Today I am scouring the Internet in search of motion activated cameras to mount gardenside to discover the thieves who stole my chives. All of them. Granted, there weren’t a lot of them, but enough to grace a lovely baked potato slathered in butter, or enough to float on cream sauce encircling a ruby red piece of wild salmon. Now, there are none. Just some stubs poking from the ground, forlornly seeking the rest of stalky heights.
Unfortunately, a Google search of “chive predators” only returns a story about a monster fish eating a live duck. Searching for “chive pests” I’ve discovered that thrips are the evil monsters that inhale chives. According to www.no-dig-vegetablegarden.com, thrips “can start off as one or two, but be careful as overnight they explode into a mass chive feast.” Apparently I missed the Chive Fiesta. Wikipedia, the go to source for all facts, especially about Paul Revere’s ride (Check it out Sarah Palin), notes that thrips feed on plants with commercial value. Little did I know my tiny chive garden could be monetized. I wonder what the price per bushel of chives is on the futures market…
I’ve moved the chives upstairs to the balcony, just in case chive pestilence is only a first floor thing (hey, it can’t hurt). And I guess I’ll be spraying everything with soapy water. Turns out, pests don’t like soap. Too bad it won’t work on ticks.
After 24 years living waterside in California….I must say that we have never had an chive bandits. Must be an East Coast thing. I do recall that Cindy, who does not currently live waterside, lost a crop of onions to wild short legged dogs of German descent.
Keep it up, I love it!
Vickie