/massoalex or http://www.trioapoplectic.com/massofarrartour.html

Ensemble Offspring – Waiting to Turn into Puzzles

Working with the Aphids Reel Music Festival, Ensemble Offspring have created Waiting to Turn into Puzzles - a cinematic experience with live music. Curham’s hand-processed, etched and looped super 8 films are simultaneously an intense visual experience as well as functioning as music notation for Ensemble Offspring.

David Young ascribes a vocabulary of musical gestures and techniques to the textures, colours and shapes f the projections through a process of composition that explores the continuum between improvisation and notated music. David’s music has been likened to the “aural equivalent of seeing a world in a grain of sand”.

Wednesday 25 June, Chauvel Cinema Paddington, Sydney
Thursday 26June, Australian Centre for the Moving Image, Federation Square, Melbourne
http://www.ensembleoffspring.org.au

Please check venue details, times and dates directly with venues at time of publishing all info correct - however things sometimes change!

Publicist Susie Cairns - "newmusicmedia@soundtravellers.com.au"

I am just starting to investigate companion planting myself and am beginning to wish I had not, as there is far more to it than I ever thought that there was. I had no idea that onions and beans hate each other and should never be planted near each other, it is only by pure luck that I have not put them together.

When the right companions are planted together, they grow quicker, stronger, need less water, taste sweeter, have less pest damage etc Remember it is no substitute for general good care, you still need to supply food, water, weed around them and look out for pests. Some combinations will not thrive and could even wither and die.

The carrot fly locates carrots by smell so if you can mask the smell of the carrots she may not find them. Hence the common suggestion of planting onions with carrots as the onions smell far stronger and will hopefully confuse the carrot fly. The flies lay their eggs around the developing carrots, the larva, once hatched, burrow into the root, foliage becomes wilted and discoloured and rusty-brown tunnels are seen under the outer skin of mature roots which go right through the carrot. As female carrot flies are very low flying, the best method of prevention is to erect a barrier around the crop at least 60cm high.

Tomato plants protect asparagus from asparagus beetle, something in the roots of asparagus kills a nematode which attacks tomato roots. Both like basil near to them. Asparagus does not like onions near it and possibly other members of the allium family.

Nasturtiums are very useful plants to have in the garden they have three main uses:

Planted near apples trees they are supposed to deter woolly aphids. Planted near broccoli and squash they protect them from aphids and other bugs.

They can be used as a sacrificial plant, if you put them near to crops that you don't want aphids or caterpillars to attack, they will go for the nasturtiums in preference to your prize veggies.

If you have any intact bits of nasturtium left you can eat the leaves, the fresh seeds that it produces (not the un-sown ones in the packet) and the flowers in salads.

Tagetes (French marigold) and basil will keep whitefly off of tomatoes, and if planted in a greenhouse will stop whitefly there too. In the picture above you can see I have put a tagetes in with each tomato plant. There are also some ivy-leaf geraniums in some of my pots, as far as I know they have absolutely no benefit to the tomatoes but they look pretty. Spinach is growing next to it in an old galvanised bucket.

Poached egg plant (Limnanthes douglassi) Very pretty hardy annual that self seeds (comes up every year without you having to do anything) bees and hoverflies love this plant. Sow some seeds close to plants that you are trying to protect from aphids.

Wormwood supplies nectar for bees and hoverflies, repels carrot fly, aphids, cats and dogs. Unfortunately it also repels just about every other known plant in the universe! It is best for planting at the boundaries of your garden, not near any other plant. Best not to put it on the compost heap as it can slow that down too.

Chives will prevent blackspot on roses, garlic is supposed to ward off aphids.

As I have barely scratched the surface of companion planting, here are a couple of links with various suggested combinations:

A good Companion Planting Chart from Down Garden Services

Wikipedia list of Companion Plants - useful comprehensive chart, as this site has worldwide input there are a few pests mentioned that we don't get in the UK.

If you disagree with any of the listed ones or have found some good combinations yourself, please let me know.

My neighbor told me about the Master Gardener's sale a few weeks ago and the yummy tomato plants she got last year. So, I went and got three varieties. I have been caring for them well, in anticipation of planting them after June 1st, as was advised to me. (part of me still hesitates to believe that tomatoes can be grown in  Washington... but it's worth a shot!!)

To my surprise, last night when I checked on my young plants... there were aphids... CRAP! My neighbor told me to spray soap on them, a friend said to get some ladybugs and let them have a feast. Short of putting in an order with God, I wasn't sure where to get lady bugs, even though that was my favorite suggestion!!

So, off I went this morning, after my walk in the last bit of Seattle sunshine, to figure out how to kindly and safely encourage my aphids to leave my tomato plants alone. My first mistake was going to the closest place, since gas is almost $4 a gallon, I thought I'd swallow my pride... and go to the huge warehouse... bad idea!!!  I walked around that humongous place looking for someone to help me with an organic way to shew my new friends away... There were no carts anywhere, the cheap black containers that I wanted... were not for sale, only the fancy $29 ones could be purchased, how kind of them... and do you think in a place that probably employs a large quantity of people... that someone in the nursery area might possibly know something about plants????? It was my experience this morning, after way too long in the store, that NO... no one even seemed to know what an aphid was, much less how to kindly shew them away. After asking what seemed like 5 million people, and getting blank stares, I finally, politely, told them I was going to go to a real nursery.

Tomorrow, I am going to this real nursery, where every time I walk in... they greet me and ask what I need... and more importantly... They know the answer!!!! The extra gas needed to get there will be well worth it!! Lowe's needs to stick to whatever else they do well... I'm sure there's something...

Grrrr....

Ladybird







Mature Ladybird - Early larva stage - Mid larva stage

All eat hundreds of aphids (greenfly, blackfly etc)

Photo credits: Ladybird - Thomas G. Moertel, Early stage - Marcus Van Hoorn, Mid stage - fr:Utilisateur:Anthere

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Hoverfly

Hoverflies look like miniature wasps which hover and flit about very fast. They don't have a sting and won't hurt you.

The adults pollinate your flowers and vegetables. The larva eat aphids.

Photo credits - Hoverflies by Nigel Jones, Hoverfly larva by Peter Birch

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Green Lacewing
Green Lacewing are not often seen during the day but you can see them at night flitting around outside lights. If you have any of those solar portable garden lights try moving them near to plants infested with aphids and the lacewing will hopefully move on to them, lay eggs which turn into larva and eat all the aphids.

Lacewing larva Photo by Neil Phillips

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Parasitic wasps

There are about 7000 different types of parasitic wasps in the UK. Some of these tiny wasps lay their eggs inside of aphids, which does tend to finish them off.

Photo by Andy Hay



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Mason Bee

These are solitary bees who do not have hives or make honey. They are active far earlier in the year than honey bees and are very useful for pollinating early crops.

Photo by Walwyn on flickr.com

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Ground Beetles

Lots of different types of beetle will eat aphids and small slugs. Encourage them into your garden by leaving a bit of an old log or two in an out of the way place for them to live in.

Photo by Neil Phillips

Macrosiphum rosae - Rose aphids
Arizona

On a happier note, a photographer came round from The Sunday Telegraph to take some shots of me and my son in the garden, one of which will be in the paper this Sunday. In the past I've always dreaded these occasions since, at the age of 36, I have yet to find my 'photo face' and generally look either slightly simple or manically deranged when faced with the lens. If it's a gardening photo, something even worse happens which is that I can't seem to pose with a pair of secateurs or a trug without a stupidly wry look on my face as though I'm acting in a comedy movie, as if holding a pair of secateurs is a hilarious and odd thing to do, like holding a giant inflatable banana.

Luckily the photographer was charm itself and my son, a born poser at 18 months, stole all the limelight so all I had to do was hang around in the background, fortunately, without any props.

In celebration of Earth Day, I’m writing about my friends the aphids. They are attacking my New Dawn rose bushes. These two rhapsodic rose bushes are climbers, growing higher every year. If you count their spilling over the trellis and arbor, which I keep adding on to, they are about 16 feet tall at this point, with more life in them than all the new trees and bushes I have planted in the last four years. The buds, only visible the last few days, are growing. It will be a few more days before they open.

I was so excited at dusk last night to see if they’d started blooming. Mocha cat and I went out onto the screen porch after dinner and I noticed - horrors of all horrors - that the aphids had returned. I’ve been looking for them, while trying to think positive thoughts that maybe they’d stay away this year. I really thought I’d headed them off with a few preventive whiffs of rose bug poison. But no, there were a few tell-tale headless stalks growing straight for the sky, undeterred, thankfully.

If I’d been successful in ordering liquid garlic to spray instead of pesticides, I’d probably be OK. But the company turned out to be fraudulent. And I’m just not willing to load the air with pesticides, so it may take a few more years to conquer this battle. But, in the meantime, I’ve decided to be at peace.

“Live and let live!” my husband used to say about vermin. We didn't pay much attention until he said it about the roach crawling across our map of the world in the family room. The kids and I cringed at the grossness, and I said it seemed a little irresponsible to be that passive, even though I hate killing any creature. "World traveler," the kids named the poor little guy, groaning and giggling at the same time he made it safely across several continents.

That memory is now long gone, as I breathe in and let the pale pink roses warm my heart. I asked the protecting guardian of wildife and nature, Ariel, to spare me a few blooms. 

And so in a spirit of compromise on Earth Day, I am conceding to the little bugs. We share a gentle love and discriminating taste. I should be able to give up a few decapitated stalks in the midst of boundless beauty. As for the carpenter bees that have been digging holes in the arbor, I'll tolerate them, too, until I find a green solution.

As life so often brings us full circle, I am reminded of ninth grade when we had to memorize a poem. I chose Alfred Lord Tennyson’s “Flower in the Crannied Wall” which I still remember after all these years:

Flower in the crannied wall,
I pluck you out of the crannies,
I hold you here, root and all, in my hand,
Little flower–but if I could understand
What you are, root and all, and all in all,
I should know what God and man is. 
 

Now that I’m wiser, I don't yearn to know so passionately why things are the way they are in the universe. I’ve fought too many battles, demanded too much control, and sought too many answers. I just want to enjoy my roses.

With triumph over the aphids no longer my priority, I can settle in quite nicely to co-existing with both aphids and bees. It makes me wonder how they adapt to making do with humans. Maybe setting an example of mutual respect is no effort to them at all. Maybe they, too, think that it only takes a handful of pink patches at dawn and dusk to fill their heart's desire, and their stomachs.

Looks like my husband had it right all along by picking the important battles. A few missing rose buds are the right savory touch to enticing me to contemplate changing my position on how much I fight with nature. Or how much I resist anything unwelcome.

I can't imagine a more unpleasant way to go. This poor oleander aphid (Aphis nerii) has its innards sucked out by a hoverfly larva.

photo details: Canon MP-E 65mm 1-5x macro lens on a Canon 20D
f/13, 1/250 sec, ISO 100
MT-24EX flash diffused through tracing paper
levels adjusted in Photoshop.