Tuesday’s Tips — Spinosad for Garden Pests

Of all the organic products we can use to eliminate pests in the garden Spinosad (spin-OH-sid) has perhaps the most curious back story. A scientist who was part of a team that was searching for new naturally occurring pest controls was on vacation in the Caribbean in 1982. He was poking around an old abandoned...

Tuesday’s Tips — Bt for Caterpillar Control

We are deep into spring and on our way to summer though it sure doesn't feel like it in Southern California. We've got cool temps, wind and rain which is unusual for this time of year. What's not so unusual are the garden pests that have started to make their appearance in my garden and...

Tuesday’s Tips — March Gardening Tips

Today's tips are meant for gardeners in Southern California, but will apply to those of you in cooler climates in a month or so. We've been having a spell of wet, cool weather. Normally things are growing at a rapid pace by now, but because the night-time (and even the day) temps have been unseasonably...

Tuesday’s Tips — Rose Slugs

Update: I'm pinning post this to the top of the page because this can be such a frustrating problem. The rose slugs (aka rose sawfly larvae) seem to be worse some years than others an it's still a little early and cool for the bugs to show up, but when they do come here's what...

Tuesday’s Tips — Controlling Earwigs

One of the most common garden pests is the earwig or pincher bug, a nasty-looking little bug that actually is not all bad. Earwigs eat living and dead material in your garden, doing a lot of cleanup work. They love to eat soft-bodied bugs like mites and aphids and they'll eat insect eggs too. In...

Tuesday’s Tips — Organic Pest Control

We've been a little busy this week — more like crazy busy. Mary Beth is settled in Colorado, but her spring is just happening.  Her garden got by for five years while she lived on Block Island with a minimum of care, so now she's got lots of work to do replacing plants that didn't...