I was just out in the garden taking some photos for an update, the peas are beginning to flower and there are a couple of pea pods on their vines. First sign of actual food from the plants I started as seeds! I'm so excited. Anyway, while I was out there I rehomed a cute little caterpillar and found a completely intact rose thorn that must have flown off when I was weed whacking and trimming back the rose bush yesterday and I also found aphids on my blueberry plant. I hate those little bugs! They've ruined bunches of flowers on my wax plant each summer for years and I'm not going to let them get into my garden. As I'm being very careful to keep it natural and organic and healthy to eat I wasn't sure I should use the usual liquid soap diluted in water (plus, there have been times it didn't seem to work) so I did a little research and learned that there are a number of other home remedies for aphid attacks like pureed garlic or hot peppers in water (strained ofcourse) sprayed on the plants and also a dilute of mineral or vegetable oil in water -even a combination of some or all of those. I might just try concocting something more complicated later but as I like to take immediate action I went ahead and doused them with some diluted Dr. Bronner's citrus oil soap and am hoping that's all it takes. I was pretty sure that was an acceptable choice, but ofcourse I wanted to confirm it before using it and am now excited to have found out that Dr. Bronner's also makes a rose oil soap -that would be amaaaazing for cleaning the house. Can you imagine?
Anyway, back to my original intent, here are some photos from the garden today of the curly pea tendrils, my tiny asparagus which I only just found this morning and other little bits. I think so far I'm most impressed by how quickly the cucumber plants are growing!