Battling Weedle errr Higad!

It's my first higad season in our still relatively new home. Kevin of Epic Gardening said that they may be beneficial for your garden if there's just a few. They do eventually turn into pretty butterflies. I love butterflies and I know these critters are food for the birds too. I'm actively battling them for two reasons.

 

First, I will never forget that time when I almost lost my best friend because of them. We were walking home from the park with Miggy. As we were walking a tree doused us with falling leaves. There was a caterpillar on my bestie's shirt. It was flicked away. We thought nothing about it. Got home and almost an hour later I get a call which I did not understand at all. 

I only found out later on that the best friend suffered anaphylaxis from inhaling the caterpillar hair. Some were probably left on the shirt. He was so worried about Miggy that's why he called from the emergency room. That's reason number 1 why I'm actively trying to minimize the invasion. Those things can be nasty. I had two rashes yesterday after spraying neem oil even though I didn't touch any of them. Good thing I was wearing a mask. 

They were perfect the other day.

Grew this for six months and I'm not sure if it will recover.

Of course, reason number 2 is I don't want my plants to be ruined! I have been trying to grow some flower plants from seed since January. They ate them up! I sprayed a lot of neem oil on them last night and still found several caterpillars on them this afternoon. They seem to prefer flowering plants. Even my pretty aglaonema was not spared. My Mom gave them to me, so I need to make sure I care for them properly. I read they also like seedlings and I've just planted several seeds the past two weeks. Trying to protect those that have sprouted. 

I've been spraying neem oil with castille soap the past few days. I'm not really sure if it's effective since I don't really see any dead caterpillars. I don't want to use chemical insecticides since I read that birds eat them. Neem oil is like a medicine for birds so it's good for them. 

I'm about to try a concoction that Kuya Arlan taught me. He told me to boil tanglad (lemongrass) and oregano and use it to spray the plants. Good thing the free oregano plant I got is still very much alive (insects hate it). I also planted the tanglad I got from the supermarket and it's thriving. Got a bunch this afternoon and left it boil. I'm just waiting for it to cool so I can spray again. I read you should spray it at night because that's when the caterpillars actively eat. 

Don't ever touch those seemingly cute little things. I was trying to identify the ones we have here now. They're not even the cute green ones, but brown hairy ones. Some of them are so fat they look like tiny stuffed toys. I just ordered a proper garden spray. Bought two so I can give one to my Mom. I think 95% of her plants are flowering plants. So I can't help but worry for her. 

How long does higad season last? I remember there was a time when I was in elementary school when the nuns had to suspend classes because of the infestation. We had several huge acacia trees in campus. It was always a bad time for us during higad season because they fall on unsuspecting kids. I was lucky I was spared back then. Hope it will be over soon. 

#BeKind #StaySafe

Plantdemic Update: There are Good Days and Bad Days

I haven't been able to tend to my garden for a few weeks now because I got sick at the end of August and it took awhile for me to recover. The doctor said not to do anything strenuous. Gardening to me is equivalent to a workout. So the last few weeks I've just been watching my plants through the glass door. I ended up getting a cute, new indoor plant because I missed my plants.

The good news is the tomato plants have been producing more fruits. The first few fruits were quite tiny so I added a bit of compost for it to get more nutrients. Our cleaner told us she picked one to taste the tomato. She said it was so sweet and would go well with a salad. We beamed with pride haha. I'm so lucky because Sweetie gets up early everyday just to water the plants. I take care of planting, adding nutrients, re-potting and making sure pests stay away from the plants.

The bad news is pesky insects invaded the cucumber plant. I think its leaf miners. I had 2 plants and I already pulled out one since it didn't look I could save it anymore. There's one more that's still fighting. I realized though that it would probably be better for me to just start from scratch because it hasn't produced anything in the last six months. The pests also jumped onto the tomato plants and I've had to actively prune it. The bell peppers were affected too and some have died.

Bad insects :'(

A few weeks ago there was a really bad infestation. One of my neighbors suggested to spray them with a mix of Thieves Household Cleaner with a few drops of Citrus Fresh in water. I did just that and sprayed the soil with baking powder mix. I think it helped and it also encouraged the tomato plants to bear more fruit. Unfortunately some of the tomato fruits shriveled up possibly because of the insects. The newer fruits though are looking good and growing big. 

I was supposed to re-pot last week, but I slipped in the bathroom. So I had to recover from that. Today I finally got to tend to my balcony garden. Pruned the tomato plants and re-potted some bell pepper plants. I discovered that one of the bell pepper plants is starting to bear fruit! I'm so glad my plants have stood the test of time and patiently waited for me to recover. Maybe Sweetie talked to them for me hehe.

How's your garden? 

CB//179 #StuckAtHomeDay/209 #StayHome #BeKind