Ryan’s Garden Blog

Zone 8 with alkaline, sandy soil in the coastal plain, North Carolina.

My garden is such a mess I didn’t even want to post these photos. But I know I’ll be glad later when everything looks amazing and I can see how much progress I’ve made.

These pics are from early January. My first priority is clean up and planning for spring.

More pics of the mess

Signs of life!

The dianthus I planted last year is already getting some leaves, so in a fit of optimism I planted a few more. Hopefully they will attract pollinators from spring until fall. It’s amazing how much better I feel about my garden with just a little bit of color. And my strawberries are coming up as well.

The blueberries are beginning to flower.

And some crochet mandalas I’ve been making. I love these little projects to experiment with color combinations.

I could use some advice on fruit trees this week.

I added a pink lady apple and a contender peach to my small “orchard.” I chose taller trees so the deer can’t reach all the leaves.  I’m planning to level the ground around them and plant pollinator attracting native flowers.

Any ideas what type of plants would provide nutrients for the fruit trees?

One my my apple trees got aphids in the fall, I sprayed with insecticidal soap a few times and hoped they all died during the winter. They didn’t. So far they haven’t spread to my other apple trees at least. Obviously the long term solution is to make the tree as healthy as possible. But is there a better, more permie solution than insecticidal soap that would work immediately?

I don't know much about growing in your climate. From the looks of that close-up picture, though the tree might be getting some infection. If it's localized, I would cut off the affected branch and burn it.

Definitely aphids. I’ve had them on several plants in the past.

I have found a possible exacerbater of the problem, ants. We seem to have a lot of ants, who farm aphids to collect the sweet sticky substance created by aphids. I’m wondering if shrinking the ant population would also shrink the aphid population. Also, ant bites hurt.

I think I’ll have continue spraying insecticidal soap for now, eliminate some of the larger and nests, and when it starts warming up plant to attract more beneficial insects.