Mary Carol Sheffield
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On the Blog Post Cicada Killer Wasps Look Intimidating, but Don't Worry
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On the Blog Post They're Back! Kudzu Bugs Emerging for Spring
Mary Carol Sheffield
9:00 am on Tuesday, July 24, 2012
Any general purpose vegetable garden insecticide will give you some control of kudzu bugs on your beans. With pesticides, the label is the law: Read the instructions and follow them carefully. For specific recomendations, take a look at the recommendations for Beans in the Georgia Pest Management Handbook and look for the same products that are effective on beetle and stinkbug pests:
http://www.ent.uga.edu/pmh/Hm_Vegetable.pdf. -
On the article Readers' Choice: Your Favorite Preschool
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On the Blog Post Waging a Waste-filled War on Junk Mail
Mary Carol Sheffield
11:01 am on Thursday, May 19, 2011
ReplyWhat a great tip Sarah! Thanks for sharing your green living tips.
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On the Blog Post Try not to love your tomatoes to death!
Mary Carol Sheffield
5:45 am on Monday, May 16, 2011
Great question! Container grown tomatoes will need to be watered more often than once a week. You will need to check the container each day to determine if it needs watering. To check it, put stick your fingers down into the potting mix to see if there is moisture in below the surface. If the potting soil is dry a couple of inches below the surface it is time to water.
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On the article Wait! Don't Plant Your Tomatoes Yet
Mary Carol Sheffield
12:44 pm on Friday, March 25, 2011
ReplyYou can put out your lettuce this weekend, but wait until April 15th for the cucumber and squash. Lettuce is a cool season vegetable, so you can plant it in fall and in early spring and it can bounce back from the cool temperatures. Cucumbers and squash shouldn't be planted in the ground until after danger of frost has passed. However, you could go ahead and start them indoors in small pots in a sunny window. That way, when April 15th arrives, you'll have a little headstart on them when you plant them as transplants!
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On the article Cook Up Some Compost
Mary Carol Sheffield
4:52 pm on Friday, March 11, 2011
One is fine, but two is nice! How long it takes to break down really depends on how often you turn it. The more you turn it, the faster the composting will be done. So if you turn it once a week and keep it moist as a wrung out sponge, you can probably have finished compost in about 3 months.
If you use two bins, you can have compost at varying stages of completion, but you'll sometimes have varying stages of compost, even in one bin.
I myself am a slow and lazy composter, but I find that almost anytime I need some compost, I can find some that is ready in my bin. So even within one bin, you may find that you can extract finished compost from the bottom, before the top (especially if you are frequently adding items to the compost bin).
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On the article Make a Plan for a Successful Vegetable Garden
Mary Carol Sheffield
4:12 pm on Saturday, January 29, 2011
Thanks Sarah. When you decide to get started, feel free to pop into the Extension office for free publications. You can also access publications online. A great one to start with is Vegetable Gardening in Georgia: http://www.caes.uga.edu/Publications/pubDetail.cfm?pk_id=7817&pg=dl&ak=Horticulture.
Mary Carol Sheffield
1:41 pm on Thursday, August 9, 2012
I think you are seeing red velvet ants, also sometimes called "cow killer ants". They are actually a wasp, but the females are wingless. Males look similar, but have wings. Similar to cicada killer wasps, the females can sting, but the males cannot. They are usually found in conjunction with ground bees or cicada killer wasps, as they lay their eggs in those insects' nests and the eggs feed on the developing larvae of the ground bee or cicada killer wasp. Ahhh, the circle of life!