Life is beautiful, joyful, sad, scary, wonderful, and sometimes even terrible but every moment is a moment to learn and be better.

As I learn to be a better person I still fall and allow my inner child to win. I let him get out and make a mess of things, it is less and less but it still happens.

As I am trying to become a better person I am also trying to grow as a gardener as a person that provides nutrient dense food to my family and I. It is a journey that never ends. My grandpa who has gardened his whole life told me that he learned something new about gardening up until his very last garden, which wasn’t that long ago and he is almost 90 years old.

I have been having problems with red spider mites for the last three years and have learned how to fight them with smashing them, spraying them down and now I am going to make a spray with 2 tablespoons of soap 2 tablespoons of olive oil and one gallon of water. I am hoping this will be the winner because the first 2 years the spider mite has won.

We all have challenges, we might fail once, twice even more but we must keep going one step at a time and with patience and persistence we will. I will conquer the spider mite if not this year maybe next. #grownostr #garden #spidermite #growagarden #

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Soap solution is pretty effective on spider mites. You don't really need the oil, the soap itself is a good killer for bugs like mites and aphids. Make sure you spray the underside of the leaves thoroughly. And don't be tempted to add more soap. A stronger solution can burn plants that are sensitive to soap. Better to use a more dilute solution and spray several times, a few days apart.

This year, I've been experimenting with a citric acid solution for killing soft-bodied insects in the greenhouses. Whiteflies and aphids are my problem, not spider mites so much. The citric acid works well, and as a bonus is an excellent fungicide for things like powdery mildew. I just learned about it a few months ago, but the results so far have been promising.

Good luck! You seem to have the right attitude toward gardening. Every season will be different for your entire life. You'll learn something new every time you plant a garden. Unfortunately, most of the early lessons come from dead plants...

#gardening #pestcontrol #organic

Thank you so much for the advice. Yup most lessons are learned from the dead plants that is for sure.