Organic Gardening Tips

My dog is my garden companion. Just about every time I go out into my garden my dog accompanies me. I suppose it’s a good thing that I trained her from day one to stay out of the garden beds, isn’t it? I don’t know how I managed it, but she only stands on the stones surrounding the raised garden beds and she doesn’t go into the actually garden beds – well … she does in the winter, but I don’t mind then.

Now, seeing as my dog is so good in the garden I do give her a few treats to show her how much I appreciate her good behavior.  I grow strawberries and raspberries in my garden and when I discover ripe fruit I share some of it with my dog – right then and there in my garden.  She loves it when I do that.  She also loves cherry tomatoes and even full sized tomatoes!  I think she might even have purposely knocked a ripe tomato or two off one of my tomato plants this past summer!

My Lab is four years old now and shes been fed premium dog food ever since we got her as a puppy. She was a sickly puppy and she really needed a lot of TLC to get healthy back then.   Once she did get healthy – and it took some time – I was sure to continue feeding her the best diet that I could and to give her the best care possible. As a result I have a very well behaved loving Labrador Retriever who has the shiniest black fur in the neighborhood.  Everyone comments on how lovely her coat looks.

Do you have a pet that you dote on?  How do you pamper your dog or cat? Or do you perhaps have an exotic pet that you spoil?

I haven’t grown Gladiolas for a few years, but this spring when I saw packages of lovely coral and chartreuse colored corms I thought it was time to plant some Gladiolas in the garden again. Plus, it didn’t hurt that I’d had a few plants die off in the last few years so I had some small bare spots in my garden beds that would be suitable for some lovely Gladiolas.

The Gladiolas started growing in June and sometime in mid-July I noticed that the stalks were really growing, indicating that they were going to flower soon. Unfortunately, just before the first flower stalk began to flower it literally fell over. I’ve never had that happen with any of my Gladiolas before.

Slowly as my Gladiolas began to bloom the flower stalks started to fall over. I’d go over to my plants and try to stand them up again. I even put flower rings around my two clumps of Gladiolas in my garden beds to help them stand better but I’m still having problems.

I’d originally thought that it was the drought that we were going through in July that was causing the problems with the Gladiolas, but I picked a lovely blooming stalk toward the end of July for my husbands uncle and several earwigs fell off as I was carrying the stalk toward the house.

Now I’m starting to think that my Gladiolas might be infested with earwigs! I’ve seen a few earwigs on the Gladiolas since that time, but without giving the plants a good shake they could be hiding deep within the plants. I think it’s quite possible that they’re eating the stalk from the inside out and that’s why the stalks are falling over.

I’ve read on other gardening sites that the best way to control earwigs is to pick them off the plants and crush them and or to go out after dark armed with a flashlight and look at your plants and if you find a plant infested with lots of earwigs spray them with a mixture of soap and water. The soap (just a little dish soap) will kill the earwigs.

A few earwigs in the garden can be beneficial as they will eat pest bugs and garden debris, but if they begin to multiply they will literally destroy nice plants and become pests themselves.

Do you have an organic way to get rid of earwigs?

We actually got a little bit of rain yesterday. I’m not sure how much rain in total we had, but it was the first really rain we had in more than three weeks here in Toronto.

I’ve been giving my garden extra deep waterings this week since it’s been so very hot. This past Thursday it got up to 38 Celsius and due to humidity it felt like 49 Celsius which was 120 degrees Fahrenheit. Crazy hot!

I guess I shouldn’t be wondering why some of my Gladiola stalks are crumpling in the middle and falling down. I think it’s from the sheer heat and the drought even though we’ve been trying to make sure our garden is getting enough water. I do think we’re watering enough as our grass still has some green to it compared to most of our neighbors. Not that we’re watering our lawn all that much – just a little sprinkle when we water the garden, but we’ve been doing it all along during the drought, so I guess that’s why we have some green still and most of our neighbors don’t.

Are you getting any rain in your area? Are you also getting extremely high temperatures? How are you surviving the heat and drought?