I'm new to gardening and have just started planting a veg garden from seed. As soon as the seedlings sprout, they are destroyed within a few days. We have a serious earwigs infestation but I've also noticed slater bugs and some kind of dark chrome beetle. We also have tonnes of moths atm so I think we also have cutworms hiding in the soil too. I'm in rural Australia. For this reason, I'm not keen on attracting lizards, because that will also attract snakes and I have small children.

We have a serious lack of birds here too, so I'll work on that. But I'm desperate to get on top of this issue quicker in the meantime.

Any tips? I'm wanting to stick to organic methods.

I've tried the oil/soy sauce/fish sauce and beer traps and even though I do catch them, they seem to prefer the seedlings. Plus there's just too many to trap like that anyway. I tried protecting a squash seedling with a toilet roll, only to trap a bunch of earwigs inside, which feasted on the seedling anyway.

I've even tried growing some cucumbers under netting with potting mix from a bag, and THEY STILL GOT IN! It was firmly sealed so this baffled me. I suppose the only conclusion is they laid eggs in the potting mix before I used it?

HELP

We see plenty of posts showing us your set up, your harvest and other stuff. What we really need to talk and post about is the kind of fertilizer you apply to get all these beautiful results. We have never seen any posts about this issue and I really think this is the most important thing people struggle with. So what about you all, what are you using and how much? thanks

We are now up to 400+ pints of salsa. Today’s recipe 20 pints of purée mild salsa of pepperocini, chocolate bell peppers and heritage chile. 21 pints of the same with tobacco peppers (very hot). And 2 tobacco hot pepper sauce.

Can anyone tell me what kind of mystery plant my friend has here?? They was given the plant and they don’t know what the name is?? We call it the alien plant!

Disclaimer: I have ADHD

I'm working on fixing an entire wall of our house. Started to clean up the area for extensive room. Had to move a pile of rocks.. decided a good place for them was the end of the driveway where weeds are. I cut down the weeds and got out the rm43 for spot treatment before moving the rocks..

This led to me mixing up 2 gallons with 12oz rm43 on a whim and treating my driveway, yard and around the house.. the nozzle became clogged and I had to clean it twice without thinking. Drenched my hand. Flushed with hose water and then did it again. Quickly finished up, took shots off before going in the house and went straight to the shower.

Its a nasty scratch on the back of my hand. Skin peeling, red and some dry blood spots. I stayed in the shower for about 20 minutes to make sure its flushed.

I should have took more of a precaution but one thing led to another and my ADHD brain just wanders. If I think about something too hard, it won't get done.

Wondering how bad this is and if there is anything more I can do?

My mint pot got some sort of disease in August not sure if it was blight or what. I cut it down and it’s growing back along with uninvited mushrooms. The leaves are still discolored and sick looking.

Should I just toss the whole thing and start over in the spring with a new plant?

i'm curious about homemade fertilizers and which ones are actually useful for an organic garden. i've heard people use compost, worm castings, and other natural materials to provide nutrients, but i'm interested in what experienced gardeners rely on most.

do you make your own plant fertilizers at home? what materials do you use, how do you apply them, and have you noticed a difference compared with using compost alone?

Another haul.

Still have about 60 black radishes, spinach and tatsio growing but they should be able to handled the first just fine.

Basically the title. We bought a house without noticing the trees of heaven in the back corner and just outside the fence. The one I’d most like to treat (because it’s a host tree for ungodly amounts of lantern flies) is 3-4 stories tall. It has 2 codominant trunks; each is probably 2.5 feet in diameter.

Are 98-99% copper nails actually a viable option to handle it?

I know this might be tough, but I'm looking for all the ideas (no matter how unhinged they sound). I'm trying to help a family member avoid having a mulberry "medusa" here.

Like the title implies, they're not willing to use roundup, tordon, or anything along those lines and a stump grinder is not in the budget.

There are two mulberry stumps - they're currently cut about 2 feet above the ground but could be cut so they're flush with the ground. The trees were a good 25 or 30 inches in diameter.

I'm willing to do a fair amount of work trying to smother them or whatever might be most effective. Aesthetics aren't too big of a concern (especially if it means not using chemicals).