Crafting My Bliss

I’m glad I managed to get the Japanese beetles under control. I came back to some pretty healthy looking roses and cana lilies. I coated them with neem oil, covered them with netting and bought some traps for the beetles. I’d say that was successful. I’ve been back for a week and a half and just took the netting off the roses this morning. I will remove it from the lilies by the end of the week.

There have been a few other successes. The timers for the sprinklers worked well. Everything was still alive except for my lavender. This is especially disappointing because I was looking forward to making lavender oil and the plant was ready to harvest, but I didn’t have enough time to cut the flowers before I left. I’m optimistic that there’s still some life under the soil, so I’ll leave the roots and see what happens next year. The zinnias and sage that were in the bed with the lavender survived, so I suspect the lavender lost the battle for water. I also noticed that the timer for the sprinkler on this side was only running for ten minutes each morning, which wasn’t nearly enough given the high temperatures we had here in July. My newly planted sweet potato slips also did not survive the heat and lack of water either. I had one cutting that I planted about two months ago that was still alive. I suspect it was well enough established to survive the heat and lack of water. It also helped that I covered it with a net because a groundhog has been feasting on it.

The groundhog has been quite a nuisance. It’s smart enough to get onto my deck and then go into my raised bed to eat my bell pepper leaves. Before my trip, I didn’t have enough time to put up my chicken wire to protect my plants. I relied on a Google search to find a quick and easy solution. I stuck about fifty plastic forks around my plants as a deterrent. It was not successful. I tried… you live and learn. My bell pepper plants are not quite dead yet. I am a bit disappointed as this is the first time I have had success with sweet peppers. I’m going to cover them with a net now to see if they can re-establish themselves and maybe bear some fruit before the growing season is over.

I managed to keep most of my plants alive while I’ve was away, so I’d say that’s a win. I was mainly concerned with keeping my plants watered and making sure the beetles did not do any more damage. I have been using some new products this growing season that I think are worth sharing so I will dedicate my next post to those.

I almost forgot: I bought and planted three chamomile plants over a month ago. One of them died completely and the other two are barely surviving. I’m honestly not sure what happened. I’m assuming it was a watering issue, but I’m really not sure. Like the lavender, everything else in that bed has thrived. It looks like I’ll be planting some chamomile seeds for indoor growing now.

At this point, I will sow all my herb seeds for my indoor herb garden and hope for the best.