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Diatomaceous Earth

Diatomaceous Earth

Diatomaceous Earth is a natural, organic garden pest control, it is a powder made of 100-percent organic ground fossils of diatoms that came from fresh water Diatomaceous Earth kills by physical action- not chemical. While it seems like a harmless powder to us, it is actually quite sharp and hazardous to insects. It must come in contact with the pest to be effective. It will scratch and puncture the exoskeleton of soft-bodied insects, thereby causing them to dehydrate and die.[/caption] I dust it on the plants to reduce numbers of whiteflies and aphids, I first spray the plant with organic insecticidal soap, then I dust the powder on the wet plant and it sticks for days.I didn't really know I had an aphid problem until I noticed the drying and yellowing of my out of season watermelon plant that was doing pretty well until its infestation, and one of the corn plants. I neglected the yellowing for a while until I took a closer look to find tiny clusters of aphids on the underside of leaves. I discarded the heavily infested sections of the plant and I did the soap and powder method on the okay ones.  I got my powder from Amazon.com , there are many brands, you only have to make sure its food grade diatomaceous earth which is completely safe and organic. You will see a lot of this powder on my plants, now you know what it is!
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5 damaging flies

5 damaging flies

As the gardening season starts a lot of us, including myself  overwater in order to cool the soil and correct heat damage. This is a big mistake because it invites certain pests to your garden that cause some problems. Having pests in an outdoor garden is inevitable, and organic control measures can be difficult and frustrating, so know your pest well before going into any control measures so as not to waste time and energy. Houseflies & Fungus gnats The pests I'm having thanks to overwatering are fungus gnats and houseflies, both lay eggs in the soil, they're not a major problem since their larvae feed on organic matter and not the plants or their roots. They are however a big nuisance when working in the garden. This control method only gets rid of the adults, the sticky tape can be found in ACE Hardware,  to get the larvae, you can place pieces of raw potato on the soil surface and check it after around 5 hours, you should find the larvae of these flies eating the potato away, discard the potato piece and keep doing it and numbers should decrease. Fruitflies  A major problem I've been having is that fruit flies have been laying eggs in my butternut squash, I've lost six fruit already, one day the fruit is nice and healthy, and the next I find a mushy dimple, and when I crack it open, I find larvae (white worms) feeding away inside. It's very hard to hand pollinate the flower then cover, I need to figure out a new organic way to protect my fruit, since the plant is growing too fast and over my very tall trellis.Im worried this might happen to my zucchini fruits once they start forming, if I cover the plants, bees won't have access to pollinate the flowers. Whiteflies   These are the worst pests in the garden, they like a lot of plants including tomatoes and squash plants, if they're found on the underside of leaves, you must control them immediately as they cause serious damage. Whiteflies and they're nymphs (the young whiteflies) suck on the sap of the leaves, causing the spread of viruses, yellowing leaves, and stunted growth, they spread very fast so one must control them quickly. The yellow sticky tape works for adults, so does insecticidal soap, and horticultural oil.  I am also following a control method which is to place reflective mulch, in my case aluminum foil under the possible host plants. The foil disorients the flies and annoys/repels them. Leaf Miners   I think most gardens in Kuwait have this problem around this time, leaf miners are a certain kind of fly that lays eggs inside the leaves, later having the larvae grow and feed inside the leaf creating squiggly lines in their trail. Its not a major problem if its a big strong plant, the correct control measure is to pick and discard the affected leaves, but I'm not about to sacrifice almost a foot-wide leaf for a few blemishes, I found a simpler way which is to squish the visible worm with the my fingers, it will die inside the leaf and will not make it as an adult, in return I will keep the leaf and it will recover quickly.
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Square Foot Gardening

Square Foot Gardening

What is square foot gardening? A simple, unique and versatile system that adapts to all levels of experience, physical ability, and geographical location. Grow all you want and need in only 20% of the space of a conventional row garden. Save time, water, work and money! I am following the square foot gardening method, and I'll be using it as a reference through out the blog. Square foot gardening invented by the genius Mel Bartholomew! Learn more about it in his website , Or order his very very valuable book. It may come in downloadable PDF files too, if you search.

Here are the 10 things that make SFG different from traditional row gardening:

  1. Layout. Arrange your garden in squares, not rows. Lay it out in 4′x4′ planting areas. Companion plants can help each other grow bigger and tastier!
  2. Boxes. Build boxes to hold a new soil mix above ground. Your existing soil doesn't matter! forget about it, and just worry about the new soil called Mel's Mix.
  3. Aisles. Space boxes 3′ apart to form walking aisles. It makes it easier to walk and sit around the boxes, especially when your plants get really big and spill out of the boxes a little.
  4. Soil. Fill boxes with Mel’s special soil mix: 1/3 blended compost (please please make your own! The compost sold in Kuwait is a little shady) , 1/3 peat moss, and 1/3 coarse vermiculite (All available in True Value).
  5. Grid. Make a permanent square foot grid for the top of each box. A MUST!
  6. Care. NEVER WALK ON YOUR GROWING SOIL. This is how the soil stays so fluffy and airy for the roots stay happy. Tend your garden from the aisles.
  7. Select. Plant a different flower, vegetable, or herb crop in each square foot, using 1, 4, 9, or 16 plants per square foot. You might, for example, plant a single tomato in a square, but you’d plant 16 carrots in another. Using this system, you can cram a lot of garden into a small space and still get excellent yields.
  8. Plant. Conserve seeds. Plant only a pinch (2 or 3 seeds) per hole. Place transplants in a slight saucer-shaped depression. This means you wont waste seeds! The traditional way is to plant lots of seeds then cut off the majority and leave the strongest.
  9. Water. Water by hand from a bucket of sun-warmed water.
  10. Harvest. When you finish harvesting a square foot, add only compost and replant it with a new and different crop.
Here's how Im starting my square foot garden : I decided how big of an area I want to use, I am placing my SFG on the roof of my house, which I made sure received at least 8 hours of full sun. I am going big and starting with lots of boxes. So after thorough planning I decided I want two 4x4 square foot boxes (which is the standard) two smaller boxes for root vegetables like carrots and potatoes, and one long box for herbs. You can download the guide I created for the carpenters here . Its not the most accurate illustration of what the boxes look like in the end, but the numbers are right. You can change the measurements how ever you like, most importantly, you have to make sure each square is 1ft squared in size= 30 cm. Also Most vegetables require 6 inches of soil, I've decided to use around 20cm. If the boxes are placed over a garden/soil, they don't need bottoms. In my case, I have to apply bottoms since they're going to be in the roof. The bottoms are waterproof 2cm thick plywood. The plywood has to have around 0.6 cm holes drilled in each square, plus in the corners. My boxes have weird squares in the plywood because the carpenter mistook 0.6cm for huge 6cm holes, I had them fix them without problems. Potato/Carrot beds: One of the 4x4' beds with the herb bed: You can of course build your own boxes, and a very detailed guide is in the book. Im sure its much more fun.I don't have the skill or time, so I had the boxes done for 50KD total, 30 for the wood and 20 for the building. The work was done by Ibrahim in Classic Design Carpentry : Don't forget, you can collect sawdust for free and use it as a carbon source in your compost! Maybe I'll paint the outsides of the boxes with the kids before the season starts, what do you think?
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