I had weeds in my spinach.
Weeds in my carrots which are bigger than the carrots themselves.
Weeds in my parsley which is mostly self seeded fennel. Basically weeds all over the garden. I didn't finish but I certainly got a lot of the weeding done. The spinach had huge gapes all over. The worst was in one bed that the cutworms got to. Half the plants are missing. The carrots also had cutworm damage as did the turnips in the cabbage bed. I found a lot of cutworms. You can tell where they are because they take a leaf - or in the case of carrots, they take the whole plant - and cut it at the soil surface and drag it underground. You can see the top of the poor plant sticking up but half buried. Sadly I couldn't find all the ones where I found damage. Especially in the larger spinach beds and the chard.
Above is some cutworm damage too. The cutworms can't eat through the leaf stalks as they are too thick. So they will just go up the leaf and start eating it. Though in spots you can see that they tried to cut the leaf off and failed. Around those plants I'd just dig in the soil near the plant.
Bad cutworm! It had plenty of weeds to eat, but no it wanted my plants. I'll be out each morning looking for cutworm damage. I just hope next time I find it, I can find the cutworm. I couldn't for the last two carrots that bit the dust. Each day I miss one is another carrot that dies. Each day I find one is another cutworm that dies. If I win I get to eat. If the cutworm wins he gets to pupate and make more cutworms to annoy me again with the next generation.
Sometimes when you have your head down and focused on killing cutworms gardening seems rather futile. Especially when you can't find the little buggers and know they will kill more of your plants. But then you look up. Mostly things are growing well. Spring has sprung. A cool breeze is in the air and life is pretty good.
Bad bad cutworms. I hate them. They love my lettuce. I hate them. I think they migrate around the garden in search of lettuce. The only good cutworm is a squished cutworm. But yes, other than that, life is good. It's trying to rain today!
ReplyDeleteThansk for swinging by my blog, your garden looks lovely. Gosh those cutworms must be frustrating - can you put little collars around your plants. will mulch help or hinder the process?
ReplyDeleteNot every individual carrot. There are just too many and too close.
DeleteThanks for the picture of the cutworm. Very useful information. Good luck hunting them!!!
ReplyDeleteAh the joys of weeding and killing cutworms. Your spring garden is still looking lovely. I've gone straight to summer vegetables this year. The rain thwarted any thoughts of early spring plantings.
ReplyDeleteDo you have any problems with slugs? Usually the slugs are equal to cutworms as pests in my garden.
I have both slugs and snails, and I've killed a few, but they aren't too horrible this year. We haven't had any significant rain for over three weeks.
Delete"Weeds and Pests" - the story of the Gardener's life! As you say though, you have to take a balanced view: you do still manage to get a very respectable harvest from your garden.
ReplyDeleteGardening would be the perfect occupation if it weren't for weeds and pests! This time of year is tough because the vegetables are too small to be properly mulched! I love that you walk right out of your kitchen into your garden.
ReplyDeleteThe pests always seem to prefer the crops to the weeds don't they? We are waging war on slugs this year with copious amounts of nematodes.
ReplyDeleteI had a few of my spinach plants knocked over by cutworms last year - it's quite disheartening to see that baby seedling that you have been nurturing, keeled over.
ReplyDeleteI just finished weeding the planted up beds yesterday - now on to the beds that need to be planted up this week. I actually enjoy weeding my veg beds - my perennial borders are quite the different story.
That's a nice kitchen garden you have. We love ours, although I keep planting more and more flowers in it.
ReplyDeleteYour garden is looking great, well on its way to a summer bounty. I have plenty of other pests but cut worms haven't been a problem for me, thankfully.
ReplyDelete