Yesterday we decided enough was enough. We have been so busy lately and tired from being busy that we have let our garden become a haven for insects… overgrowth… weeds and everything else that normally we would fight to control. Not to mention that we had a baaaaaaaaad case of mosquitoes and funny enough, we wrote an article on how to control them. Don’t laugh.
You know what was causing the influx of “mossies”… our gigantic mosquito growing tank, AKA – swimming pool.
Yup, we did exactly what your not supposed to, let it sit and breed those lil blood suckers until I’m sure we had furnished the neighborhood with their own personal pest problem. Geeez. We do feel bad, we feel like idiots… really we do. But sometimes life catches you with your pants down and then takes it upon itself to laugh and point.
We are pantsless.
Like I said in line 1… enough was enough. We took off to Ace Hardware to grab a few things we lacked. A new water hose, a second short water hose to drain the pool, some mosquito killer donut thingys, a new sprinkler (some big white lion of a dog ate the old one) and some organic spray for our plants. You know… the essentials.
Armed with our tools we began working on things.
Our beatiful 4 O’clocks had become a mess due to some invisible insects that were eating them UP! So we made the executive decision to take them out. They had a good run, some will come back before its freezes… you can bet that. Next year they will be a beautiful piece of asphault… so really does it matter? We are going to save some seeds to move to our next home and keep them going.
Next we spent time dividing & conquering – Shala was spraying mosquito killer on the yard, since some of those babies had grown into adults and were biting our asses on the regular. I spent my time pruning things up and pulling weeds in the garden. The garden still needs a lot of work, but is in way better shape than before. The yard got a nice coat of mosquito killer and hopefully we will be on the backside soon.
The pool, well we are draining that a little at a time. It is so hot in Texas, that we are debating filling it again. We probably could use it well into October I’m sure, but then again… we have lots of things planned and it could end up just the same. So that will have to be figured out on the fly. Until then, we are treating the millions of larvae in the pool – hopefully we can get them before they are flying around causing chaos.
We did pull a few things yesterday, just so you know we are actually getting something out of the garden besides work…
I’ve had many such periods in my gardening career, where I have to sit back and ask, how did this happen? This year, I’ve been pretty up on the garden, but then the inside of the house is a bit of a disaster. Who wants to file the bills when there’s pruning to do? I have no idea how people keep up on it all, for real.
man, that’s nuts – isn’t there something you can put in the pool to keep the mosq’s from laying there? Surely there is… i hate those things man… HATE ‘EM!
Our garden is still pumping right along – pretty soon you guys will have to come out and eat some watermelon with us… HOME GROWN ORGANIC TOO!
OH YEAH BABY, OH YEAH.
@Megan – we are definitely in one of those periods… “HOW DID THIS HAPPEN!?!” Bad thing, our house is similar. haha
@tim – Well, it wouldn’t have been so bad, but our top for the pool, it sags into the water, then fills up with water – so you have stagnent water sitting on top – HELLO mossies. AND I HATE YOUR MELON! haha
Ours died.
dude, the mosquitos down here are big enough to carry away small children.
@ghost – here too man – you wouldn’t believe how big they are now…
@doubledanger – yeah bro – we have 5 (FIVE) melons growing great at the moment. ;P
@ghost – my problem is quantity, not quality of mosquitoes… heh
@tim – Izzy trampled ours… she is a… dog. Yeah… dog. I’m censoring myself.
Come to mind next? I don’t have the bugs, but the weeds, and I finally gave up. They’re taking over and I’m left inside, cowing in fear.
mine, not mind. and cowering. now cowing. kids distracted me and I submitted before proof reading again. sigh.
@Amy – excuses & excuses… 😉
And I’m just trying to figure out what those vegetables are in the last picure..jalapenos?? and…an…eggplant?? Yeaaah….not much of a green thumb in this neck of the woods…call me when you’re going to the mall.
@mama’s losin’ it – we forgive you for not knowing what they are. The very small dark green peppers are jalapenos, the long green & red curly ones are hot portugal peppers, also there are a few anaheim peppers in there. The yellow thing is a crook neck squash. So you were kinda close… sorta… not really.