The garden – it pains me.

I had such high hopes this year for my beautiful little garden. We’ve moved about a block away from the site and I thought that nothing could prevent me from caring for it each and every day – almost like it was in my back yard.

Well, “nothing” turned out to be entertaining two children, miles apart in age and activity, for the summer.

First, there was the winter kale:

I wasn’t sure what it was so I asked anyone on flickr for identification. I couldn’t see the little buggers moving so I thought it was indeed Cabbage Worms and since my kale had basically been stripped in the span on one week, out they came.

A tad too dramatic? Perhaps.
However, gardening has become quite emotional for me. The community garden and my little backyard spot are my favourite places to be. When I come home from the garden, even if the trip has been a gong show of simultaneous breast-feeding, watering, weeding and thinning with a whole lot of “Can we go NOW?” thrown in, I still feel refreshed and calm.

This doesn’t even begin to explain just how much gardening affects me. It’s not enough that it is a hobby. I want to study it for the rest of my life. I want to place community gardens everywhere possible. I want people to know how special it is to grow their own tomatoes, carrots, beans… I want children to understand how much water it takes to grow food. I want society to realize how important bees are to our existence.

I want
I want
I want

I want the Wooley Aphids to stop eating my brussel sprouts!

and how about my sad artichokes!

This is The Summer of Aphids.

I wonder if I was able to get there on a daily basis, if I would still be having this problem. Who knows. Swimming lessons have taken precedent over our morning walk to the garden. Sometimes I try to go after dark but this hardly happens. I am, as they say, on a short leash. The last few times I’ve left the house to the garden while there was still light outside, I was called back to a screaming baby.

The end of the day spells almost constant breastfeeding. Bring on the solids!

Ah, it’s all good. If we still lived across the city, I would have had to give up on this garden so I’m happy with what I have been able to do. We ate endive salad tonight. Our squash is growing well. Carrots are plentiful. We have a bell pepper or two. The yellow beans are turning… yellow. The pole beans are climbing. The strawberries were excellent.

I’m going back there tomorrow armed with a spray bottle of dish detergent and water and I hope to make those brussel sprouts too slippery for those guys.

Wish me luck!
If anyone else has any more advice on how to get rid of these aphids, please let me know. Until then, it’s the ladybugs, the yellow jackets and me.