The war is here!

My husband and I have been growing container vegetable and herb gardens for a few years now. During that time, we've been introduced to tomato hornworms and the right growing spots for the various plants.

This year we planted a small garden on the side of our house using a variety of containers ranging from one gallon milk jugs to City Picker Patio Garden Kits, and finally 5-gallon HDPE food-grade buckets. As we lease our home, we are unable to plant in the ground, or we could be fined for "improvements on the property."

We planted strawberries and marigolds in one gallon milk jugs and mounted them to our privacy fence. We planted basil, peppermint, dill, and cilantro in window boxes mounted on our fence. Then we planted tomato, marigold, lemon thyme, squash, nasturtium, bush beans, tomato, bush beans, jalapeno, and cucumbers. Of course all of those were in different containers in a line. We made sure we drilled appropriate drainage holes in the containers, and none of our containers sit on the ground (because what would be the point of drilling holes if you're going to cover them with the ground?)

We planted a bit later this year as last year, mid-April, we had a FREEZE...not a frost but a FREEZE here in Georgia that quickly killed our plants (even though they were covered and insulated.)

And the war is here against pests.

Thus far, we have already encountered (in four weeks) spotted cucumber beetles, striped cucumber beetles, ants, leafhoppers, Japanese beetles, dogsbane leaf beetles, and unidentified caterpillars (I haven't found them yet, and the wild birds have been snatching them off our plants for us when they find them.) We've done everything we were supposed to do for pest control, and now we have to kick it up a notch. Last year I read about flattening a piece of aluminum foil around the base of a cucumber plant to prevent cucumber beetles. The cucumber beetles laughed at that. We tried planting highly fragrant marigolds nearby (as in directly next to them) - again, the cucumber beetles laughed. This year, we've continued with the tried and true method of eradication (nitrile gloves and trapping them when we see them.)

Then I remembered that my work uses food-grade diatomaceous earth for one of our products. Not only do we use it, but a few months ago we got some 50 lbs sample bags in of various particle size to test, and there they sit - partially used on our shelf. What's diatomaceous earth? Well, it's basically a powder made up of pulverized fossilized diatoms. Remember the diatoms we saw in slides in school? The little wheels and cylinders that look like glass? Yes, those diatoms. Diatomaceous earth, however, is a respiratory irritant so you should use a mask and safety goggles when applying.

Let's see how this works...