While Los Angeles may be a concrete jungle, we still have wild animals lurking about the garden. Our most recent garden installation was designed to protect new seedlings from wandering…
Just a few moments in the garden reveal that it must be mating season for the cabbage moth. These deceptively cute white butterflies can be found twirling around one another and fluttering about the
garden, looking for a good place to lay their eggs. Be prepared.
We planted out our kale and cabbage crops early this year, but took the precaution of covering them with floating row cover to keep the critters from
settling in.
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Planning out your garden each season is more than just fun - it gives you the chance to plant new varieties and experiment each year. What are you going to grow this fall?
In warm winter climates, fall gardens thrive. In cooler climates, you can still plant a fall garden with protection. Using cold frames, insulated floating row cover, and greenhouses, you can grow
cool weather crops all winter long. Here's what to grow:
Root crops, broccoli (Italian broccoli shown left), kohlrabi, peas, chard and ...
They're coming. In fact, they're already here. The seemingly beautiful white butterflies that hover delicately over your kale plants might appear to be innocent, but in reality they can wreak havoc
on your brassicas if left unchecked.
They'll flutter around looking for a nice place to land, then disappear underneath the leaves of your treasured broccoli and cabbages. When they emerge, they will have laid dozens of eggs on the
underside of the leaves that are so tiny they are almost invisible to the human eye. Almost, but not to the trained ...
It started as an agreement for peaceful co-habitation. Then it ate half of my Christmas Lima Beans right through the young green pods. Then it pulled out all of my pea sprouts, nibbled on the ends,
and left them for dead.
That's when we declared war on the rat.
Note the dark lines outlining the eaten area. Now dry, this bean pod was eaten through while green,
leaving the pod empty and the beans devoured.
Prior to this ...