This Is A Bug-Out!

I'm being attacked by bugs!  I hate bugs.  I know why organic produce is so expensive - BUGS!  You have to babysit each and every plant.  It's impossible for these huge farms to produce anything affordable and organic, pesticides are a must if you want to make any money - like if you have a family to support.  The best way to get affordable organic produce is to grow it yourself. 

Squash Bug - Master of Destruction!

My latest plight is the Stinkin' Squash Bug!  Yes, very similar to the plain old Stink Bug.  These things are almost as evil as the Imported Cabbage Worm.  Luckily my Neem Oil will work on the nymphs but the bugs and eggs need to be crushed.  Ick!  Last night I killed about 10 of them, at least they're big enough to see and grab.  You have to stay on top of these things or you could lose your plants.  I haven't been keeping an eye on my collards and the worms have come back full strength, I may just pull them up and dispose of them, plant more in the late summer for fall harvest.  Once the weather gets hot, the bugs become more abundant and therefore, more troublesome.

The wild & crazy sugar snap peas.

So, I've been experiencing this "writer's block" lately and it's taken me 3 days to get back to this.  Here's what I did during those 3 days.  I picked all the squash bugs off and sprayed the squash with Neem Oil, along with my cucumbers.  I pulled out all of my sugar snap peas, they're done for the summer - I'll plant them again in August for a Fall harvest - yum!  I also decided to do away with the collard greens, they were so destroyed by that dang cabbage worm and the weather is getting so hot I knew there wasn't much hope for them.  They are history!  I sprayed the dirt with the Bt to hopefully kill any cabbage worms and their larvae if they were hanging around.  I'm transplanting some of my kale so it has more room to spread out. 

Post sugar snap peas - all neat and tidy.

My garden looks so neat and tidy since I took out the sugar snap peas, they were so big and bushy.  Now my onions, kale and carrots can get more sun.  Woohoo!






Also found one of these little dudes living in my kale, a baby praying mantis.  I hope he sticks around, he will be fat and happy!  Very cool. 

I need to get going - we're having a music ministry picnic at our house on Saturday and I have a lot of cleaning to do.  I also want to hit the local Farmer's Market today, I saw one of the farmers is harvesting some garlic and I need to get me some of that!  Have a blessed day and get out there and plant something!