Square Foot Garden

I've been having a lot of fun with my garden.  Initially, I was having a great deal of success with the lettuce, it was growing by leaps and bounds.  As you can see by the following pictures I was able to get quite a few harvests and made several sandwiches and a couple of nice salads.

By the way, this was a great salad!!

I was so happy, everything was growing wonderfully.  

UNTIL some little critters decided to have a feast!!!

To say the least, I was VERY upset when I woke up and saw my lettuce was full of holes.  I looked all through the garden and discovered two problem critters, caterpillars and snails.  I tried removing the caterpillars and putting salt around the perimeter of the garden, but to no avail.  After a few days my lettuce was pretty much all gone :-(

After some online searching I decided to purchase Natria (from Lowe's) and Thuricide (from a local nursery).  These two pesticides are supposedly good for getting rid of all little garden critters (especially mine) and safe to use in a vegetable garden.  I had to try something to get these pests under control before I lost my entire garden.  

Since 2 squares of lettuce were ruined I decided to dig them up and replaced them with mint and basil.  After planting the basil and mint I used the Natria pellets and the liquid Thuricide and I crossed my fingers.   

It has been about 3 days since I used the pesticides and the critter activity seems to have slowed down. 

I did see some new damage on the broccoli and beans the day after using the pesticides.  So, in order to be proactive, I sprayed a little more Thuricide on all the plants and sprinkled more Natria in all the squares and around the perimeter of the garden. 

During the last few days I've been spending a lot of time checking on the garden.  

It looks like the pesticides may be keeping the critters under control.   I have not seen any additional holes in the veggies.

I wouldn't say that I am free of my little pests permanently, but I with continuous use of the Thuracide and Natria I should be able to keep them under control and away from most of my veggies.  

Renee