The month of July started out busy in both the garden and the kitchen. There were some veggies that were bursting and ready to be harvested and enjoyed!
Garlic scapes pickled!
Fresh baby peas that the girls ate straight from the garden.
And enough green pepper and tomato to make fresh salsa!
Unfortunately though, spending time in the garden also indicated to us that we had a pest problem on our cabbage plants. Cabbage loopers. :(
These fat green inchworms were eating big holes in the outer leaves of our cabbages. Thankfully they hadn't moved onto the nearby broccoli. But what to do? Reading various articles found online there were some suggestions such as flour and baking soda - which I tried as I had these items on hand; and next steps such as bacillus thuringiensis. And of course manual collection of the worms. So with Sammy helping, we scoured the backs and fronts of the large cabbage leaves and picked off all loopers we came across.
Into a bowl they went and soon became evening treat for the chickens!
They were very much enjoyed!
So now, daily we closely inspect our plants for loopers. But what to do about the large outer leaves that are riddled with holes?? I can't find any information on whether or not to trim off the ugly leaves or leave them? Should I be worried about the plants that have not yet formed a tightly wrapped cabbage head?
If you have any suggestions, please share them. :)
Jeanette
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