waaaaah

[metaphortunate]

My fuchsias are succumbing to some sort of fuchsia disease. New growth, buds and leaves, comes out pale green, fuzzy, and sort of twisted and clubbed. It's very Elephant Man like, if the Elephant Man were more of an Elephant Plant. Plant body horror.

Something horrible has decided to make a home by gluing together the leaves of my primroses.

Birds eat my seedlings down to the stalk. The red chard is totally gone, nothing but a few sad stems. The kale is almost gone. But it's true of anything I plant. The spinach gave up. I tried putting chicken wire on top of the pots, which worked great until the seedlings got too tall for it, at which point I had to take it off and the birds began their reign of destruction. Feathery little bastards.

Today I am a sad and frustrated gardener. Any thoughts? I have this "anti-disease" spray that claims to be okay for organic gardening and smells like vinegar so it's probably worthless. And an anti-bug spray soap that seems to keep the aphids off, anyway.

Comments

[cofax7]

Apparenlty in the Bay Area there's only a couple of fuschias that are appropriate--all the rest succumb to the fuschia fungus. But I don't remember what kind it is!

[metaphortunate]

That can't be right: I see fuchsias everywhere in people's front gardens, plus there's a whole Fuchsia Walk in GGP!

[cofax7]

Not a fungus! But I'm not altogether wrong. There's a bug, the gall mite, that infects most varieties of fuschia in the Bay Area; see this article, which recommends some treatment. I don't know if this is what's wrong with your plant, but it could be.

[kalmn]

Don't worry, there will be a hard freeze soon and then you'll be done for the year.

Oh, wait.

[metaphortunate]

Yeah, not so much!

[pantryslut]

This is why I couldn't figure out what to do with my lone tomato. Do I have to cut it down before the freeze? Well, no. Then when do I know when to stop waiting for it to turn red?!

Harimad says:

[(Anonymous)]

Now you sound like the Soviets giving military advice to the Egyptians.

Re: Harimad says:

[kalmn]

I do live in siberia.

[moonvoice]

Stupid thought, but have you looked into scarecrows? Ones that make noises, or rattle, can be very effective, but even just smaller scarecrows (a friend used a fake cat to great effect) and help out.

[metaphortunate]

That had not occurred to me! I may get one of those fake owls! Thanks for the idea!

[brownbetty]

Have you tried bird netting? It minimizes the damages to my cherry bush, if I can get it out in time.