Thursday, July 8, 2010

SUMMER PROJECTS

With the July summer heat and humidity my theory is that it is time to plant less and make some improvements. My list of things that I really ought to do one day has become a small book so it is time to whittle the project list down some.

I figure that in South Florida at least June , July, and August are really not planting months. The season starts here in September for the most part unless you are a big fan of Okra.

So the plan is to reduce some of my backyard grass and make space for some new planting beds before September rolls around. The St Augustine grass that makes up most of the lawns around these parts during summer is really labor intensive. It has to be mowed and edged almost weekly now that the rains have started. So the less grass the less work way I see it.

Now that I have plenty of compost working it seems like a good idea to build some more small planting beds for vegetables. At the same time I am going to fence in my main backyard gardening area to keep my dogs out. Lets see; less grass = less work and better utilized space with a rustic garden fence that keeps out my dogs. Cool!

Here is the plan that I came up with. The fence will run all the way down the yellow line in the picture and all the grass to the right of the line will be gone.


I already made the first section of fence and two gates last week. So this week the project continues.


Here it the finished rustic garden fence as it looks now.

I can tell it is a great success because the dogs hate it. They now cannot frolic in my plants. They have been giving me the evil eye ever since I put the garden fence up. Priceless!

Now what remains is to take out all the grass to the right of the fence and replace it with some planting beds surrounded with mulch.
This will eliminate about one third of the grass in my backyard and give me a lot more room to plant vegetables this fall.

Here is the first section of the new rustic garden fence that I put up a couple of weeks ago. With the heat the only way that I could make it was to do small sections over a period of days.


Now that the whole fence is in and the dogs are no longer in the garden it is already more better [ as we say in the South ]. The birds can relax some without having to look over their shoulders for charging dogs. And the lizards can hunt unobstructed now snapping up the bugs within the fenced enclosure.

As for the ongoing folk plant bug repellent here is the latest update.

After getting several opinions the recipe has been refined some although the final produce may require further tweaking.

Here are the ingredients for the first batch. The bar of Ivory soap was carved into slices and put into a jug of water to dissolve into a slurry last week. It has dissolved into a nasty goop now and is looking good.

Next is the ingredients for the kicker to the brew.

This includes some hot Jalapeno peppers added to a clove of Garlic and a Half of an Onion.


All the kicker ingredients were added to a food blender with water included and blended together.

The end result made up a couple of bottles of Bug juice kicker.

This is a really hot nasty brew with an powerful odor. Perfect. Now to let this brew set and ruminate for a few days.
The squeezings from the bug juice will be filtered through a cloth to remove the particulate matter leaving pure liquid bug juice.
A shot of the distilled down bug juice will go into the sprayer along with a hearty glop of the Ivory soap liquid.
This will be mixed with water in the sprayer bottle , shaken well and sprayed onto all the plants that have been under bug attack.
Not sure if this brew will stop the bugs from eating the plant leaves but it just might convince them to dine elsewhere.
--SANDDUNE--

8 comments:

  1. That concoction would convice me to dine elsewhere, I can tell you that. Let us know if it works. Great idea in the backyard, and I really, really like that fence. I visited a yard once where the entire center part of the backyard was used for vegetables...both in the ground and in earth boxes. There was a little bit of grass and planting beds on both ends. It look really nice and was very functional...plus hardly any grass to cut. I know you won't miss cutting a little less grass.

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  2. You are quite a woodworker. The new fence looks nice and I really like the gate. You will have lots of room for veggies. Getting things ready for fall planting is going well for you. I don't envy you having to dig out all that grass though. Have you considered the lasagna method of putting cardboard down and then all your compost and mulch material thus eliminating digging out the grass? I do that around here for all my new beds but I don't have thick grass like you. It's easy to smother my sickly sprigs.

    That bug juice sounds like it could be dangerous if it ferments too long:) I have used the ivory soap slurry before on mealy bugs and aphids and it works if you keep applying it until they are gone. The hot peppers and garlic should be a deterrent to most anything!

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  3. Susan,
    The garden fence has turned out quite useful. I have noticed more different birds that hang out inside the fence since the dogs can't chase them now.It also keeps my Yorkshire Terrier out of the bushes where she used to hunt. Unfortunately during the summer one of her favorite things is to hunt out toads. and the summer toads here are the Marine Cane Toad which is highly poison and positively irresistable to my Terrier. The fence has given me a little more piece of mind already as to how to keep the two seperated.

    NanaK,
    Thanks, I am glad that you like the fence. I do carpentry as a hobby to relax. So the wood projects are kind of fun to me and occasionally I get some new tools out of it to boot.
    I have already started pulling the grass a little each day but I do put layers of newspaper over the soil to act as a weed barrier before the mulch goes on. It's not so bad if you don't try to do the whole thing in one day.
    As to the bug juice I have already sprayed it on some of the plants being eaten. So far it has not killed the plants yet so I take that as a positive first sign. I can only pass along one test observation at this time. That being that this stuff really stinks!

    ReplyDelete
  4. It's hard to get anything done in my garden in the summer. I admire your hard work; it will really pay off! I like your new bug spray recipe. my son was just asking me about organic ways to get rid of bugs. It sounds like this will surely work.

    But I'm not sure. I once had a black lab who developed a taste for the wooden siding on my house. She would bite off chunks when we weren't looking. So I sprayed the siding with a concoction similar to your bug juice. She loved it! I'm afraid I lost more siding than I might have otherwise.

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  5. Deb,
    The Bug juice recipe was concocted from several different sources. I am not really sure if it works yet as it has been raining a lot the past couple of weeks so I am sure that it gets washed off the plants pretty fast. My dogs don't care for the smell and pretty much stay clear of it. I guess your Lab just thought you were doing her a favor by seasoning the siding for her.
    I also heard that you can pour your used dishwater on plants and it will keep a lot of the bugs off. Probably the soap disolved in the water. I am trying different things to evaluate what seems to work best here.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hey Sanddune - Just found your site. I wanted to share with you that I have found the best soap to use for both a deterent and treatment for garden pests is Dr. Bronner's eucalpytus liquid soap. I have used it for more than 20 years, 13 here in South Florida. It works great! I dilute it 50/50 and (sometimes) mix in cayene for my plants. I also use a 25/75 spray on my pets. spray and brush in. No chemicals for any of my plants or pets. I am also working on a Zone 10 sustainable urban oasis.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Raye-lynn,
    Thanks for the tip. I have been trying several Recipes and watching the results. I have heard that the eucalpytus mulch repels insects more than the regular mulch. The Eucalpytus soap is going on the list for evaluation against the bugs here at the sandpit.Where do you get it from?

    ReplyDelete
  8. You can get Dr. Bronner's soaps at Whole Foods, The Vitamin Shop or online

    ReplyDelete

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