Tuesday, February 19, 2019
When fall approaches farmers including flower farmers have a number of things which have to be covered for the winter. With beef and dairy farmers it's often bunker silos filled with corn silage or hay silage while with flower growers like me there are thousands of pots that need to be covered. Historically everyone used commercial plastic held down with old tires. At Vermont Flower Farm we always used tires too.
When the Zika virus first made the news I wrote a piece on this same blog about the mosquitoes involved. It infuriated me that government people with excellent credentials said that the Aedes mosquito, originally documented in the Ziika Forest of Uganda, would not live in Vermont. That theory lastest less than a season.
As soon as I heard this I changed over to using sand bags like those pictured above. They are readily available from companies such as Gemplers, Uline, Traffic Safety, from Amazon.com sources, and from places local to us such as EJ Prescott up by the Montpelier airport.
As soon as I heard this I changed over to using sand bags like those pictured above. They are readily available from companies such as Gemplers, Uline, Traffic Safety, from Amazon.com sources, and from places local to us such as EJ Prescott up by the Montpelier airport.
Yes, there's tons of snow on the ground now but if you have a pile of old tires laying around, or if you use them commercially like I used to, consider replacing them with sand bags. Mosquitoes like the Aedes mosquito need only a tablespoonfull of water to breed and the consequences are not good. Think about others while you garden!
George Africa
The Vermont Gardener
Vermont Flower Farm and Gardens
Marshfield, VT
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