Illijana and I stopped into a nursery on the way home from Arcata and purchased some juvenile stage nematodes (Heterohabditis bacteriophora). These microscopic creatures are predators in the soil for maggots, cutworms, cucumber beetles, etc. I have lost at least 15 plants to cabbage maggots so I thought I'd give this a try. You mix up the sponge they come in with water, and then spray them on the soil. We will see how this goes.
While doing this I got distracted by the weeds coming up in the asparagus patch and spent time weeding, and then got to the fertilization and disease control for the roses. I normally try to use generally organic methods for our foods and flowers, but with roses around here, I am a true blue pesticide/fungicide/non-organic user. So I watered the bases of the roses with Bayer three-in-one fertilizer/disease control. It is the only thing I have found that can even reduce blackspot to tolerable levels around here. Here are a few of the roses that are recently blooming.
We also have a group of visitors to our yard I thought you might like to see. I took this photo out the kitchen window. Our dog loves to chase after the chipmunks, but never catches them, thank goodness.
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