Pillbugs / rolly pollys decimated my peas and tender sprouts for two years. Contrary to the naysayers, it WAS pillbugs because I caught them in the act every night and early morning. I tried diatomaceous earth (they crawled right through it), cardboard rings around sprouts (they dug under them), rolled up wet newspaper (didn’t catch enough), oil/soy sauce/beer/you-name-it traps (didn’t catch enough). I honestly considered giving up planting the tender stuff. After two years of failure, in year 3, I have organically won the battle with the pillbugs in my garden!! I am so elated I’m posting this on every pillbug garden thread I can find! This battle takes commitment. I recommend prepping your garden beds, and a week before setting out plants, go to war. (Or plant your seeds and immediately go to war!) Wet down the soil and about every 2 feet, place pieces of citrus peel (grapefruit or orange), or you can just cut up the fruit. Wait until it’s been dark a few hours. Bring a bucket of soapy water and a headlamp or flashlight with you. CAREFULLY pick up each piece of peel and shake it over the bucket. Tap it to make sure all bugs fall off. The tiny ones really dig in and hang on! There will also be many that stayed in the dirt where the fruit was. Quickly scoop them up and dump them in the bucket too. The first night I did this, I filled my bucket to a 1/2” deep of bugs! Just left them there overnight until they were dead, and dumped everything back in the dirt away from the garden. I kept this up every night for a week, and now just check about once a week. I rarely find large ones anymore, just the teeny tiny ones. I have raised beds and the bugs hide along the edges during the day. I keep pieces of peel around the inside edges and if they are going to eat, they choose the fruit over the sprouts. You’ll need to replace the peels when they begin to dry out. Pillbugs are communal. I noticed pencil eraser sized holes around the edges against the wood. After digging, dozens big and small came out of the spot. If you notice these holes, place peel near them and the bugs won’t wander so far to eat (and potentially happen upon your plants). My peas and lettuces are growing beautifully and barely a nibble has been taken out of them! Lastly, I’ve read of many people that hand pick and throw the pillbugs into the compost heap. I would NEVER do this! It’s basically giving them a buffet to breed in. When you add that compost to your garden, you’re inadvertently adding these pests back in. Happy growing!

as others have said, my house suffers, too, because i want to be playing in the dirt. well, plus i wasn't ever the best housekeeper, but... any excuse will do. lol ! and, like some others, my love of gardening probably started with my grandma (mom's mom). she was amazing- had a veggie garden, fruit trees, lots of flowers and shrubs and didn't mind pesky grandkids messing in them. my granpap also liked to garden, but i think she was the prime gardener in that family. i fondly recall popping the seeds on her balsam, playing with johnny jump ups, picking her lily of the valley and being fascinated by the ants on her peonies. oh, and stuffing myself to bursting with prune plums. mmmm. i didn't really do any gardening then, but it fascinated me. she gave me my first plant, a green dracanae that i still have. at first about all i could keep alive were cactus and that dracanae. i steadily got more housplants as i killed less, and was lucky enough to live for 2 years in her house after i got married (after she was living with my folks). i appreciated all her work outside while i was in college firsthand, and with new eyes. unfortunately, the people who bought the house after she passed away and we moved tore out most of her life's work, much of which was very old and carefree. my dad was a big veggie gardener, and couldn't understand why none of us were much interested in helping. i tried to grow a few things at home- mostly flowers, which baffled him. then, as i got older and out of the house and 3 states away, veggie gardens were the one thing he and i could discuss at length on the phone. he was a quiet man, and it was about the only thing we discussed without him falling asleep on me. :) how i miss planning our gardens together- i still think of him as i get my new seed catalogs and plan out each year. i spent idyllic childhood days playing in the woods appreciating all the green stuff- ferns, trees, jewelweed, trilliums, sweet williams, violets, sedum, iris, daylilies, periwinkle and all sorts of treasures i found in our woods. it was an old homestead from 100 years before and in addition to the wildflowers, much had survived in the woods that they'd planted. my love of wildflowers and ephemerals doubtless springs from those halcyon days. we moved a bunch of houseplants south in '91 with us, and then at our second apartment, i began to do balcony gardening- i think that's when the bug bit hard. i was ecstatic to have my very own yard when we bought our house and immediately began messing in the dirt to plant things. we've been here since '93 and i have a nice sized garden in the front & the side. now my big plans are for our shady back yard. not real sure what i'll do when i fill it up, but i think that'll take me a long time. my dad's sis played a big role, too. as a preteen i spent one summer with them because of my mom's health issues and i learned much about edible landscaping. i've always loved fruit, and it seemed that they had yummy stuff tucked in every corner of their yard. when i began to plan my own garden many years later, it was the memory of her garden that inspired much of mine. she was touched and surprised when i told her that. i'd be remiss if i didn't mention the 4th big influence and that was lady i met while volunteering at mordecai shortly after we moved here. she was in her 70's and had such spunk! she has an amazing garden at her husband's homeplace in louisburg with oodles of old roses, daylilies and iris, among other gems. she was a huge contributor to my garden in its infancy, and my knowledge bank. i consider her my mentor, and my adopted grandma, since one is gone and the other is far away. i love passing along her plants, and helping to spread her influence far and wide. garden webbers have played no small role the last few years, too, and i look forward to learning much more from you guys and making many, many new friends! i feel like my love of gardening came from so many sources and feel very lucky to have had all of them in my life. i consider it a duty to pass along plants to anyone starting up. it's the very least i can do in memory and gratitude to those who helped me so and fed such a great obsession.

Pillbugs / rolly pollys decimated my peas and tender sprouts for two years. Contrary to the naysayers, it WAS pillbugs because I caught them in the act every night and early morning. I tried diatomaceous earth (they crawled right through it), cardboard rings around sprouts (they dug under them), rolled up wet newspaper (didn’t catch enough), oil/soy sauce/beer/you-name-it traps (didn’t catch enough). I honestly considered giving up planting the tender stuff. After two years of failure, in year 3, I have organically won the battle with the pillbugs in my garden!! I am so elated I’m posting this on every pillbug garden thread I can find! This battle takes commitment. I recommend prepping your garden beds, and a week before setting out plants, go to war. (Or plant your seeds and immediately go to war!) Wet down the soil and about every 2 feet, place pieces of citrus peel (grapefruit or orange), or you can just cut up the fruit. Wait until it’s been dark a few hours. Bring a bucket of soapy water and a headlamp or flashlight with you. CAREFULLY pick up each piece of peel and shake it over the bucket. Tap it to make sure all bugs fall off. The tiny ones really dig in and hang on! There will also be many that stayed in the dirt where the fruit was. Quickly scoop them up and dump them in the bucket too. The first night I did this, I filled my bucket to a 1/2” deep of bugs! Just left them there overnight until they were dead, and dumped everything back in the dirt away from the garden. I kept this up every night for a week, and now just check about once a week. I rarely find large ones anymore, just the teeny tiny ones. I have raised beds and the bugs hide along the edges during the day. I keep pieces of peel around the inside edges and if they are going to eat, they choose the fruit over the sprouts. You’ll need to replace the peels when they begin to dry out. Pillbugs are communal. I noticed pencil eraser sized holes around the edges against the wood. After digging, dozens big and small came out of the spot. If you notice these holes, place peel near them and the bugs won’t wander so far to eat (and potentially happen upon your plants). My peas and lettuces are growing beautifully and barely a nibble has been taken out of them! Lastly, I’ve read of many people that hand pick and throw the pillbugs into the compost heap. I would NEVER do this! It’s basically giving them a buffet to breed in. When you add that compost to your garden, you’re inadvertently adding these pests back in. Happy growing!

Such a hot dry summer here in Austin. I live on a creek that has dried up for the first time since we moved here 10 years ago. It's not so much my beautiful St. Augustine and annuals I'm worried about, but my trees are looking very bad. I've already lost a couple of young pecan trees. We have a huge elm tree that is shedding a lot of leaves now. I just don't know if I can water enough to keep them alive. Evidently I made some good choices in perennials because they are doing fairly good. The bed is heavily mulched and every well established. I have hardy hibiscus that are really showing off this summer. I have put off any kind of summer pruning or thinning. Anything to give them a little more shade. We havenÂt mowed in 3 weeks, IÂm kinda afraid to, it might cut all the green off the top and leave us with hay. I have noticed that people who mow their yards weekly are having a harder time keeping them green. I really donÂt want to start all over on lawn grass. If I do I will replace it with something more drought resistant. Although I do love that beautiful St. Augustine. I have double potted all of my hanging baskets and still had to set them on the ground in shade to keep from watering them every day, cause frankly folks it's just to dang hot out there for me. I also started bringing plants back in the house to save them. It's just so sad to have to decide on who lives and who dies. They say we are supposed to have a wet fall. If not, I think we are going to lose a lot of trees around here.