I’ve gardened organically since way before it became a popular thing to do. I will continue to garden organically for as long as I’m able to plant and weed. But there are some aspects of this whole organic thing that range from icky to downright hazardous. Case in point:
After spending a lovely hour of tidying and tending in the sun, I decided to change the glue traps I hung in my apple tree this year. These consist of bright red plastic balls that are covered with an extremely sticky glue and hung with a pheremone attractant with the goal of diminishing the apple maggot fly population (and perhaps allowing us to eat an apple or two this year). The upside is, the things seem to be working. There were many, many dead and dying bodies dotting the surface. The downside, of course, is that the traps have to be cleaned and reset. Enter the icky factor. Scraping off bug bits and pieces is just plain gross…especially when one is somewhat squeamish about bug bits. 😛
However, I persevered and soon had two clean red plastic globes ready to re-arm. I spread the glue over the first, carried it out to the tree, hung it, and returned to the house. Doctored up the second, carried it out to the tree, and (are you ready? ‘Cause here comes the hazardous factor…) promptly got the side of my head stuck to the first glue trap when I reached past it. Note to self: next time your hair becomes adhered to really sticky object, pulling away is a bad idea and results in much pain to scalp. Sigh.
The second trap is now hung, olive oil has since removed the glue from my hair (at the cost of my t-shirt, which now bears a large oil stain), and my cell phone has been located and retrieved from the garden where it slipped from my pocket as I did the “duck, yipe, and curse” dance beneath the tree. And as I said, I will continue to garden organically…I’ll just do it with a great deal more respect for the darker side of the pursuit. And maybe I’ll wear a hat, too. 🙂
Leave a Reply