I moved to a house in Southern California in January and it does not have a back yard, just a big patio. So, I am thinking, Container gardening would be, perfect, right?. Well it was for a while, I got my tomato and strawberries planted in big pots, peas and beans and various herbs and lots of flowers. They all grew like crazy, then it got really hot and dry. I watered them and talked to them, fed them and they started not doing so good any more. It looks as if I will get three or four tomatoes and two strawberries. Flowers are doing OK for the most part. The weather here is nuts. I live close to the beach, so depending on which way the wind blows (usually from the ocean) it's either perfect weather or we will get a week of close to 100 degrees. Does anyone have good advice? I am using natural products and really do not like chemical pesticides or plant food. My beans are being eaten alive by green caterpillars, the tomatoes look as if they have been got at too. Any advice would be really appreciated. Where is the Whole Earth Catalog when you really need it?
Try "Diatect V Organic Insect Control"(used by organic growers requiring certification).I grew up in Seal Beach,what a nightmare orange county has become.
Thanks everybody. Hey, Meangreen, where do you get this stuff? Can I get it online? I found a lady in Alaska who makes PlanTea, teabags for your plants. You just make the tea and it feeds them by spraying on the leaves, that seems to be helping, but I can't get rid of the bugs. I go out every evening and pick the little green buggers off, but my beans are pretty leafless now. Since you lived in Seal Beach you now about the nasty black dust that gets all over Long Beach, you would think that would kill bugs (people, cats, dogs, birds too), but it doesn't. Oh well, you just do the best you can with what you've got. Beats the hell out of Orange County where I lived before I came here.
