I’ve also been introduced to orange sticky cards to catch small flying pests likeaphids and white flies. I’ve also used diluted neem oil as greenhouse spray—
especially on tomatoes. This spray worked well—though, once again, don’t ex
pect perfection. Absolute death to all critters means using chemicals that kill the
good and the bad and may even accumulate in fat cells in your own body. A good
home remedy is boiling two cigarettes in some beer, straining it well, and spray
ing it on the leaves; nicotine kills!
There are any number of reasons why plants fail—both obvious (lack of wateror fertilizer) and mysterious (diseases). There is no real alternative to observation,
and nothing beats a brief daily inspection.
If a plant looks strange compared to its neighbors—shriveled darkenedleaves, all droopy and tired—and I can’t determine any specific reason, I pull it
out, put it into a plastic bag, and take it immediately to our local extension ser
vice to get an opinion. Just like a person with the flu, a diseased plant may be
contagious and must be removed, but you can learn why it suffered and perhaps
prevent the mishap from spreading.
11. Composting
Now here’s a subject that every green-minded reader will find essential: what to
mings, coffee grounds, and tea bags—those by-products
of growing and cooking that made up my own ever
mounting compost heap. Frankly, I simply as
sumed that any organic material would rot if I
left it alone. But it didn’t work out that way!
At first, I was more concerned about the aes
thetics of my compost, in that my initial pile at one
end of the garden looked untidy. So I asked Rich
ard, who had done such a good job building the
fence and gates, if he could build me a two-bin unit outside
do with the heap of discarded leaves, old root stock, stalks and vegetable trim-
MY NEED-TO-KNOW LIST • 39