Battle for the brassicas

Last year everyone of our brassicas was molested to ruin by a flock of cabbage moths and their demon worm spawn. This year we installed some spun forcefields (just say no to chemicals) and victory is ours. We just harvested our first head of broccoli and it was effing delicious.

An Unfortunate Disturbance

It was effing hot today. Our greens weren't to happy about it so we brought out the shade cloth to kind of ease the pain. For convenience we keep the cloth balled up in the lower shed. I carried the wadded mass into the garden and when I unfurled it I saw a large mouse fall to the ground and scurry through the fence.

As I started cursing out the little bastard for chewing a hole in the sheet, I heard a little squeak that instantly made me feel remorse. I knew what it was and a short scan of the ground revealed what I feared. The little bastard that ate a hole in our sheet was nesting with a pair of her own little bastards.

When I showed the tots to Meg, she asked if I was going to kill them. I answered no, even though I knew I already had. I set them down where I saw their mother retreat (hopeful), but when I checked back a few hours later they were still there, just kind of squirming a bit.

I don't know why I felt sad, they really are bastards. I think perhaps it's because they never had the chance to live and really piss me off. Oh well. Little bastards.

Stay away bugs

Last year the cabbage worms made a mess of our brassicas. This year we made row covers. Since the brassica family produces without the assistance of pollinators, it is safe to keep them covered with a material that will only let in light, wind, and rain. We're using agribon.



The construction couldn't have been easier. We purchased one-foot sections of rebar and hammered them in around the perimeter of the beds in question. We left about three inches or so poking out and these little nubs then acted as anchors for the eventual ribbing for the structure.



The ribs are eight and ten foot lengths of recycled 3/4 inch PVC. Each end of the PVC slips over the rebar forming a frame that looks similar to that of an old covered wagon.



We couldn't find agribon wide enough to span the width of the beds with the ribs so we fastened two lengths together with clothes pins. After draping them over the ribs we weighed down the edges with strategically placed rocks. The whole shebang cost about $25. All that's left to do is keep our fingers crossed that no other mysterious pests materialize.

Shady Grove

Not too long ago we erected a sunshade to protect the bed of greens and peas. When the rest of the garden fills in we won't have a need for the contraption, but for now the high-noon sun is just a bit too much.

The set up really is as easy as it looks; we just tied a sheet to one end of the fence and ran a line from the corners of the opposite end of the sheet to the fence on the other side. The string running on the left side of the photo is attached to the fence with loops as opposed to tying it on. The loops allow us to slide the string on and off the fence posts so we can pull the shade back on cloudy days.

The Cover Up

The brassicas are officially on their way. The cloches did absolute wonders for the indoors to outdoors transition. I swear they doubled in size. We hung up the cloches, which are in great shape, and will utilize them again with the squash, peppers, and tomatoes.

The row covers are in place. We're not sure if we'll make frames or just leave them directly draped. I think it will be determined by the amount of time we have down the road. I'm sure either way will be fine and any decision we make will not make too big of an impact on the health of the plants.

Brassicas and Homemade Cloches

Our brassicas have found their way into the garden. In the bed at the top of the photo we have six broccoli and six white cabbage and in the bed at the lower portion of the photo we have six Brussels sprouts and six red cabbages. We grouped them together like this for both protection and production purposes. If we can, I think we may try to squeeze some sage in there as well. We'll see.

Last year cabbage worms destroyed our brassicas, leaving very little for us to actually harvest. This year we purchased floating row covers to keep out the moths that lay the eggs that eventually become the kraut eatin' worms. From what we've read in books and heard at the farmer's market, row covers are extremely effective. However there is one set back and that is they also keep out beneficial insects that are necessary for pollination with some plants.

Luckily brassicas don't need to be pollinated to produce the goods. We figured that if we kept all the brassica beds free of plants that need pollinating we wouldn't need to worry. ( I know, we're doing rocket science over here.) Sage is also a deterrent of cabbage moths so we may plant some of it around the edges to discourage any insect sneakiness.

Another bit or protection we are looking for is against the elements. Although we hardened our plants off, we wanted to play it safe in case there were any surprise temperature drops in the next couple of days. Since the end of last year's growing season, Meg's parents have been saving water and milk jugs for us so we could carve them into cloches.


After we finished planting and had a little lunch, I set to work with our trusty utility knife and cut the bottoms off of twenty four jugs. It is now three days later and they are doing awesome. Our average lows at night have been around 38°. We figure that by Thursday the plants should be completely hardened off and we can remove the cloches and save them for our tomatoes and peppers.

Still Growing

While the garden layout is being planned and garlic is still sleeping, believe it or not, we still have some veggies growing in the garden. As last year's garden petered out, we planted some more carrots and parsnips to share a covered bed with the already established chard.

With the worst of our winter over (it barely came at all), we still have a little green going on under the row covers. Granted, the life under the cover is only a small amount of half-assed root veggies, but we should be able to harvest enough to soupify some of our bean crop. We also have some thyme, sage, and chard to throw in the pot, which should make for a hearty bowl of backyard goodness.

We Meant Well

The plan was that we were going to plant a healthy amount of fall crops and when the temperatures began to fall we would cover those crops with some nifty new row houses. As you can see in the top photo, the row house construction went rather well. However, what the bottom photo shows is that the actual planting didn't go as planned.

Actually the planting did start out quite well, but we ran into some unforeseeable mishaps between the time of the first planting of greens in late August to when the covers went up in late October. The first unfortunate incident happened to our crop of greens. September brought about some unusually hot days in southeastern Pennsylvania. The heat plus one neglected watering and the entire crop fried. Then our bush beans and peas fell victim to some deer and rabbits with a case of the munchies. It's odd, we never had any problems with deer and very few issues with rabbits, then in one night our garden became a salad bar. By the time we patched the holes in the fence where the rabbits squeezed through and raised its height from five feet to seven feet to keep out the deer, the window for planting was over. We planted some desperation chard (because it's wicked hardy and Mmm, Mmm, delicious) sometime in October and covered the bean and pea corpses with our fingers crossed for a miracle.

No such miracle arrived. What we are now left with are some carrots, sage, spring chard (wicked hardy), and some mighty fine looking row covers.

Plastic Forts

With the threat of frost forcasted, Meg and I set out to cover our fall crops. The frames are made of 1/2 inch PVC and the plastic was generously donated by Meg's father, Mick. When we have more time we'll fasten the plastic a bit more snug around the edges, but this should do for the time being.



There's something about this photo that reminds me of when I was a kid and draped sheets over the kitchen table and pretended it was a fort.