Hello fellow gardeners! I salute you again and stop by to share some of the latest events in the backyard. It seems like all I do sometimes is whine and complain about the negative stuff happening in my garden, and I trust me, I don't consider myself to be a negative person, but this time again I'm going to show you a couple of tragedies that have kept me so little bit disappointed during these last days concerning my plants.
First, one day I walked out to water the plants in the morning before going to my job and my strawberry plants (2) had disappeared. They were destroyed and I was excited before that because they were so close to starting forming the fruits.
I thought this could be a one-event situation, a big mistake from me to think because I did not move the other plants that were around the strawberries, and a couple of days later I found out two of my tiny lemon trees, three Japanese medlar seedlings, and the bell pepper plant were also destroyed. I placed the survivors on top of a wooden pallet so maybe the thing that was destroying all my dreams couldn't catch them.
I went to my job in rage wondering "what can be doing this? I don't see any bugs crawling on top of the plants, no worms, caterpillars, or locusts. Talking to my boss, she is a native Argentinian so she was completely and 100% sure that all of this was the making of black ants. These ants are nocturnal, and most of them go out in the middle of the night to collect leaves from each plant that they can find, to take it back to their colony, where they grow fungi apparently or they cultivate a louse, which is actual food.
I went home very tired from a long day so I forgot to stop by the local gardening shop that day and then went to bed without knowing that the next victims would be my small roses. I just recently showed you with excitement how I got new roses, and now both the old rose, the red one, and the new ones, yellow, their leaves are completely gone.
I have been trying to find out ecological ways to combat the ants before they tear to pieces the last one of my plants. If any of you know of something effective and not harmful to the soil, my pets, birds, please leave it in the comments, I will appreciate it.
The fall of a Giant.
Ever since I moved here, there was this huge plant at the end of the backyard. It looks like a palm but is not entirely so. I found out the name of the species is Yucca gloriosa, and despite it looks like it has been growing there for many years, it forms huge flowers, in which a thick stick contains hundreds of white petals. It is very beautiful to the eye but is not such a good evolutionary trait, because those flowers were the doom of the plant.
This city is not called Buenos Aires (good winds in Spanish) for nothing. Sometimes there are strong winds accompanied by heavy rain, and that was the case last weekend, which caused the flower of the plant to completely tear down, breaking the huge and heavy part containing the leaves. I saw in shock how it happened, and I had no other choice than to retire the huge piece from there.
Still, the plant had another two ramifications with a bouquet full of leaves, and the next day, another one fell too by the weight of the flower and the water because of the rain.
I cut the flower stick that was attached to the fallen part containing the leaves, and I thought about collecting the petals to make something out of it.
On a more positive note, my Aloe is thriving, maybe because of the rain, it is getting greener and bigger each day.
In my walks with the dogs, I always detail the flowers, plants, seeds that are around, from the trees, and other gardens nearby. Last weekend I saw a lady pruning a big Jade plant, and some branches were on the ground. When I was a child, we used to live in an apartment, so no Garden, but a small balcony where we only had a big Jade, and some peppermint. Every time someone complimented my mother about the Jade, she used to say that she barely paid attention to it and that it was there when we arrived and it was going to be there when we leave, and sometimes she would cut a branch of it and tell people that if they put it in contact with humid soil for a couple of weeks, it surely would produce a new plant.
I do believe that this is one of those plants indeed that from a branch, can form a new individual, so I scratched a bit the edges from the low apex of the branches, and I placed them on rich wet soil, and I have been watching at them carefully to see if it works and they survive, and if that's the case I will place them on the soil, where it can grow as much as they please.
Small flowering plants that I bought, failed to thrive in the place where I put them before in the garden, so I took out the remains of them and placed them in a pot, and they seem to be doing just fine there because, after 6 days only, they began to produce tiny white flowers.
Tomatoes are also growing steadily, bearing a couple of fruits, while I wait impatiently for them to be ready to reap. The one who’s in love with the wall is growing slowly but steadily, and inside my arboretum, some seedlings are emerging because of the constant humidity and rain, and I think that those small greens are the birches that I sowed a couple of months ago. After the devastation of the ants, those seedlings represent hope for me.
Each plant that I sow and watch growing feels like a pet to me, and when things like this happen that some ants wipe them entirely or they die, I feel kinda blue. Maybe that is why I am constantly sowing new things because with trees for example, from hundreds of seeds that I sow, many will not sprout, and then from the ones that do, the seedlings are very fragile things and very susceptible to bugs, the weather conditions, and disease.
That was all for now. To all of you who are in the northern hemisphere, I wish you can execute your gardening plans perfectly when spring comes, which is very soon because I love to see your gardens. To the ones in the southern hemisphere like me, it soon will start to get rainy, shadier, and colder, so maybe we will find new plants to work with, or just help the ones we already have survive till December properly. Last but not least, to the ones in the tropics, like my fellow Venezuelans and Asians where it is always green and water runs plenty, I wish you to continue being healthy and focused on your many garden plans.
I almost forgot about nominating people to the contest. I hope that they are ok with me tagging them along, so I would like to invite two amazing hivers that I recently discovered and liked very much: @creativetruth and @samstonehill, maybe then can come by to share some of their last doings in their gardens, no compromise, no pressure.
César.
Of course, no problem tagging me here.
Great to see all the different things you have going on! Looks like you are doing a fantastic job to me, despite the inevitable setbacks which are all part of the learning process. We also have strong winds here in the Pyrenees and I made the mistake of not connecting our trampoline to the ground when we first bought it. This ended with multiple squashed plants after it rolled across the entire garden with the wind! Won't be making that mistake again ;)
Our ants are harmless by comparison to yours. I had no idea they could even do that to a lemon tree! @sirenahippie seems to have a great idea for the solution. Even if your goal is not to kill them, perhaps you could just leave ample kitchen scraps for them each night near their nest? Don't know much about ants but I assume if they can find what they need close to home, they won't eat your plants?
I feel guilty because I laughed hard at that story of the trampoline rolling across a backyard and ending the poor squashes. Sorry, maybe at the moment it wasn't that fun but surely it is a funny story.
I think I will try to control de ants with @sirenahippie ‘s advice, because last month the neighbor told me they saw a rat in their backyard, so I really don't want to invite her in with my scraps since I am a little frightened to encounter her.
Thank you for the kind Input and your words of motivation. I think the same, although sometimes it is hard, I have been learning a lot and I'm perseverant, I will not give up on my plants and trees.
Best wishes and a lot of good energy back to you!
Good point for the rats! I have two cats who bring me dead rats every morning, so if you do have problems with rodents you know what to do ;)
I think the changing weather will be our biggest challenge moving forward. Some plants will like the way things change while others will not. We've had very little rain over here compared to this time of year normally, so we've been much more active than normal making sure nothing is thirsty. I suspect when the rain does come it will be very heavy and again, we may have to protect some of the smaller plants from drowning if this happens. Let's see... every day brings a new challenge. And this is why we love it ;)
All the best!
Hi @samstonehill! I think it's not a good idea to leave them food nearby, that will only make the nest grow bigger, they will feel super comfortable and then the ant colony will get stronger, bigger. The idea will be to apply biocontrol so that their colonies are reduced or non-existent in @cesarj21's garden.
Hey there! Thanks for pointing out the problem with my plan.
The idea of biocontrol in the way that you mentioned is new to me, but I seriously love the sound of it!
While I have you here, I am wondering if you have a suggested biocontrol solution for aphids? They are arriving on my strawberries and a few of the baby plum trees too. For now I am just squashing them with my fingers but this does not seem like a long term solution.
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That aloe looks amazing! Tomatoes as well.
Gardening definitely comes with ups and downs, more ups I would say but it's not easy when something gets destroyed overnight after all the time and effort you put in. I hope you'll find a way to beat the ants.
Indeed, it is very discouraging to put so much energy and time and see it destroyed in one night, but that's how life works I guess, we could lose everything in a second. That said, it absolutely doesn't mean that I will give up entirely, so Thank you very much for your comment. I wish I could make a great sauce for pasta with my tomatoes, to celebrate that the ants are gone.
Dam that sucks, It is some crazy damage by ants, They must be like leave cutter ants? I had them last summer and they just ruined a whole Cannabis plant
Yep, I assume that they are similar. I love ants but they broke my heart when they decided to take away my two tiny roses. I felt like the “le petit prince” character if his rose would have disappeared overnight.
Thank you so much for the support, I really appreciate it. Greetings!
yeah it sucks, Bugs can act so fast
Not everything is easy in gardening, that's true @cesarjr21, but the important thing is that you keep insisting, someday the effort will pay off. If you have ants, which in Venezuela we call "bachacos" I recommend you to grate or chop very small white cabbage, and place it along the path that these ants travel and around the plants they prey on. They will take that cargo home, and in a few days the cabbage will decompose and create a toxic fungus that will kill them. It is a very effective remedy, which you can repeat every 15 to 30 days. Another suggestion, try to make your posts bilingual, English-Spanish, your content is good and you will have more reach. Greetings.
My father on the phone the other day told me that he was sure this was “Bachacos”, I said “I don't think so, they are black, I remember bachacos to be bigger, and red”, but I guess he was right and they are family. I will try to give them the cabbage because, despite the fact that I love ants and bees and every animal, I will not tolerate them destroying all my effort for sure. Thanks for the precious advice, I had no idea. Somebody mentioned something about “broken rice” but I did not know where to get it.
Thank you for the suggestion, I will try to come up with more bilingual material in the following posts. I am glad and flattered that you think that my content is good, I sure put a lot of heart and intention into my blog to reflect who I am, and you have always been a huge motivator.
A big hug to you, be fine.
I hope you have good luck controlling those ants. You should also try to apply earthworm humus, either liquid or solid, to strengthen the plants, so that they will be stronger and more likely to desist from destroying them. Best regards.
Are you growing seedlings on all of these black bags and pots? If yes, I am excited to see them grow in your next blog update.
Yes, my friend. I am trying to grow some Japanese medlars, palm trees, birches, oak trees, Cypresses, and malvaceae trees. I hope that some of them, at least one of each variety germinate. So far, the palm trees and the birches have been the first and second to sprout, so I am waiting anxiously for the rest of them. I want to create a complete forest.
Thanks for stopping by!
You're welcome (^_^)
We always talk about our gardening successes, but not so much our failures. I'm sorry to hear about the ants and hope you find a solution. SO disappointing.
Did you know you can eat yukka flowers??
I hate the plant as it really sucks moisture from the garden. We cut ours out and the roots too, and the new native garden is going great now.
I did not know I could eat those hahahaha funny video, who knew.
Ever since we arrived here she was, and my boyfriend hates it, because of how pointy and “dangerous” it could be, since it has stung us a couple of times. And I did notice that the soil around it is dryer than in the rest of the garden. I wasn't going to take it down by myself out of fear that the real estate agent was going to get mad, but now that it has fallen because of the flowers, it doesn't hurt that much, I think we’ll be fine without the parts that fell.
I think I talk too much about my failures, as I mentioned, and I don't really want to come across as heavy, but sometimes gardening is hard. More if all your effort and hopes and energy gets torn down by little and very fast activists. I care about ecology, but I think I will try to control them a little bit, or a lot.
Thank you @riverflows for taking the time to read my post and for the support, I honestly appreciate it.
And I appreciate you. Yeah wait til you dig under ground to see it's roots - it's pretty rad the way it seeks out and destroys water! Your boyfriend is right - it's a savage beast! Of course gardening can be hard. Today I stepped in a LOT of chicken shit and tripped over a rake. I win!