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sarea
Bad news re: my garden. :/ I have worms! And not the good kind! See, over winter I had basically just let my garden go it alone, as I didn't want to destroy anything that might otherwise make it. Well everything died except for the cabbages, which bolted in the extreme cold, but flourished otherwise. I read up some more about bolting cabbages, and realized that they couldn't be salvaged (never again will they produce a head of cabbage; instead, they are going to seed). So I decided to tear them out so I could use the space for spring planting. Except when I took them out, they all had these disgusting little worms all around the roots. And they didn't look like the nice red earthworms that are actually helpful in the garden ... they were short and yellow and had like 6 legs near the head. I asked the gardening community about it, as well as my cousin, and everyone seemed to agree that these were pests, some kind of beetle larvae. EWWWWWWWWWW!! One person suggested wireworms, which, after reading the description, sounds exactly right.
Basically, wireworms eat the roots of plants like cabbages, radishes, and others. When they turn into beetles, they eat the leaves. There's really no getting rid of them without being an expert gardener (which I am certainly not), redoing the soil for the whole bed, or using pesticides. And I refuse to go there, because if I do then there's almost no point in having my own garden ... I can buy my stuff from the supermarket, in that case.
The partially good news is that I have dug around the soil where there's nothing planted, and there are no worms. They're currently all concentrated in the plots where the cabbages were. I went through those plots yesterday and every time I saw one I tossed it out onto the grass, where hopefully a hungry bird (maybe one of the ones messing up my attic) will find it and eat it. I found maybe a dozen, but who knows how many there actually are or how many are waiting to be born. Eugh. I am going to continue to dig for more before I do any transplanting, but of course I consider those plots 'infected,' so I'm not planning to put anything there that I have high hopes for.
Anyway, I have kept one of the cabbages where it is, even though it's going to seed. I'm hoping it will serve as a beacon for any existing wireworms, and they'll concentrate on that rather than on anything else I plant. In fact, one of the suggestions to keep wireworms from ruining your whole crop is to plant radishes so that they'll be attracted to those and leave everything else alone. I'm hoping my garlic will serve the same purpose; so far their shoots seem fine/umolested. I'm not sure if I can successfully do the radish thing this planting season, but maybe I'll try.
Might be moot anyway since my seeds don't seem to be taking so far. :/ It's been rather cold the last two days so that might be retarding growth. Or possibly the wireworms ate the seeds/newly germinating shoots. /cry All the indoor ones I planted are supposed to start sprouting around 7 days after planting, which is on Sunday, but I don't have high hopes. I check on them every day and there's like no change. Not, I suppose, that it would be very obvious at this point.
All just very depressing.
Yesterday my cousin B. arrived and we went to Paseo for lunch. For some reason, maybe because it was a weekday and it was gloomy, I didn't think it was going to be very busy. BOY WAS I WRONG. It was packed! Not as packed as I've seen it on the weekend, but throngs of people were there. I mean, yes, they have the best sandwiches in the world, but still. We didn't eat until 1pm (we lucked out and got a table -- there are like 5 tiny tables; it is the smallest place imaginable). Was worth it though; I asked B. how his sandwich was and he said one word: "Amazing." If you live in Seattle and have never had a sandwich from Paseo, you are missing out. The original location is in Fremont, but they recently opened one in Ballard that I've been meaning to try. I recommend the #2 roasted Cuban. So. good. They only take cash though, and go early because they sometimes run out of bread. Each sandwich runs about $7.50.
Since we ate a filling lunch so late we decided not to go to El Gaucho after all. The experience would just have been wasted on us. Instead, we went to the 35th Street Bistro as they're doing Dine Around Seattle. It was very good, but frankly not worth it for dinner. It wasn't actually much of a savings since they're not super pricey anyway.
After dinner we headed to Qwest Field (which, embarrassingly, I didn't even know that's where the Sounders played until Elle told me). It was rainy and cold and I didn't even really want to go, except I knew it was a rare chance to experience something different/new that I likely wouldn't do again. Still, if we were really miserable once we got inside, we might want to leave, so I didn't want to pay $20-25 for parking, which was common around the area (of course). We totally lucked out and found a spot not too far from the stadium, about 5 blocks or so, that had been for buses only until 7pm. Because we were late, we were able to park there. The game turned out to be really fun. Our seats were in the club section, under an awning, so we didn't get wet at all even though we could see the rain (it wasn't raining too hard anyway). It was cold and windy, but we had fun watching everyone get totally into the game (some guy got red carded! Drama!). The Sounders won 2-0, but the two goals were scored in the first half, so the second half was kind of anticlimactic. Most everyone stayed until the end, which was cool. Attendance was even a regular season record!
It's kind of fun to go to a sporting event and not really have a dog in the fight, so that you can be amused by people's reactions to things (rather than be the one reacting). I didn't understand half of what was going on because any rules I ever knew about soccer I learned and forgot in junior high. Like, why does the clock count UP instead of down? Why is the official team nickname Sounders FC (does that stand for football club?) rather than just Sounders? And why are there 3 minutes of play left even once the clock has stopped? Seems so random, lol. Anyway, it was fun and I'm glad we went.
Oh, but I do have one gripe. The stupid parents of the 3 bratty girls in front of us. The mom went and bought them those plastic horn-type things that make really a really loud, blaring sound (intended, I believe, to be blown when a goal is made). Thereafter, they kept telling the girls, who were blowing them in people's ears and being generally annoying, to "stop it, I mean it." They said this so many times I lost count. Except the girls never stopped. Which tells me that these parents are the sort of ineffectual parents who make threats but never carry them out, and can't/don't actually discipline their unruly children. If those had been my cousin's kids, they would have stopped the first time they were told to, and if they didn't, they would have had the horns taken away. Just ridiculous. Learn to actually discipline your misbehaving children or don't take them out in public. Oh! And when one of the horns broke, the girl whined and the mom went to buy her ANOTHER ONE. These children were clearly spoiled brats, and their unruly behavior is actually not a mystery at all.
This weekend: I am not allowed to do anything but work on my D/G fic exchange story. Period!
Basically, wireworms eat the roots of plants like cabbages, radishes, and others. When they turn into beetles, they eat the leaves. There's really no getting rid of them without being an expert gardener (which I am certainly not), redoing the soil for the whole bed, or using pesticides. And I refuse to go there, because if I do then there's almost no point in having my own garden ... I can buy my stuff from the supermarket, in that case.
The partially good news is that I have dug around the soil where there's nothing planted, and there are no worms. They're currently all concentrated in the plots where the cabbages were. I went through those plots yesterday and every time I saw one I tossed it out onto the grass, where hopefully a hungry bird (maybe one of the ones messing up my attic) will find it and eat it. I found maybe a dozen, but who knows how many there actually are or how many are waiting to be born. Eugh. I am going to continue to dig for more before I do any transplanting, but of course I consider those plots 'infected,' so I'm not planning to put anything there that I have high hopes for.
Anyway, I have kept one of the cabbages where it is, even though it's going to seed. I'm hoping it will serve as a beacon for any existing wireworms, and they'll concentrate on that rather than on anything else I plant. In fact, one of the suggestions to keep wireworms from ruining your whole crop is to plant radishes so that they'll be attracted to those and leave everything else alone. I'm hoping my garlic will serve the same purpose; so far their shoots seem fine/umolested. I'm not sure if I can successfully do the radish thing this planting season, but maybe I'll try.
Might be moot anyway since my seeds don't seem to be taking so far. :/ It's been rather cold the last two days so that might be retarding growth. Or possibly the wireworms ate the seeds/newly germinating shoots. /cry All the indoor ones I planted are supposed to start sprouting around 7 days after planting, which is on Sunday, but I don't have high hopes. I check on them every day and there's like no change. Not, I suppose, that it would be very obvious at this point.
All just very depressing.
Yesterday my cousin B. arrived and we went to Paseo for lunch. For some reason, maybe because it was a weekday and it was gloomy, I didn't think it was going to be very busy. BOY WAS I WRONG. It was packed! Not as packed as I've seen it on the weekend, but throngs of people were there. I mean, yes, they have the best sandwiches in the world, but still. We didn't eat until 1pm (we lucked out and got a table -- there are like 5 tiny tables; it is the smallest place imaginable). Was worth it though; I asked B. how his sandwich was and he said one word: "Amazing." If you live in Seattle and have never had a sandwich from Paseo, you are missing out. The original location is in Fremont, but they recently opened one in Ballard that I've been meaning to try. I recommend the #2 roasted Cuban. So. good. They only take cash though, and go early because they sometimes run out of bread. Each sandwich runs about $7.50.
Since we ate a filling lunch so late we decided not to go to El Gaucho after all. The experience would just have been wasted on us. Instead, we went to the 35th Street Bistro as they're doing Dine Around Seattle. It was very good, but frankly not worth it for dinner. It wasn't actually much of a savings since they're not super pricey anyway.
After dinner we headed to Qwest Field (which, embarrassingly, I didn't even know that's where the Sounders played until Elle told me). It was rainy and cold and I didn't even really want to go, except I knew it was a rare chance to experience something different/new that I likely wouldn't do again. Still, if we were really miserable once we got inside, we might want to leave, so I didn't want to pay $20-25 for parking, which was common around the area (of course). We totally lucked out and found a spot not too far from the stadium, about 5 blocks or so, that had been for buses only until 7pm. Because we were late, we were able to park there. The game turned out to be really fun. Our seats were in the club section, under an awning, so we didn't get wet at all even though we could see the rain (it wasn't raining too hard anyway). It was cold and windy, but we had fun watching everyone get totally into the game (some guy got red carded! Drama!). The Sounders won 2-0, but the two goals were scored in the first half, so the second half was kind of anticlimactic. Most everyone stayed until the end, which was cool. Attendance was even a regular season record!
It's kind of fun to go to a sporting event and not really have a dog in the fight, so that you can be amused by people's reactions to things (rather than be the one reacting). I didn't understand half of what was going on because any rules I ever knew about soccer I learned and forgot in junior high. Like, why does the clock count UP instead of down? Why is the official team nickname Sounders FC (does that stand for football club?) rather than just Sounders? And why are there 3 minutes of play left even once the clock has stopped? Seems so random, lol. Anyway, it was fun and I'm glad we went.
Oh, but I do have one gripe. The stupid parents of the 3 bratty girls in front of us. The mom went and bought them those plastic horn-type things that make really a really loud, blaring sound (intended, I believe, to be blown when a goal is made). Thereafter, they kept telling the girls, who were blowing them in people's ears and being generally annoying, to "stop it, I mean it." They said this so many times I lost count. Except the girls never stopped. Which tells me that these parents are the sort of ineffectual parents who make threats but never carry them out, and can't/don't actually discipline their unruly children. If those had been my cousin's kids, they would have stopped the first time they were told to, and if they didn't, they would have had the horns taken away. Just ridiculous. Learn to actually discipline your misbehaving children or don't take them out in public. Oh! And when one of the horns broke, the girl whined and the mom went to buy her ANOTHER ONE. These children were clearly spoiled brats, and their unruly behavior is actually not a mystery at all.
This weekend: I am not allowed to do anything but work on my D/G fic exchange story. Period!
