Soap sprays

The following recipes and recommendations are from the Natural Gardener:

Baking Soda Fungicide

(Use for Black Spot or White Powdery Mildew)

4 Level teaspoons or 1 1/3 tablespoons of Baking Soda
1 teaspoon of Mild Soap (Dawn, Ivory, should be biodegradable
with no phosphates)
1 gallon of Water

Soap Spray

(This and homemade pepper mix recommended for psyllids, aphids, spider
mites - exposed, thrips, mealybugs, whiteflies, chinch bugs.)

2-4 tsp (Ivory or PalmGreen)
1 gallon water
Pressure sprayer

Lemon tree blooming

This is Larry Snicket, our lemon tree. I got him for my birthday in 2004. He started blooming at almost exactly this time last year too.

He's grown quite a bit: this is him today ...

Larry; narcissus done, roses budding

...and this is how he looked exactly a year ago (March 12, 2005).

In other news today the narcissus seem to be spent (though I spent ten minutes watching a monarch butterfly flap all over them, sticking his mouth tube in every single flower), but there are buds on the Apricot Nectar and Pristine roses. All roses, bulbs, irises and daylilies got fertilizer today and the roses along the fence got Rose Defense spray also.

I had to scare a baby lizard off the Fragrant Cloud rose first, though! He was quite tiny but had a fat belly. I felt bad that he might still be somewhere in the vicinity so I stamped my foot a couple times and only sprayed lightly. Hope I didn't get the little guy sick.

Narcissus in full bloom; volunteer rose

Got back in town yesterday to find 3 blooms on "Texas Star" and about 40 on "Grand Primo." The GP is shorter this year but flowering well. Need to fertilize it regularly before it goes dormant.

Where the High Hopes had sat in its grower's pot for a year (until last week when I finally planted it), suddenly yesterday there is a six-inch rose sprig! Odds are it is something like Dr. Huey, since it's coming up from the root stock.

If it is Dr. Huey, I may be in trouble, since that is a climber that gets 12 feet tall. I could do worse than a vigorous old red rambler, though, I guess!