What are your gardening problems. How do you tackle them?

Broccoli and Cauliflower plants, - This shows Broccoli and Cauliflower plants for weeks after planting.
None have been lost thanks to my homemade nettle brew.
Th cabbage root fly stays away.
@Colmuc (707)
June 15, 2009 7:16am CST
I hope the picture has uploaded showing 16 of each Broccoli and Cauliflower plants four weeks after planting and all still growing well and healthy. I used to always lose a few plants to the cabbage root fly which was my biggest gardening problem. This is a fly that lays eggs in the soil round the plants and when they hatch they feed on the roots. Since I starting watering the plants in with my homemade nettle brew and repeating the dose every two weeks I have lost very few. What are your worst enemies in the garden?. Have you found a way to beat, or at least control them without resorting to expensive and unhealthy chemical solutions?.
1 person likes this
4 responses
@Lakota12 (42600)
• United States
15 Jun 09
Well I cant see anything on my tomatoes but somethng gets just behind teh bloom and lops it off. So I lose tomatoes to it and what ever it is I cant see it with the nakedeye
2 people like this
@Colmuc (707)
15 Jun 09
Hi Lakota, It could be that the flowers are not being pollinated. They also like a moist atmosphere and I think you said it was very hot and dry with you. I have a small hand spray which produces a fine mist and I use that every time I am on my balcony. You could also try just very very gently touching the flowers with a piece of cotton wool or a rabbits tail as my grandfather used to use!. This does the work of the insects and moves pollen from flower to flower but it has to be a very light touch.
@Lakota12 (42600)
• United States
16 Jun 09
When they get that way they are sort of dried up I spray them every morning with water hose. and it I touch tehm at all they fall off . BUt will try what ya said. thanks!
@yugasini (12836)
• Anantapur, India
15 Jun 09
hi colmuc, i do not have garden, but if time and money permit me, i will grow plants in small pots, out side of my house and compound.
@yugasini (12836)
• Anantapur, India
15 Jun 09
thank you colmuc, so you are online now, good night for me because it is 24/00 hrs in the midnight
@Colmuc (707)
15 Jun 09
Hi Yugasini, thanks for responding. It is amazing what you can grow in pots and containers if you plant the varieties that are suitable for that type of culture. Give it a try. Good luck.
@xParanoiax (6987)
• United States
17 Jun 09
This new place of ours seems to have an overabundance of wildlife xD our gardens' worst enemies appear to be; squirrels, rabbits, and deer. We've been fortifying the plastic fence with piles of sod, pinning the fence to the ground with stick and cut up hangers, tying plastic bags to it with crinkly string, hanging out soap, rotten eggs, leaving fresh animal bones about... They've eaten up too much, as we've been working to keep them out...and hopefully next year we'll have chicken wire instead of this flimsy fence and enough pots to have enough plants to be able to afford to lose a few. Before all this, our problem was junebug larvae...which I killed with buckets of hot-sauce dosed water with garlic and soap in it. No chemicles for us...but boy, this new place of ours is turning out to be more of a challenge that originally anticipated.
@Colmuc (707)
17 Jun 09
Hi xParanoiax, You certainly have problems. You might keep the deer out with a strong fence but the sqirrels and rabbits are going to take a bit of beating. Mind you, I would sacrifice a few vegetables for a roasted rabbit! Try my nettle brew around your vegetables. It is super fertilizer for the plants and a good insect repellent. Maybe the squirrels and rabbits will stay away from it too.
@ruchimom (280)
• Australia
19 Dec 09
Hi I have veggie patch too and the nastiest are snails and white fly I was told that if you grow mustard snails dont come,I have done that so we will wait and see.For while fly I use a Spary, What is Nettle brew and how do you make it. Please share