Hey Summertyme or Samuel Adams

[Sherree]

Summerthyme's Fly Recipe

this stuff works and smells great! Our Guernsey cow and her bull calf were covered with flies and we had our first run in with a huge batch of horseflies, so we sprayed them (and the goats) and watched the flies fall off or go away! The goats run when they see the bottle but they were getting open sores from all the bites. We shared some with our friends who have mules and it worked wonders on them too! Thanks Summerthyme!

1 pint water
1 pint citronella lamp oil (or plain lamp oil, or vegetable oil)
1 tsp citronella essential oil (or 2 tsp if using plain oil as a base)
1 tsp pennyroyal essential oil
½ tsp cassia (cinnamon) essential oil
½ tsp lavender essential oil
1/2 tsp eucalyptus essential oil

A squirt (probably ¼ tsp) Dawn dishwashing detergent.

This stuff works! Mix it up in a plastic bottle, and use in a
hand sprayer as needed. Shake occasionally during use to
emulsify.

Thanks! I have all the ingredients, except the pennyroyal and lavender. Another trip to my local health food store should remedy that! Been needing more lavender essential oil anyway!

Also, on the BT, would that work on tomato hornworms, too?

[Summerthyme]

Yes, Bt will work on any variety of caterpillar. Hornworms included.

The crabgrass is a booger to get rid of. Smothering it with heavy cardboard, old carpet scraps, or a full season of black plastic mulch is about the only organic solution. I've resorted to using Roundup a few times... when it was just starting to invade my raised beds, I used the roundup in the walkways between them, and hand dug and pulled the rhizomes and plants that had found their way into the beds. That did give me season long control, without actually spraying the soil in the beds themselves...

Summerthyme (and that recipe for the fly spray really does work... hubby is terribly allergic/sensitive to any sort of fly spray, due to over exposure to organophosphates when he was younger. We used my recipe on the dairy cows for years, and while it needs to be applied daily, it's safe for any species. I've mixed it with petroleum jelly and applied it to dog's ears when they were getting badly fly bitten, too. And it smells heavenly!)

[luvmyvet]

we have tried most everything to get rid of the crabgrass, it even comes up through heavy landscape fabric but have found using thick layers of newspaper over cardboard then the fabric helps make what grass does live easy to pull up. We found we only needed to spray our Gurnsey every few days or after a rain. I swear she smiled the first time we used the spray on her, she looked black from all the flies then poof, they were gone!

[CaryC]

An update on our indoor garden:

The cukes and squash have stopped producing, even though they are growing although a bit slower.

I think the reason is the temp of the soil. Back when they really growing, and producing, the temp were in the 70's outside, and they, being in black pots in front of window heated up the soil, so they were in plant heaven.

The last 2-3 weeks it's been in the 50's. The larger plants were moved on to a table, still under light, but the pots are beneath the level of the window. The room temp stays in the 60's, but I don't think that is warm enough for the soil, the size they are. They still look good, and if I can keep them going for the next couple/three weeks, I think they will be good to go.

The Marigolds are where the big plants were, and they have just come up.

Another week or two and the tomatoes seed are going in the starter pots.

[CaryC]

Seeds in the pots. Marigolds putting on their second set of leaves.

You guys are not going to believe this. I was going by our "dead" elderberry bush, which I had cut back to nearly the ground, didn't have any hope they would come back, yesterday, on my way to the compost heap with some kitchen scraps and low and behold, there were some green leaves coming out.

Went over to the second one and nothing. Think it is toast. Toast on the blackberries. And our dogwood does have some buds on it. Buttercups in full bloom.

Low tonight 34, 27 low tomorrow. Winter ain't over,

[Sherree]

Low tonight 34, 27 low tomorrow. Winter ain't over,

What winter, Hun? This is just another spurt of something that may resemble winter.

Lawn turning green, buttercups in full bloom, fruit trees blooming, and for the last 2 mornings, Canadian honkers have flown over the house.