Snap peas are in full effect (actually snow peas: I bought seeds from a small seed business in Old Town asking for sugar snap peas and apparently they thought it was find to give me snow peas instead. Bummed out a bit about it. Sadly I doubt I'll ever buy seeds there again.). My dad and I constructed my first excellent trellis from nails, old wood and string. Awesome. Planted my peas. It is lovely. Then.... attack of the powdery mildew.
Being the quasi-hippie that I am, I googled how to kill powdery mildew with essential oils. My search led me to believe that misting the leaves with clove oil diluted in water was my solution. I had clove oil in my stash, so i was ready to go!
As I'm happily spraying away and enjoying the smell of cloves in the evening and thinking to myself how clever I was, my neighbor arrives home. Now, I live in an apartment and my garden is only 6 feet from my neighbor's very cool koi pond. It is in one of those barrels that frats use to keep their natty ice cold on a hot day, so not a very large koi pond. But it is very nice to look at and adds a lovely fountain sound just outside my bedroom window.
I was promptly informed by my neighbor that clove oil kills fish! Great. I was in the process of misting clove oil only feet away from innocent fish that could easily be euthanized. Seriously, who knew? I'd have been less likely to kill the fish from round-up pesticides.
Luckily I hadn't used all that much and after all I wasn't actually administering the concoction to the fish water. However, had I used the spray every day, there is a good chance I could have damaged his fish.
Lesson Learned: no playing with essential oils when there are fish nearby!
So, I still have powdery mildew taking over my peas. sad.
Being the quasi-hippie that I am, I googled how to kill powdery mildew with essential oils. My search led me to believe that misting the leaves with clove oil diluted in water was my solution. I had clove oil in my stash, so i was ready to go!
As I'm happily spraying away and enjoying the smell of cloves in the evening and thinking to myself how clever I was, my neighbor arrives home. Now, I live in an apartment and my garden is only 6 feet from my neighbor's very cool koi pond. It is in one of those barrels that frats use to keep their natty ice cold on a hot day, so not a very large koi pond. But it is very nice to look at and adds a lovely fountain sound just outside my bedroom window.
I was promptly informed by my neighbor that clove oil kills fish! Great. I was in the process of misting clove oil only feet away from innocent fish that could easily be euthanized. Seriously, who knew? I'd have been less likely to kill the fish from round-up pesticides.
Luckily I hadn't used all that much and after all I wasn't actually administering the concoction to the fish water. However, had I used the spray every day, there is a good chance I could have damaged his fish.
Lesson Learned: no playing with essential oils when there are fish nearby!
So, I still have powdery mildew taking over my peas. sad.
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