Beauty & The Beast!

The last couple of years, I’ve tried planting cabbage from seed……each time the seedling would just pop out of the ground, and something would eat the entire seedling.

This year, instead of planting cabbage seeds, I purchased several cabbage seedlings (healthy in size, approximately 4 inches) from Atwoods Ranch Store, and directly planted them in the compost soil mixture.   These larger seedlings started to grow nicely; that was until we had massive rain storms, which caused flooding in my garden. 

The water/moisture attracted bugs…..you know, those type of bugs that love to eat in your garden, as if it were a salad bar at a restaurant.

To stop the bugs from targeting my cabbage leaves, I mixed up a natural bug concoction out of water, alcohol, and Dawn dish soap, and sprayed it on the cabbage leaves directly.  This natural bug concoction/spray worked at killing off the bugs….that was until it rained again.  After each time it rained, I went back outside and re-sprayed the cabbage with the organic homemade bug spray.

After checking on my cabbage last night, I noticed these thin green looking worms munching down on the cabbage……here we go again!!!! 

This time, instead of a bug, its worms, munching down on the cabbage leaves.  Half of the leaves looked as if they were pieces of Swiss cheese with all the holes in them. I pulled off each and every worm…….squishing each one to death, and then sprayed my cabbage plants once again with the organic homemade bug spray.

Tonight while outside, I checked my cabbage plants, they’re doing well, no signs of worms.  I will continue to check my garden until harvest time; hopefully I’ll have some nice looking cabbage not too long from now.

These worms are called Cabbage Worms, nasty little boogers.  Bright green/blue in color, small and thin looking, and can be very destructive. I prefer to use organic homemade sprays to kill off bugs/worms.  Most people recommend using Bacillus Thuringiensis, an organic crystal protein, which paralyzes the digestive system of the insect.

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Just to get out of the house, I took Bulldog Man (since he's still not allowed to drive until after he gets a release from his doctor because of his surgery) for a nice drive down to where we love to go fishing; down at Lake of the Arbuckles, Davis, Oklahoma to see what type of damage was done to the lake after all the storms we had.

We stepped out of the truck twice in the park, and walked to the edge where water was not supposed to be, to take these pictures.  The park was really messed up; old trees and vegetation are sitting in water. You could smell the stench of rotting vegetation because of all the sitting water.  It will be sometime before we can fish in our favorite location.  We may have to wait until winter to test the water……if you know what I mean.  

There was, however, two gorgeous butterflies flying around Bulldog Man and me as we took in all the damage to the lake and park.  I took a few pictures to share with you; the damage at the lake, and the beauty of two butterflies that wouldn’t leave us alone. 

Tomorrow is the infamous follow up doctor’s appointment for Bulldog Man to see if he gets released to return to work, and approval to be able drive anytime soon.  Folks, I must say he looks good for having his throat slit.  

Tell me about your weekend........