Category Archives: Uncategorized

Jul 19
0

Squash Bug Invasion!

By | Organic Gardening, Uncategorized | 2 Comments

Last week, I missed being at my “real” garden for about three days because I was busy with other things. Big Mistake!!! When I arrived on Thursday, I discovered squash bugs doing an inappropriate mating ritual on my beautiful squash plants. Being a natural girl, I started looking for ways to take care of the problem without chemicals.

There are four squash plants in this bed. 3 crooknecks and 1 zucchini

Garden pests are sneaky little creatures. I’d been carefully watching my plants prior to their arrival, looking for eggs and hatchlings, but didn’t see anything till the whole plant was covered with creepy little bugs.

After the invasion, I definitely found signs everywhere.

Like squash bug eggs. I gently rubbed them off the leaf into a glass of soapy water.

Leaves with big chunks eaten out of them. Stinky nymphs!

Bug-eaten! Poor little leaf.

Can you see the little white bug? He's a young squash bug and has an incredible appetite.

Told you they were being inappropriate! Gross. They are consenting adults but - Ugh - GET A ROOM!

Here’s what I’ve done so far to get rid of them.

1. Removed all bugs that I can see (or catch!) and drop them into a glass of soapy water. Squishing bugs grosses me out. Ugh.

2. Removed eggs and give them the same treatment.

3. Removed the dead matter around the plants so there isn’t any place for the bugs to hide. Well, other than the leaves!

4. Sprayed the leaves with soapy water. I don’t actually know if this works for squash bugs but it was all I had at the moment.

5. According to a grower at the Roadrunner Farmer’s Market, Neem oil should work. I don’t want to use Neem because if ingested, it’s reported to contribute to miscarriage.  In case I get pregnant, I think it’s better not to put that on my food. I checked with Dave the Garden Guy and he says Diatomaceous Earth should work. So I’m going to get an applicator today. I bought a huge bag of food grade DE from a feed store.

I learned a few things with the squash bug incident.

1. Don’t use straw for mulch because they love to hide in it. I suspect this is true of other pests as I’m not sure what a better solution is so maybe some of my wise farmer/gardener friends can help. Maybe just a heavier compost?

2. Don’t plant so many of the same thing in an area. Thankfully squash leaves are big and fairly easy to search for bugs and eggs but I might not have had so many if they’d been a little more separated. Or not. I’m too new at this to know.

3. Include companion plants that repel pests – like nasturtiums or marigolds. I was lazy this year and didn’t include them in this part of the garden. I paid for it!

For now, I’m still picking the bugs off my plants because they don’t seem to be killing it – yet. If I can’t clean up the problem in the next week or so, I’ll probably destroy the most infested plants so they don’t infect my fall crops. It’s time to start planting that next!!

If you’ve dealt with these bugs before and have any natural, non-chemical options for me, I’d love to hear them!

Jul 05
0

Bringing Isaac Home – You Can Help!

By | Uncategorized | No Comments

All the talented women! Jaime is gal in the middle wearing the gray shirt. Photo Credit to Megan O of The O Show blog

About a week ago, I spent a wonderful evening at a craft night reconnecting with friends I knew from my high school youth group. I know some of you who know me might be asking, “Craft night? Monna???” and then bursting into hysterical laughter. Ok, ok. I can take the ridicule. You might remember the unfortunate felting incident which clearly illustrates my singular lack of crafting skill. Therefore, why would I go to a craft night? So glad you asked.

Friends of mine created this craft night to create items that can be sold to support the adoption of a very special little boy named Isaac. My friends Jason and Jaime, already parents of three beautiful kids, want to add Isaac to their family.  Now, I could try to tell you the story of how they came to this decision or I can let you read their story at Reece’s Rainbow and point you to their blog, Room for Love, where they’re chronicling their journey.

I will tell you that they have a huge amount of money to raise – $40,000 – to adopt Isaac. I can tell you that Isaac has Down Syndrome. In his country, Down Syndrom kids are usually institutionalized by age 4 and their survival rate after that goes down significantly. Isaac is now 3. I can also tell you that I have known Jaime and Jason for years and that just thinking of them always warms my heart and brings a smile to my face. They are lovely people, inside and out and are kind, honest and of the highest character. I know they will be wonderful and loving parents to Isaac.

Yes, I know. This baby is wearing a pink onesie. But, it really is Isaac

Just a note about adoption fundraising. Prior to becoming a parent, I thought this was a really strange idea. After all, if someone wants to adopt, shouldn’t they be responsible enough to do it themselves? Then, I had kids and my heart opened to the needs of children around the world to be fed, clothed, rescued from desolation – loved. Now, I think of what I hope someone else would do to help my children if I were gone. And, then, I take every opportunity to make a difference in the lives of children (and adults) near me, even if I only have $5 or my talents to offer. There are so many children who need homes and if I can help in any way, I’m on board!

So, I donated to Isaac’s adoption as soon as I heard.

Hope you will help too. You can donate here.

Please –  Pass this link along to anyone who you think might be interested in helping!

 Here are some memories of the great craft night. Don’t worry, I did not waste any crafting supplies by trying to create anything. This post is my contribution..
Darling little aprons
Jeanine, one of the lovely and craft-talented volunteers
Paper bead necklaces. These are hard work!
One of the necklaces, modeled by my friend Megan.
Beautiful friends from high school, Megan and Rachel. They look like they just graduated, right?
One of my favorite items, a pillowcase dress of retro fabric!
A volunteer to whom I should probably donate my own scrapbooking supplies. She actually might use them!
Darling little hair baubles. My daughter proudly wears one!
All the talented women! Jaime is gal in the middle wearing the gray shirt. Photo Credit to Megan O of The O Show blog
Jun 23
0

The Barbie Party

By | Uncategorized | 2 Comments

Now that we’re done philosophizing about present opening at kid’s parties, here’s what we served. I hate to admit I completely forgot to photograph it because I was so stinking busy having fun and running back to my house to let people into the bathroom at my house. (Older townhouse pool = no public bathroom) Oh well. It is kind of a bummer because the food was delicious and we had a wonderful time eating it. Alas! I’ll tell you about it anyway!

We decided to go for a tea party theme, since Barbie is kind of like a princess. Princesses have tea parties all the time, right?

The beautiful barbie cake.  You can see our refreshing drinks in the background!

We served three different tea sandwiches, goat cheese and cucumber, pb and J for the kids, and egg salad (thanks Mom-in-law!). I also ran across a delicious cold orzo salad recipe just a few days before the party that turned out to be a huge hit. It was made with orzo, red onion, bacon, peas, mint and feta and it was incredible! There was also fruit, apple chips, potato chips (hey, everything can’t be a break from tradition!), veggies with dip (thanks sis!) and cup cake cones with home made ice cream. Instead of soda, we served hibiscus tea with lime slices and water chilled overnight with pineapple, ginger and mint in it. It was delicious. And the crowning achievement was a fabulous (seriously, beautiful) Barbie cake decorated by my mother in law. The kids could not wait to taste it!

Cute fruit landscape courtesy of my Mother-in-Law

We decorated with barbie stuff, fresh flowers, balloons and streamers. And instead of plastic toys as party favors, we just gave the flowers to the little princesses. They didn’t seem to notice the difference.

I was pretty excited about how it turned out, especially because it’s the first part of that size I’ve hosted at our townhouse. Well, at the pool anyway. And the kids had a great time even though they had to run back to my house every time they needed to use the bathroom.

Here’s a full length shot of the barbie and the roses we gave to the princesses in attendance.

The best part is that after we came home, my husband sweetly sent me upstairs to take a nap while the girls played with the new toys and he cleaned up the remaining destruction. Could it get any better?

Jun 10
0

Meet Jill from The Sweet Life Garden, part 2

By | Local Phoenix, Organic Gardening, Uncategorized | 2 Comments

Here’s the followup to yesterday’s post highlighting our visit to gardener Jill’s Sweet Life Garden.
Jill uses healthy gardening methods like composting, companion planting and avoids using chemicals on her plants or the pests who might visit. Her garden is proof that you don’t need to buy Miracle Grow to create a stunning green space.

Jill is a proficient gardener and homemaker. For those of you who think a garden takes too much time, be encouraged. Jill says she usually only spends about an hour a day in the garden when it’s not peach season. Along with the plants I’ve shared these last two days, Jill also grows blackberries, blueberries, several other varieties of trees and more. She offers eggs at her farmstand as well as delicious preserves. And the peaches, which were the original inspiration for our visit? Sweet, flavorful and luscious! If you’d like to know more about this garden, please visit Jill’s blog.

Today we’ll look at some of the more creative garden ideas Jill employs. The effect is a very romantic, cottage style garden.

Who knew celery could be so pretty?

I love how Jill manages to tuck so many trees into her space and still grow things underneath them.
Here is an apricot tree planted with catnip, society garlic and other whimsical looking plants.

Apricot tree

Jill has many trees around the property – including two shading the chicken coop, a must in the scorching Arizona summer. One of Jill’s gardening tips is that she keeps them trimmed fairly low. She suggests letting them grow no higher than what you can reach from a ladder. After all, you want to be able to reach the fruit you’re growing.

Here’s another great idea. Jill is training her apples (she has both Fiji and Anna) into an apple hedge growing on the pool fence. How creative!
Tomatoes, my favorite.
See this fountain? Those aren’t just flowers growing underneath.
Alyssum (pest repellant), melons and some kind of pretty purple stalk.   
A closer look at the society garlic.
Let’s finish with just one of the many gorgeous rose bushes Jill tends.

If you just can’t get enough of this garden, don’t fret. It’s featured, along with several others, in the Arcadia Garden Tour which happens twice a year. You missed the spring tour but it’s not too late for fall. Check out Jill’s blog and stay tuned for news from the beautiful Sweet Life Garden. Thanks again for the tour, Jill!

If you love what you see, sign up for email updates. I never spam ya’ and there’s always something interesting to explore around here!

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