Thursday, October 04, 2012

Starting fall cleanup already?!

Lettuce seeded
Yesterday I was admiring my beans when I heard a clanking sound. I came around the bean pyramid and knew without a doubt...fall is in the air. Neighbor Lance was dismantling his gazebo to store it for the winter. I'm sure my shoulders sagged about three inches. I went to the shed, brought out the bag and started taking out my solar lights to store for winter. Cut off the sunflowers to dry the seed for the birds, tore out a couple of tomato plants that don't have a hope of growing a decent tomato by first frost and put away the fairy doors. That's a start anyway. I have read that raspberries go in in the fall. I have also read that raspberries go in in the spring. This gardening thing can be really confusing. I made the decision to plant them. It is so awesome to have them in the ground. Raspberries are my favorite food and I was mortified that the originals died.
Fall Gold Raspberries...beyond delicious

Speaking of which, I was talking to my brother Steven tonight. Steven has been gardening for a long time. Unfortunately he lost most of his garden this year to a wicked 45 minute Alberta hail storm that dumped about four inches a large stones on everything. Apparently there was some cursing going on. I digress. Steven was telling me about losing some raspberry plants. It sounded like exactly the same thing that killed mine. He said simply "spider mites, use a soap solution". So I may just do that in the next few days as a preemptive strike. I am wondering if all those little bugs on my dill, that I thought were small aphids, could be spider mites? I'll try to get a close up picture.

3 comments:

Mark Willis said...

Spider mites are normally a bright red colour, Erin. That might help you to identify them. They thrive in hot dry conditions, so you shouldn't have a problem with them just now!

Erin said...

Thank you so much Mark. I know what to look for now!!

lizabetty said...

I can't get rid of spider mites on my gerbera daisy! I've sprayed them with water mixed with a very minute amount of white school glue and also tried a couple of organic labeled sprays that were supposed to be for spider mites....Any assistance with remedies would be wonderful!!! I've kept this plant going for nearly 4 years and for this last year, it's really suffered.