Tendrils are what keeps vine plants of the ground. They reach out and twine around anything that they get hold off. That's why peas, climbing beans, cucumbers etc. need some support for the best growing results.

These army worms can cause a lot of damage in a short time. Named army worms as their mother lays a huge amount of eggs in 1 spot and they all hatch and start eating at the same time. You can recognize them where whole plants have disappeared.

Here are some more brothers and sisters about 30 seconds after being sprayed with pyrethrine. Pyrethrine is an extract of the pyrethrum daisy and attacks the nervous system of soft bodied insects. These bugs are already on their way to bug heaven. Pyrethrine works quick and is one of the safest organic pesticides to use.

With the forecast of a cool summer, i thought it be a good idea to help our heat loving eggplants a bit and keep their feet nice and warm. Now the long term forecast has changed to warmer and drier than usual. So now the plastic mulch serves well to preserve moisture and suppress weeds. Maybe not the most ideal organic way, but it certainly works well.

Our little black friend here, wakes up early after winter and with an appetite. Rather than spraying it to a certain death, we sow some clover that also comes up early and so the flea beetles have something else to feed on than our precious asparagus. You can recognize it's offspring as those little things that jump around your crops, like fleas. Floating row cover works well as prevention.

The first leaves that come out of a seed are called cotyledon and are part of the seed embryo and feed the young plant. They contain all the energy and supply the plant with nutrients until the roots and true leaves have develloped and take over. These are young cucumber seedlings.

Depending on what crops you grow you may want to add some lime to your soil for those sweet loving veggies. On the other hand if you want some blueberries for jams etc. add some more peat moss to lower the PH level a bit.

The brassica genus contains lots of very populair vegetables like cabbage, broccoli, turnips, all those Chinese greens and mustards and rape seed for oil. All very different, but when they mature and flower to produce seed, the flowers all look the same.

In the poly tunnel it is about 5C warmer than in the green house and about 20-25C warmer than outside. At night that is a lot less but still warmer than the snowy outdoors.

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