purple lady bok choy Archives : Page 2 of 2 : Cast Iron Garden

September 8, 2021September 8, 2021

Garden after rain this morning

This rose came with the yard. A lot of branches died back in the February cold spell and then I pruned the dead branches off in April.

Purple lady bok choy. I love the green and purple veins!

May 4, 2021May 4, 2021

Backyard baby plant update

The purple lady bok choy grows quite nicely when earwigs are not swarming it.

The wildflower seeds are doing better than I had hoped!

The green milkweeds are starting to have adult leaves.

There are actually pale coneflowers (*Echinacea pallida*) growing!

A single adult leaf is emerging on the *Liatris mucronata*. I have a second one in a smaller pot too.

I mistook the leaf of this seedling for a clover and pulled it yesterday, but quickly realized my mistake. I put it back in the dirt and watered it and it seems okay so far?? I hope so as it’s the only columbine seedling I’ve found so far in the sprouting trays or on the ground where I put seeds in the fall. The package said best sown outdoors in the fall.

March 28, 2021March 28, 2021

Earwig prevention attempt again

I saw that the new bok choy and mizuna seeds are coming up so I tried all this diatomaceous earth again. I also put vaseline around stems of one each mizuna and bok choy as I read that can keep them from climbing too, though the seedlings are only barely 1/2″ tall so we’ll see.

All the white dust is diatomaceous earth.

Since the earwigs are desperate enough to eat onions I dusted the onions too.

March 20, 2021March 20, 2021

Earwigs vs bunnies

Last night I took Briar out for her final business trip of the evening and noticed this big pile of earwigs feasting on fallen oak buds. Okay, I knew we had a lot of earwigs. I knew they nibbled on my purple potatoes last year. I have also suspected them of getting a few seedlings, like my coreopsis seedlings.

However, these earwigs chose an awfully suspicious place to dine. Right next to a denuded branch of moss-curled parsley.

Wes has just constructed me an anti-bunny defense screen for the front yard raised beds. So, soon we’ll find out… Are the bunnies really the culprits of the lost seedlings of mizuna, bok choy, and carrots? Did they, as suspected, eat all the leaves off my front yard parsley? Or am I going to have to find out if diatomaceous earth really works on earwigs?

Stay tuned.