Garden Friends and Pests

On every stem, on every leaf,... and at the root of everything that grew, was a professional specialist in the shape of grub, caterpillar, aphis, or other expert, whose business it was to devour that particular part. 
~Oliver Wendell Holmes

My garden has been visited by pests!  Specifically in the form of aphids.  So far they aren't too bad.  For some reason they really like the dill so they are mostly leaving the other plants alone.  I don't use any pesticide on my plants so I've been researching non-chemical ways of dealing with them.  Most of the advice I've found is to blast them off with a strong spray of water.  I don't have a hose or anything so I'm on the hunt for a spray bottle that seems powerful.  In the meantime I'm picking them off by hand and squishing them.  Its kind of gross, but it seems to be working.

But the aphids aren't the only unwanted visitors I've had.  The other morning I heard some light thumping outside.  I looked out the window and saw birds eating my strawberries!  They got the berries and all the flowers.  The strawberries weren't doing that well anyway so this wasn't a huge loss, but I was frustrated to lose the couple berries that seemed to actually be growing.  There is one bright spot to all this though.  Since my strawberry plants were pretty much destroyed, I pulled them out and now I have room for more flowers.  And the best part is that the strawberries were planted in a sunny spot so I'm not limited to shade plants for once.

I walked around the garden section of the Home Depot for at least half an hour trying to figure out the most exciting flowers I could get for a relatively small spot.  Eventually I settled on this pretty Dahlia.  I love the bright vibrant colors.

I've already professed a weakness for garden accessories so I thought I would share a few pictures of my garden 'friends'.

First up is Hootie...

Hootie seemed a little lonely so I had to get him a friend.  My Dad bought me this little fish.  Now I have Hootie and the Blowfish!  Cheesy I know, but it makes me smile.

And finally, what garden would be complete without a gnome?  So here is mine.  His name is Gnome Chomsky...