Bergundy Okra and Ants

So my first garden (see my previous post about the Summer Garden - 2011) and my first pest struggle. About the time my bergundy okra starts budding I start seeing ants.

Tons of ants.

So of course I begin looking up organic pest control means. I tried all of the ideas I could find.

1) Coffee grounds are supposed to be eaten by the ants and the ants are supposed to implode. So I try it to no avail. Now maybe it works, but ants are a problem of shear numbers and coffee grounds I set out made no noticeable difference to the quantity of ants I had on my okra.

2) Baking soda is supposed to be poisonous to ants. This is supposed to be used as a deterrent. So try it. It seems to work until of course the damp night air makes the baking soda a crusty cake rather than a powder. At this point the ants just walk across it.

3) Flour  and baby powder are supposed to be deterrents to ants as well. So I tried the flour and similar to baking soda it works for a day or so. Then, the ants are back.

4) Vinegar 50% vinegar 50% water mixture. Works great! Until it dries and the ants are back once again.

5) Organic pepper spray: hot peppers minced and combined with cooking oil, strained to remove the pepper pieces and mixed with liquid dish soap (organic dish soap) and water. Similar to the vinegar solution, this works great, until it dries and the ants come right back.

6) Diatomaceous earth - this one I am pretty sure would as I have tried it on fleas and it works awesome on fleas. Diatomaceous earth absorbs lipids from the insects exoskeletons and they die of dehydration. But I didn't try this one because of all the moisture in the garden. Since the diatomaceous earth absorbs moisture I assumed watering would quickly make it useless in the garden.

So what did I do? Well, I eventually stumbled onto an article that said ants were not necessarily a problem for okra. It said that prior to the introduction of fire ants to the United States, ants were not considered harmful to okra. The ants are actually not feeding on the okra plant but are feeding on aphids that are growing on the okra. So I went out and double checked and sure enough no signs of fire ants (fire ants are reddish); the ants I have are all black ants. To further check this theory, I took a closer look at the okra leaves and sure enough there are these little bugs on them that the ants appeared to be eating. So I left the ants alone.

I have tons of ants in my garden but I haven't seen any sign of fire ants and I haven't seen any significant damage caused by the ants. The ants appear to be primarily focused on the bugs (aphids I am assuming) on the okra plants. So I have left them alone. I now consider these ants to be my little garden helpers.

Summer Garden - 2011 - Bergundy Okra

Some pictures of the first few okra blooms and resultant fruit of the season.These pictures were taken during the month of May. You'll see a lot of ants which I will discuss in further detail in another post. The ants haven't done much, if any, damage to the okra.

First okra fruit of the season and another bud soon to bloom.

First okra fruit of the season and the bud has now bloomed.

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And the ants are clearly evident. But the flower is so beautiful.

The first okra of the season. It was good. When cooked the bergundy okra are green and look and taste jsut like regular okra.

Another view of the first okra of the season.

The flowers are so pretty. It really gives a whole new appreciation to mother nature when you see how beautiful the food you eat is when its still alive and growing.

Summer Garden - 2011

We decided to plant a small garden this past spring. We laid out two 4 feet x 4 feet plots. In the first plot we planted corn, squash, and beans following the three sisters layout (some modifications made due to limited spacing). The other plot we planted cucumbers, okra, and tomatoes. I didn't take any pictures early on, but here are some pictures from late spring/ early summer.

"Three sisters" plot - mid to late spring. The plants are looking good. There's an edamame plant that I acquired and stuck in the middle. The edamame later died (still not sure why).

Three sisters plot late spring/early summer. The corn, the beans, and squash are starting to fruit. The squash by the way are super tasty and so are the beans.

The second plot with cucumbers, bergundy okra, and tomatoes - picture from late spring. Only one of the cucumber vines survived, but I am sure this will be plenty for us. The tomatoes are coming along a little slower than I had hoped. The okra started producing small quantities shortly after this. Anedamame plant is between the tomatoes.

Picture from late spring/early summer. The cucumber plant produced its first fruit shortly after this picture and so did the okra. The edamame plant died shortly after this picture. The tomatoes are still coming along slowly but surely.

Camellia - pictures

Just a couple pictures of my camellias --

This is one of a few flowers like this I have seen. The rest of the flowers are typically red or pink.