Oh boy! I was thinking the other day that I really need a paintbrush for pollination, but lo and behold these tiny flies have come and answered my prayers! Gasp! Not 1,000 like I’d hoped, so who wants to go paintbrush shopping?

This was a lucky picture at right, these flies are fast and don’t spend much time in one place. This picture should help me identify them. Now you know what I’ll be posting about next time, unless someone beats me to it in the comments!

War has been declared against ants. How are they getting up to the plants if the buckets are completely vertical? Well, with the rain comes dirt splatter onto the sides of my blue containers. A smooth sided bucket won’t allow them to climb up the sides, but dirt sticking to it allows ants a toe-hold, so they climb.

Now there are aphids (dead ones, at right) and ants ravaging them!  What has worked for me is to keep watch, and diligently clean the sides of the bucket so ants never get a chance to climb.

That information has been added to the Pests page. Another update to the site: added descriptions to my favorite tools (Tools and Books). How I use them, what I use them for, etc etc.

Next project: Create a standardized recipe for vinegar preserved pickles that you can try. I really do love doing this! Stay tuned!