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Penny Carnathan
Penny’s a Nurture And Hold (NAH): Nah, I won’t pull that out yet, it’s still got a green shoot. She likes dragonflies, lady bugs and new stuff only after weeding, pruning and fertilizing.
Kim Franke-Folstad
Kim’s a Want It Now (WIN): Everything pretty, everything now. She will resort to full-spectrum insecticides in desperate situations, and believes it’s her duty and right to buy new plants every weekend.
Both advocate Plant Choice (SOMEthing besides crotons. Please!), lots of color and low maintenance. We don’t agree on everything, but we’re smart enough to learn from each other - and from you.
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Looking for the bright side (looking, looking, still looking)
Posted Jan 26, 2010 by Loren Omoto
Updated Jan 26, 2010 at 05:29 PM
Gardeners, especially Florida gardeners, are inherently optimistic. What pessimist would spend days laboring to plant beds of perennials and veggies knowing full well a freeze — or hurricane or drought — might wipe it all out?
Gardeners look for the silver lining. The bright side. The blessing in disguise.
So, as we waited and worried through the freezes this month, the moaning among the FODs here inevitably gave way to that stalwart leaves-still-have-some-green gumption that is the hallmark of the Florida gardener.
“We are resilient and this, too, shall pass,” Susan Gillespie commented on Jan. 6.
“This better be killing off a lot of those bugs though.”
Ah! A bright side. If our plumbagos were taking a beating, surely the bad bugs and noxious weeds were, too.
Once it started warming up, I got to wondering. Could we have been onto something?
I called Phil Busey, a weed expert with the University of Florida in Fort Lauderdale.
If we lost plants, I said, surely we lost weeds, too. Right?
“Crabgrass,” he answered right off the bat.
“And tropical signalgrass.”
They’re mostly turf weeds, he explained, and they’ll eventually come back, but it’ll take awhile.
I’m not bothered by turf weeds in my faux lawn. I want to lose pain-in-the-neck weeds in my flowerbeds.
“What about torpedo grass?” I asked.
“Spanish needle?”
Torpedo grass is safe and warm deep underground, he said. And Spanish needle will come right back from seeds.
Seeking better news, I called John Capinera, head bug guy at UF in Gainesville. He made me happier. (Not your fault, Phil.)
“Insects attached to leaves, those are going to be unhappy bugs,” he said. “When the leaves drop off, they’ll be on the ground.”
Scale pests won’t have a way to get back up.
Same for white flies, depending on their stage of development.
“It’ll take awhile for them to come back,” he said.
Good news!
I’d heard John is also an expert on my personal nemesis, the Eastern lubber. Bugs that can survive getting snipped in two and whacked with a shovel likely don’t mind a nip in the air. But I had to ask.
“They’re in the ground as eggs, and they’re pretty well-insulated. They’ll be back,” he said.
There won’t be much for them to eat, though, at least in my yard. I guess that’s a bright side.
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Reader Comments
Posted by (kgardens) on January 28, 2010
Just the picture of those lubbers makes me cringe. I do this crazy, screaming dance while cutting them in two. My neighbors love it I’m sure. This year I’m going to be more agressive stomping the babies. They can’t fly. Kay
Posted by (Iluvpumpkins) on January 28, 2010
I did not spray last year when I first saw the little black ones, but this year it will be kill, kill, kill! Pumpkin
Posted by (RickBrown) on January 29, 2010
One good thing about lubbers is they get you into your garden every day to defend it. Then you get the satisfaction of winning when you catch one. Are they edible? Maybe we could do a group roundup and sell them to another part of the world where they are a delicacy? What was that TV show where they eat nasty stuff?
Posted by (Chip) on January 29, 2010
I guess I have been lucky I have never seen these guys in our garden. I have four volunteer tomato plants that made it through the freeze. Last year the same thing happened and those plants out preformed all the others hands down two of them are in bad spots but I do not think moving them would very smart until the end of February by then they will be to big to move. The biggest issue is space to grow, last years turned into monsters. Saturday we have a full moon so if I am to move them that is when I need to do it. What do all of you think? “Chip”
Posted by (Iluvpumpkins) on January 29, 2010
Penny, I only had a few of those ugly creatures last year, first time I saw them in over ten years in my yard. Pumpkin
Posted by (Kim Franke-Folstad) on January 29, 2010
Penny—I know you wrote this post just to drive me crazy with your lubber chatter! Guess it’s gonna be a year-round thing.
Posted by (Chip) on January 29, 2010
There must be a plant in your yard the the lubbers just cant stay away from. Lubber sushi? I think I will let you try that first Rick, one thing is for sure if I could eat bugs I would never go hungry again…..“Chip”
Posted by (Meems) on January 29, 2010
Hey Penny,
I’m in… thanks for setting me up to comment again. I’ve missed the conversations over here.
Wouldn’t you know the lubbers wouldn’t be affected by the freeze. We better start looking for their massive groups of black bodies in about a month. They will be everywhere and if we don’t get them then they will take over. Hate. Hate. Them. I track them down relentlessly all summer… have to say… I get particular pleasure out of snipping the heads off of two at at time. I know. Gross.
Meems
Posted by (Chip) on January 30, 2010
On the brighter side. I found a few monster tomato’s close to the ground most dropped with the cold one is seven inch’s wide if they will ripen in time I am taking them to the fair the timing would be close and I need to look at the rules but if I can I going to enter…“Chip”