Ladybug Larva
I often speak of ladybugs and their helpfulness to us in the garden. Their larvae actually eat more aphids than the pretty little beetles we all love so much. The larva is a mean-looking critter, therefore, many tend to kill it because they don't know it is a friend.
My Gardening Apron
Last summer for my birthday, a couple of my best friends gave me some money to spend "on me *only*" and I used the money to buy the fabric I needed to make a special gardening apron. I needed an apron to keep from having to run back and forth to the house with handsful of veggies all the time. This apron has 9 pockets, each about the size of a quart-size bag. The front of each pocket has more fabric than the back, and also has elastic in the top to hold the veggies inside.
My Bean Fences
All of the beans I grow are climbing beans. I put fences around the outside of the rows to allow the beans to grow up them. I keep the fences about 1+1/2 feet off the ground to allow myself room to reach underneath and pick beans. The fence itself, is about 2 feet tall, (making the full height around 3+1/2 feet tall) and I run two of them the complete length of the rows, using pvc pipes as fence posts. My fence is the 2X4 welded type. I plant lots of petunias and marigolds between the vines to help keep the pests away. Judging from the production over the last couple of years and the lack of pests getting most of the plants, I would say the flower plants are working.
This Year's Garden Design
Pretty bad drawing, huh? Oh well, it at least gives you a basic idea of what has been where in my garden. Each row (except the purple hull peas, which is a skinny row) is 3 ft. across and about 8 - 9 ft. long. The walkways between the rows (black) are 2+1/2 feet across. Where the butterbeans, foot-long green beans, and purple hull peas are located, there are fences (like the picture above) put up for them to climb on. I have also used the 2X4 welded fence to make cages for the tomatoes. The black in-between the rows is the black plastic we put down to keep the grass and weeds killed out. We will probably use it for at least one more year. Oh yeah, the north in this picture is to your left. We will be adding another 8 - 10 feet of garden space on that end next year. We are planning to till it up in the next week or two.
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