Weekly Gardening Outlook: Warming Up

This will be a continuing series where we look ahead at the coming week in gardening for the Northwest Arkansas area.

Pill bugs on the underside of a brick.

Closeup of pill bugs on the underside of a brick.

Pull back mulch or lift up a pot and chances are that you will find these critters in your garden.  I think we all played with pill bugs when we were kids.  We called them rollie pollies because they would roll into a ball when threatened.  The closely related sow bug looks similar, but is slightly flatter and does not roll into a ball when threatened.

Recently, a reader emailed asking about these in their garden and whether they were good or bad.  The answer is both.  They are omnivores and scavengers, meaning that they will eat anything they can find living or dead.  They help break down organic matter in the soil, but will also eat your crops.  I find them in my garden all the time and the only damage that I have ever been able to attribute to them is when they eat into some of my strawberries leaving shallow pits in the surface.  I can live with that, so we coexist in the garden.

So how do you reduce the population if it becomes too high?  Alter the habitat in and around your garden.  They want dark, damp surfaces against soil with a lot of organic matter.  Pull mulch a little further away from your plants.  Remove potted plants, old boards, bricks, large rocks, or anything else they might hide under from the garden area.  As a last resort, when there is a very large colony that is causing major damage, diatomaceous earth (DE) can be used as an organic treatment.  A couple of warnings about DE.  Do not breathe any in when applying as it can cause scarring in your lungs.  Also, it is a non-discriminating pesticide and will kill any hard-bodied insect.  So apply it in the evening after bees have quit flying.

Egg shells in a bag.

Planting time for warm weather crops such as tomatoes, squash, and the like is just a few weeks away.  These crops need a lot of calcium to prevent blossom end rot disease.  A half cup of crushed egg shells in the hole when planting will provide this extra calcium.  I keep a large gallon sized bag in the kitchen and put my spent eggs shells in there.  I leave the top of the bag open to allow the shells to dry out and become brittle.  After the shells have dried a week, I crush them inside the bag.  I have several pounds of shells in the bag shown above.  You can see the older crushed shells on the bottom and the newer uncrushed shells on top drying out.

Potatoes planted by Junior Master Gardeners begin to emerge.

Young peanut plant.

I stopped by the Junior Master Gardener garden and the potatoes they planted are beginning to emerge.  The peanuts in a jar that my son brought home sprouted and have been planted into the garden.

Blooms on a year old strawberry plant

Immature strawberry.

We are starting to see green strawberries forming.  The one year-old established plants have many more blooms on them than the younger transplants.

Budding blueberry bush.

The blueberry bushes did not handle the -18 degree temperatures this past winter.  Being in pots made it that much harder on them.  Of the four bushes, two have not begun to bud out.

Chicken and Egg Report:

Our average increased to five eggs per day this past week!  The chickens spend their days scratching around and nipping off the tender green shoots of grass that are emerging.  We expect their feed consumption to decrease with the onset of spring and the emergence of all the new things for them to eat.

Weather Outlook:

-Classic crazy spring weather. Highs in the mid 60s today rising to the mid 80s this weekend then falling back to the mid 60s early next week.  A chance of rain Thursday and again this weekend.  No freezes are predicted.

-Ten day forecast

What's Being Harvested:

-Not much right now other than wild edibles.