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What Price Organic? Beneficial Bugs in my Greenhouse
I had a few aphid skeletons in my closet. Well in my greenhouse actually. These are the little white skins shed from aphids as they grow. They are more obvious than the aphids themselves. It’s all my fault really because I had a big plan to bring in some strawberries from my garden last fall and keep them alive in my greenhouse so that when they started growing I would have the first crop of aphids – oops I meant strawberries.
Seeds Are Germinating!
My babies wake up before I do. They take a drink and grow patiently while I lay about in bed. This is because i set up a timer for my seedlings so I no longer need to pop out of bed in the morning to make sure they are up and growing.
Farm Tour in Southern Alberta Shows where food really comes from
My recent farm field trip in Southern Alberta, courtesy Rudy Knitel, Galimax Trading Inc. was an amazing journey into my own back yard. I found out how difficult it is to farm organically in Southern Alberta. The carrots, for instance, are on a 16 year rotation at Leffers’ Organic farm where the cost to raise a carrot is ten times that of conventional farming.
BUGS THAT CLEAN THEIR PLATES
Brian Spencer, Applied Bionomics, says that ladybugs try to take care of their own young so they leave food (i.e. aphids) behind for the ladybug young to eat. The hatching larvae need something right away so the adults leave the leaf before they eat all the aphids.
Long-Lasting Plant Combinations that look beautiful
As a gardener, I was thrilled that a combination of plants I had put together a decade earlier still looked great. This happens sometimes when you look through a closet you haven’t sorted lately and find a fabulous “outfit” but it doesn’t often happen in gardens. Plants usually grow tired or die or outgrow their spot.
Are Grafted Tomatoes a Franken-Food?
With inbreeding, it doesn’t matter if you are a royal or a dog or a tomato. Disease builds up and weak traits multiply. With tomatoes the roots are susceptible to disease and are smaller; fewer fruits are formed and plants are feeble. Its no surprise. We have been breeding from the same few original plants for 200 years.
