Pests and Weeds.

Bloggers being a pain and I can't even comment on my own blog.  How sad is that!!

We're still having heaps of pest problems and the pellets are looking better to me all the time.  WE, (Hubby) did an experiment.  He put pellets under a couple of my *traps*   In a couple of spots, away from root vegetables and lettuce, near the peas and brocolli.   All the slaters under them are dead and the plants have not been nibbled on.    The beds that he didn't do still have heaps, under the traps and walking across the soil and on the plants.  I have lost more seedlings to these bleedin' things.  He says that shows I should be using it where the seedlings are...Hmmm, I don't want to but I do want them to leave my food alone.
I put old grass clipping from the chook yards onto the gardens as mulch and the weeds I pull out I usually leave on the garden to rot down and feed the soil.   The gardens need to be fed but it does encourage these things.  I have been pulling away all this stuff  from the plants and keeping it to the side and scooping up the slaters that go there.  They still come out and eat the plants though as I cannot collect them all.  They burrow under the ground and dozens are missed.  Come Summer and this mulch will have to be spread over the garden again. 
Last year we tried penning in a few of the smaller chooks to scratch around and eat the slaters.  It didn't work.  Our gardens always have something growing in at least half of them and the silly chooks kept getting out and going for the growing green stuff.  I spent too much time fixing the makeshift fence and chasing chooks out of where they shouldn't be. 
The bloke out the back told us that he limed his pumpkin area before he planted otherwise the slaters got into his pumpkins so we tried that and it seemed to work but this year they are back in that bed.  And stuff didn't grow as well as it should have done because of the lime...We have thought of using diatomaceous earth but have been told by our rural supplier that it needs to be foodgrade and he doesn't sell it and I keep forgetting to look when I am out of town.

Over the last week I have notice the Cabbage White Butterfly around so it means I'll have to keep the baddie racquet's handy.  I wouldn't think or buying in poison for them as they are kinda controllable and the caterpillars can be picked off before they do too much damage.  It's just the slaters I hate and want gone once and for all.

Last year we lost all our peaches to Fruitfly.  It was a really bad year here for them and we had them in trees that haven't had them before.  Even the Strawberry Guavas were infected.  We were catching them in the traps but once again, there were so many.  Eveyone that I have spoken about it says the same thing.  Last year was a BAD year in our area for fruitfly.  I plan on putting the traps out again this week but Hubby has bought some spray.  He says his boss hates spraying but used this spray last year and he got fruit while we didn't.  The spray is EcoNaturelure and as the boss is a bit of a greenie I'm thinking it might be alright...
The traps I use are coke bottles with different homemade lures.  They did trap a lot but not enough to save the fruit.


And then we have the grass.  Hubby spent all day last weekend mowing out the front of our place.  It was his one day off here at home.  It is too thick and half is under trees so too hard for me to do.   I'm starting to think that poisoning that area is the way to go.  This time of the year he is too busy with work and I hate that he needs to spend his time off doing that.  I have other things for him to do!!    He also mows the dam area which is too big of an area for me.  I can sometimes get the area around the house completed, sometimes the girls come and do it for me.   The edges though, they could do with a dose of poison too.   Keeping the grass from them is stopping me from doing other things.  Like sitting in the sun and reading, going for a walk, riding the bike, being on the computer...you know, the good stuff.

As I get older and more sore I am getting more tempted to do what I don't want.  The simple life really isn't so simple.