Melbourne had its warmest November night on record. Aparently it is nothing too special, we are breaking records in almost every Australian state and poor Adelaide is sweltering with the parts of the state in catastrophic fire danger stages. My folks are heading here for the weekend, so at least they can trade in their 43 degree day for a 34 degree day.
The hot conditions are playing havoc with the balcony garden. Water saving is in full force and the plants are thirsty. They are also covered in thrip, absolutely covered. The leaves, the flowers, the stems, they are spotted with these little brown flea-like bugs. And there is nothing I can do, well nothing except wait. It should cool down on the weekend and then I am afraid I am going to have to spray the lot. Hopefully I can find the resident ladybug and his mate and put them in another garden for the day, and hope that the bees also steer clear for the day.
Thrip are the pits, seriously the pits. But I guess it could be worse, there could be bushfires. Fingers crossed the fireys don't have any work to do today.
11 comments:
Is that your balcony? It looks amazing and full of life! Awesome!
Prue
It won't help this year but there are blue sticky traps that will control thrips. I got mine from Green Harvest (www.greenharvest.com.au). They should work OK on a small spot such as yours.
Oh, this is what I love about reading bloggers from your part of the world. I just went outside with a flashlight (torch to you?) at 6 p.m. to pick some parsley and it's 48F. I can't believe summer is a not so distant memory already. But... I'm still harvesting cherry tomatoes!
What a bind you are in, you can't even rinse the plants because of you water restrictions and it's too hot to spray with a treatment. I hope it cools down for you soon and that nothing goes up in smoke.
Kalena- yup sure is my balcony, it is looking a little less lush after this weather.
Jamie - I'll look out for them next time. Anything to stop the little things would be great.
Michelle - Yay for still harvesting cherry tomatoes!!! The plants are a bit big now to rinse too. It is set to hit the mid 20s on the weekend with rain/storms (great for the garden less great for my cousin who is getting married!!!) To be honest my garden can stand up to it, and if things die I can replace them but I am really keeping my fingers crossed for those in fire zones because the weather is really not good for them.
Prue~~ Fingers are definitely crossed. Australia doesn't need a repeat of last year.
I hope you get your pests under control and get that much needed rain.
I hope the weather improves soon, though your balcony garden still looks terrific. Can you purchase armies of ladybugs at your local nursery? I'm not familiar with your bugs but I have good success turning loose a bunch of ladies on my pests.
Hi, I have an award for you on my blog. I enjoying reading your posts and thanks for blogging! No need to participate in the awards if you don't want to. =)
Dan beat me to the punch LOL But I gave you the same award on my blog also. Check it out and congrats, Prue!
I hope your little balcony was OK today in 38C Melbourne heat. At least it has cooled down now. Justa botu to go home (I'm also at the Uni!) to see what has survived in my backyard.
Grace - thanks for the finger crossing, looks like it worked (mostly)
Nancy - the pests seem to have abated after the spraying and the rain but time will tell
Kate - I wish we could buy ladybugs, I haven't seen them yet at the shops. I did see a little ladybug today on the snapdragons so that is a good sign.
Dan - thanks so much for the award!
Kalena - ditto and thanks so much
Funkybunny - hope your backyard survived the heat. It seems the balcony went ok, and that rain was a real relief! Looks like more at the end of this week too.
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