Re: [CH] Companion planting to fight aphids

Chad A Gard (gard@indy.net)
Wed, 6 Dec 2000 16:05:47 -0500 

>I don't know what kinds you're growing that are this unmanageable, or
>where you live, but I've never had a problem with my hybrid types, mainly
>Heavenly Blues and Pearly Gates, as opposed to the wild ones (and I
>confess, I like even those.)

Mine would be of the "gee, they weren't there last year and I never planted
them" variety.  White ones.


True, you have to train 'em a bit, but
>that's as simple as making sure they have something sturdy to climb on
>and then periodically taking any wandering tendrils and draping 'em back
>over that.

Train them?  Like you'd train a great white, right?

>Gawds, why fight 'em?!?  They're gorgeous.  If you have something that
>pretty that  _wants_ to decorate the front of your house, why
>on earth not let it?


They're pretty when they're flowering, that's true.  But they tend to make
windows hard to open, grow into screens, smother my verigated ivy. They've
overtaken the gutters, begun removing shutters, and grown into the window
glazing on the top half of my windows. And that's just the second floor.
Closer to ground, they've wraped themselves tightly arround anything thorny
(so much so that I just removed the rose bushes in favor of something
without thorns), anialated my sage, shaded my oregano to death, are rapidly
overpowering my rosemary, and putting up a good fight against my holly
bush. They love to entangle in the outdoor faucet, and once I left my car
in the driveway (10's of feet from the nearest visible strand) for a week
when I was out of town.  When I arrived home, a strand had descended from
the 150 year old oak tree it's rapidly smothering and wrapped itself
arround 4 of my antennas (I'm a ham radio operator and storm chaser).  The
stuff is evil, evil I tell you!  And they don't flower prolifically like
the more well-behaved ones I see from time to time (usually only 5 or 6
flowers on the front of the house at a time) - but I think the nature of
morning glories must be evil, and the well-behaved ones are just waiting
until their keeper is otherwise detained for a couple of weeks so they can
take over the neighborhood.  I keep an electric hedge trimmer inside my
house, just in case they get a shot of nitrogen and decide to lock me in.
My neighbor (I live in a duplex) does the same.




Chad Gard, CTS KB9WXQ
INCHASE: http://www.inchase.org  Co-founder
SCOA: http://www.stormchasersofamerica.org  Member #3
INSWA:  http://www.insw.org Unit #21