We’re starting to have random rains in the night. This is very unseasonable, but in San Francisco nothing short of a random snow hurricane is truly unseasonable.
This is, as you can imagine, not helping my garden’s fungal issues.
It has also led to an ant explosion. Which has led to an aphid explosion. And a scale explosion. Enough is enough.
So in response once again, my garden looks like someone had a Miami party in it.
Diatomaceous earth, the best and least toxic ant killer to ever exist, is my saviour here.
Even if it does make my plants look like they were partying with stock brokers.
For the uninitiated- Diatomaceous earth or DE is the ground up remains of microscopic prehistoric seas creatures called diatoms. Or rather their shells. It’s a fine powder to us- but to a crawling insect it’s razor sharp and desiccating and is essentially a barrier insecticide. Best thing is- if you get the food grade stuff, it’s totally 100% harmless to a flying insect or any mammal or bird!
The new beautiful shelves were starting to get some excited ant visitors and it was time to put a stop to that.
It shouldn’t stain the wood- just make it look weird for a bit.
It seems to have worked as the ant activity inside the pots seems to have gone down.
Of course DE becomes worthless when wet, so once it rains or I water it needs re-applying. But it’s so much more effective and safer than poisons so it’s an effort I’m willing to go to.
Ants are still the absolute worst.
The Neanderthal Gardens 
Rains?! Wow, we missed out.
It was all in the wee hours of the morning- so you’d wake up with stuff soaked but not really watered- so some stuff would wilt and the rest would get all mildewed.
so, like drizzle. We got heavy damp fog, but that was all.