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Mice and Slug Bait

We’re getting a jump on our gardening this year.  We’ve already weeded all of the planting beds.  The Man of the House mixed up a batch of his homemade fertilizer and worked it into the soil. It was the perfect time to apply our “natural” slug bait to the cabbage and Brussels sprouts.  (The slug [...]

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Bed Bugs

Ever since my mystery skin ailment of 2007 I’ve been concerned about bed bugs.  In my research I discovered that the little critters are almost impossible to get rid of.  One exterminator I spoke with said it would be easier to move and buy all new things.  She wasn’t joking. My skin problem was NOT [...]

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Goodbye Junior

This summer was the last stand for Junior the lemon tree.  Here in the Seattle area lemon trees do fine outside in the summer but the rest of the year they’re indoor plants.  The terms of Junior coming back into the house in the autumn were that he had to be free of scale and [...]

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Trouble in the Mobile Orchard/Vineyard

We had a rude awakening this morning. I’d stumbled into the kitchen and was starting to make coffee. (That’s the morning’s MOST important activity!) I pulled up the blinds and glanced into the backyard and was greeted by a horrible sight. All the grape vines had been knocked over! I roused Erroll out of bed [...]

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Arachnophobia

I’m not sure what it is but recently there have been alarmingly large spiders in the house. This hairy-legged specimen was in my bathroom sink the other day. Earlier in the week I found another one in my bathroom and two in the basement.  One of the ones I spotted in the basement was so [...]

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Junior’s New Growth

I’ve been waiting for a good opportunity to give Junior the lemon tree his next treatment of white oil. But the days have either been too hot or too rainy. In the meantime there is little or no scale. The ants have gone. And best of all, Junior has new growth. The white oil treatment [...]

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Lemon Tree – Second Treatment for Scale

Earlier I described my plan for ridding my lemon tree of scale. I waited 16 days to apply the second treatment of white oil. Ideally I would have done this sooner but we were having a rainy patch. Before I applied the second treatment I took a good look at the tree. The good news [...]

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Cabbage

In years past we’ve had a problem with slugs getting to our cabbage. This year we sprinkled some slug bait among the cabbages. The bait contains a small amount of iron phosphate. It’s harmful to slugs and fairly easy on the environment. Hopefully we’ll get a larger cabbage harvest this year.

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