Asparagus beetles have a similar look to lady bugs. As larvae, they are 1/3 inch long and are slug like in appearance. Adult asparagus beetles are about 1/4 inch in length and are metallic blue-black with either yellow or black spots on their wings. Both adult and larvae can be dangerous to your asparagus causing the tips to turn brown and twist.
Assassin bugs are primarily gray or dark brownish in color, although some can be brightly colored. They are named appropriately as an ‘assassin’ because of their beak that stabs their prey to death. They primarily prey upon caterpillars, leafhoppers, aphids, and other harmful pests to your garden. Assassin bugs can also turn to attack some beneficial insects as well. They will also bite you if you try to handle them, but will generally leave you alone.
Garlic is one of our favorite things to grow and eat. We add it to almost every meal for both its flavor and its nutrients. Typically, it’s planted in the fall, will go dormant through the winter, and then will come back in the spring to be harvested in the summer! However, you can also plant it early in the spring if you missed planting in the fall. You may not end up with bulbs as large as fall-planted, but you’ll still get garlic!
This fast-growing, cool-season salad green (aka “Rocket”) – often ready to harvest as early as 4 weeks after seeding – adds a tangy, peppery or mustard-like flavor to salads and mesclun mixes. Arugula can be incredibly spicy as the temperature warms up, but sweetens as it cools.
Raccoons are huge corn-lovers, and they will destroy the corn in your garden in a hurry. Keeping them out of your garden is imperative to protecting your corn.
Kale is one of the things we grow the most. Its leaves are very nutritious, containing high levels of vitamins A, B, C, and K and large amounts of fiber, potassium, and calcium. It is also one of the few plants that we can grow all winter long. We plant it in the fall, and it typically grows all the way until the following summer.
The carrot rust fly looks similar to the common house-fly with a dark-green body and yellow extremities and head. The carrot rust fly itself doesn’t do the damage, but their larvae is particularly bad for your plants. The adults lay their eggs early spring on the surface of the soil then the pests hatch a couple days later as creamy white larvae and tunnel into the roots of your plants causing slow growth and sometimes death.
Adult stink bugs are green or brown and grow up to ¾” long; they have distinctive shield-shaped bodies. Young stink bugs are smaller, rounder, and more colorful, with highly patterned black, red, white, and green colored bodies.
The adult onion fly resembles the house fly, but smaller. The larvae are legless and creamy-white and will cause the plants to wilt and die.
We love to grow beets because they’re full of vitamins, and the entire plant can be eaten. The greens from beets are great in salad mixes, and the roots are a sweet, earthy addition to a vegetable juice.
