The ants crawl in...

The Joys of Container Gardening

Basil and cilantro: Before the infestation

We love shopping at the local Farmer's Market and I have wonderful co-workers who share vegetables and fruit from their home gardens, but we want to be self sufficient and grow some of our own food.   Since we do not have a yard, we are starting a container garden to grow fresh produce.  We planted runner beans, squash, carrots, radishes, sweet basil, salad mix, and cilantro.   

The garden was off to a great start.   With the exception of the runner bean incident (see "Runner Beans on the Run") things have been growing well.   The replacement beans are thriving and it has been thrilling watching all of the plants grow. 

Then, the weather warmed.  We noticed a few ants hanging around the cilantro.   The daytime temperatures were hanging around the 100 degree mark and we assumed the ants were looking for water.   Then more and more ants started to arrive.   Our cilantro started to die.   

Keith consulted his dad and we learned that ants are attracted to the sugars produced and excreted by aphids.    Upon closer inspection we spotted the aphids lounging around the cilantro leaves.    Darn those aphids and ants.  

A ring of cayenne pepper slowed the ant invasion but not until after we have lost the majority of the cilantro.   We continued looking for natural ways to repel insects.  

Squash, radish, carrot

Our next tactic will be to sprinkle food grade diatomaceous earth around some plants and see how that works.  I have used this in the past and at my work it was recently used to help stop a tremendous ant invasion. We have heard mixed reviews on using diatomaceous earth.  One garden supply store employee told us it was nasty stuff and that the only place in town we could buy it at would be a pool supply store.  He did not know that there were different grades and assumed food grade was not different from what we would find at the pool supply store.  He recommended some spray on organic chemicals with a label to call poison control if ingested.  Hmmm.... not sure I want to trust his advice. We then went to the feed supply store down the street and asked about the diatomaceous earth.  Here we were told it was great stuff and they wanted to sell us a 40 pound bag.   We were told we could sprinkle it on our dog to control fleas and ticks. We settled on a 6 pound container, the smallest amount they sold.   It is still a bit excessive for a container garden and will take us years to get through the one package.   Let's hope it works. 

Runner Beans: Part II