[CH] Garden pests (was Trinidad Scorpion Chile)
Alex Silbajoris (asilbajo@hotmail.com)
Thu, 2 Jun 2011 18:24:09 +0000
> From: docpepr@ccwip.net
> Chile orchard update.. Armadillos (or at least one) have been breaching the chicken-wire barrier
My problems are from rabbits and deer, and I'm trying a repellent whose active ingredients are oils of rosemary, mint, and cinnamon. It smells vaguely like an incense shop. I lost three plants and half of another before I applied it, and no damage at all since.
Most of my plants are at the stage where they are over their transplant shock, and they've developed roots, and now the tops are beginning to show that focus like a cupped hand receiving the light.
OT, the herb garden has rosemary, sage, cilantro, thyme, oregano (2x) parsley (3x), with dill sprouting. I took out the square stepping stone checkerboard, and now I'm paving with natural limestone. In a whiskey barrel, far from the grass clippings, there's a few kinds of basil, marjoram, peppers, and a tomato in the center - look up "pizza garden" for similar setups. In the sideyard with the peppers, there are tomatoes, eggplant, garlic, straightneck squash, and three kinds of onions. Out in the yard, the garlic mustard is eradicated (used as spinach) but there's a lot of garlic chives which I have been chopping and drying in sea salt, then running through a spice grinder, to make garlicky onion salt.
I've been on a Greek - Turkish - Medeterranian - Georgian cooking kick for about four years now, and I hope to nail it this year with my own fresh ingredients.
Post OT - My local Kroger grocery is now stocking fresh lamb from Athens County, Ohio, about 1 hour's drive from here. It's excellent and it's cheaper than the lamb flown from the opposite side of the planet. But it's not marked as halal like the Australian lamb.