All garden come with bugs. I knew that. What I did not know is that in the middle of the city I would experience these multi-legged critters eating away my hard work as if it was the set of the 1954 sci-fi film "Them!"
Even though I live across the street from a makeshift military compound, I still did not have the advantage of a world army to combat whatever it was that was destroying my garden.
All I had was one small leaf with five different bugs attached to the underside. I took it to Baker's Nursery to see if they could help.
They told me to cut everything back and sold me some organic pesticide to put on the ground. Even though my plants had massive holes in them and it was getting too hot for spinach and lettuce to actually grow, the thought of cutting everything back was heartbreaking.
So I did what I normally do. I didn't listen. I didn't cut anything back but I did dust everything with this diatomaceous earth nonsense. It didn't work and things got worse.
The holes (see above) were bad enough. Then I walked out one morning to see that everything had been eaten! (This, I don't have recorded anywhere but, sadly, in head.) I'm still not sure if if was the birds or maybe the dogs or if GIANT caterpillars had come through and taken the whole thing out.
Whatever it was it led me to my next post -- starting over.
