What is that suppose to do?

Feed the birds.

They are beneficial predators. I've had hell with aphids in the past, and they eat aphids and other bad bugs. Trying to stay away from pesticides.

Good to know. I just checked on my plants and noticed a lady bug crawling around on a pepper plant.

That's good. I know that if they don't have food they will move on, but dang that was fast lol. Hope some of them come back.

Tomato plants are like shrimp here, everything likes to eat them. Have had hell with bugs (really hate aphids/stink bugs/ & tomato worms), deer, pocket gophers & moles (eat the roots off), squirrels, coons, and birds. Trying things a little different this year.

Sounds like you should chain a dog to each one! Dang!

How big are your plants Skinner? You would have better luck when some aphids are around. They'llprobably be back when the aphids come. If you want to have some fun get a couple of preying mantis eggs. They'll eat alot of aphids plus you'll get to watch them fight.

Last week, apparently we had a whole mess of baby praying mantises on the ceiling in my youngest son’s room. The wife made me dispose of them and it broke my heart. Musta been 12 of them

yeah, my fingers burned like hell for like 2 hours, from slicing& de-seeding like 5# of jalapenos

Should of waited, would have ended up with the strongest one to put in your garden....

By then the wife was mortified for her baby’s safety. Believe me, I’m with ya.

i bet they were praying hard....

Did you kill them?

Here are a few pics, almost time to spread them out & give them a little more space. My tomatoes are coming along well and starting to bud now. I almost decided to start pulling all of the blooms off and fertilize to encourage more plant growth before they start producing, but decided to leave them be. They are growing pretty well. I'll probably go ahead and fertilize them anyway this weekend.

We have lady bugs & mantis' here that come and go, but I was hoping to establish good numbers of them in the garden. I hope they do come back when the aphids come. Man I looked at mantis eggs on-line, and those suckers ain't cheap LOL. They are voracious eaters and cool to watch though! I also have a VERY high population of lizards here (Green & Brown Anoles, Geckos, Texas Spiny Lizards, some other kind of lizard I need to identify), and lots of tree frogs & toads. Was thinking the lizards & frogs would put a hurtin' on my good bugs, but that's all part of it I guess. I also have Marigolds, dill, chives, and basil planted with the maters.





Have 4 more tomato plants to transplant and that will give me 20. Need to transplant some of these peppers too. Man, first year growing Black Jalapenos. These things are getting after it. The plants are already twice the size of my Regular Jalapenos.
Have another batch of peppers sprouting right now that will join the party soon, along with some okra.
I am tempted daily to chop up a couple of rows in the ground for some sweet corn......




The tomatoes have been getting beat up pretty bad by the wind, that's why there's some leaf damage.

tomatoes and mature dill don't like each other, stunts the tomatoes growth. The dill is great for the preying mantis though.

Aw hell, didn't know that. I'll pull it all out then and plant more in their own containers around the perimeter.

Alright whoever’s close to Bedford, I have numerous tomatoes started and doing well. It’ll break my heart to toss em so let me know if you want any. 1)-beefsteak, 2)Jubilee, 3)-Sweet Chelsea, 4)-VR Moscow(these are gonna be monsters), 5)-Gardener’s Delight, 6)-Ace55(these are 2X the size of the other plants already, 7)-1 or 2 cherry, 8)-1or 2 Roma, 9)-Delicious and 10)-Calypso.

PM me. Otherwise I need to start diverting my focus elsewhere very soon.

they do well together when the dill is young it's the old stuff that jacks with it

if you have plenty of seeds I'd yank it and replant if not yank it before it matures

Well crud. I have dill growing in my herb planter too

BF, unless you're trying to hold on to the pots. You'd have them gone in a hurry at a tsc/wm parking lot.

Roger that. I'm not growing cukes or making pickles this year. The only reason I planted it was because I read that it helps to attract beneficial predator bugs. I'll pull it out.

Man I just watered my little garden and just since last night, some kind of bug has wiped out most of my basil and chives. Here we go..........

take up gardening it will relax you they said...........................................................................

I plant so much basil they can't eat it all, does wonders for the taste of tomatoes

marigolds are my number one companion plant though