Best Husband Ever

My husband and I complement each other very well and in the case of our garden and compost, it is perfect!  I feel like I have enough on my plate with the kids, house, cooking, blogging, shopping, etc and taking care of the garden is something I don't have time for.  So, luckily, Dennis has taken on this garden as his own.  He waters the plants and researches what bugs are out there and what we can do about them.  He is also excited about composting, so yay, I don't have to be!  I knew he would come in handy someday...HA!  No, I really could not be doing this year long project without him, so thanks honey!

 Here is an update on our garden from him:
It has been fun watching nature in action out there. I saw some very hungry caterpillars munching on a cucumber sprout one day, and the next I saw a bunch of ants feasting on caterpillar carcass. Nature is FUN! 
So far most of the plants look like they're doing great. All the sprouts are up and I've pared almost all of them down to one sprout per hole (as suggested by the book). The couple of exceptions are the arugula and one of the tomato plants. I'm not exactly sure what is up with the tomato plant, it just looks a little sad, but the arugula is quite obvious.

 It is riddled with little holes and, after investigating on the internet, I found the insects responsible to be called flea beetles. Apparently arugula is one of their favorite dishes, besides other leafy greens and sprouts. Some gardeners will even plant arugula while other plants are sprouting just to distract the beetles (insert Yoko Ono jokes here). Sure enough, I went out tonight and found one of them on a radish sprout. Just sitting there looking all smug.

  So a little more research pointed me to an all natural deterrent... garlic spray. I've found a recipe for it that I'm going to try. It is basically crushed garlic, soap, vegetable oil, and water. Sounds easy enough. I'll report back if it makes a difference!