Posts under ‘Pests’

Just as night fell on Monday, I headed toward the compost bin with the remnants of some flowers I’d bought on the night of the summer solstice. All that was left was a Gerbera daisy whose petals were about to double back on themselves as they wilted, and two Gold Strike roses that were browning [...]

I returned last night from a three-day, rather grueling business trip to the Chicago area. As I was driving back to Iowa City along I-88 near Dixon, Illinois, I noticed something scampering across the highway. Then I realized it wasn’t so much scampering…as hopping. Across. The. Road. It was a rabbit. A rabbit who is [...]

On Friday evening, when I got home from work, I took advantage of a break in the heavy storms we’d been experiencing since Thursday night and walked out back to see how everything was holding up in the deluge. For the third time in less than a week, as I stood over the bolted spinach [...]

My friend Sarah, who fled Iowa with her husband in December (I’d tell you they fled the weather, but they moved to Alaska, people. Alaska.), was fond of saying this about things: “That is not OK.” I adopted the phrase just for moments like the one I had yesterday, when I noticed that one of [...]

Along with all the talk about bolting, I often hear other gardeners talking about slugs. “They ate my <insert favorite vegetable here>!” they say on their blogs. They debate the merits of pouring salt on the slugs, laying out slug pellets, and even letting them drown in beer. That, my friends, has always seemed to [...]

In the midst of a bank of pots of herbs, options including baby parsley, baby mint, baby dill, lavender out the wazoo and even green basil, my purple basil alone fell victim late last week to a leaf thief. Someone of the animal persuasion, be it squirrel or rabbit or, heck, beagle mix who lives [...]

There is a noxious weed that lives in my garden, popping up with its tree-like leaves and thick stem, and, worst of all, its brutally-deep root system. So, while Steve’s Mom was visiting for his graduation and for Mother’s Day, we did what any self-respecting pair of women would do. We pulled weeds. “See?” I [...]

I left town early Thursday morning, bound for the Bay Area to visit one of my very best friends. I watered the garden in the near-dark before getting in the car to drive to the airport, and noticed that a flower I planted recently next to the peas had taken a hit. The whole thing [...]

It’s as if the rabbits or squirrels or whoever knew I would be setting up shop again this year. Already, without any warning, they’re up in my grill. Or, at least, in my pots. I came out one recent night and looked down at the pot where I’d planted chive seeds. Now, I like chives, [...]

“I think we ought to start composting,” I said to Steve as we got in the car yesterday. We were off to unofficially mark Easter with burritos and a movie – after a weekend of an overabundance of social engagements, I had abandoned my passing thought to actually cook something celebratory of the lamb or [...]