in the rest of the garden-

Broccoli is struggling along. It keeps getting eaten by those green caterpillars that exactly match the hue of the leaves so I search and search and don't find them all. I think it's the larvae of the cabbage white butterfly. I keep picking off, but am always finding another one... I'm not sure if the plants will regain health enough to produce any heads. Somehow I lost a cucumber plant. Only have two now, and they have bloomed but remain quite small- I think the soil in these new beds is just not built up well enough yet.

The herbs seem to be doing okay in there- I've got more oregano, basil (three kinds!) and thyme than I can use. Wish I had more of the dill, green onions/chives and summer savory. I love those on eggs or fish, and keep eating it faster than the plants can keep up! Must sow more. (In the picture, cinnamon thai basil on the far left, sweet basil on the far right, dill just to the left and summer savory just to the right of the tree trunk). There's green onions or chives in that planter, too, but I've cut them so much to eat, you can't even see them anymore.

In the main garden bed, beets are looking grand.

So are the ferny carrots. I pulled up the bolting lettuce and planted a few young peppers in their spot.

In the back of it all are my borage. Some fell over in heavy rainstorms, but then ends of the stems turned and grew upright again. They're just starting to flower now, too. I haven't seen any bees visit yet...

I'm still trying to thwart whatever keeps digging in here. Applying cayenne pepper and coffee grounds on alternating weeks seemed to be mostly keeping the digger away, but I got really frustrated that my ginger pot kept getting dug up. When I found one of the ginger rhizomes laid bare I really got upset. I laid stones all over the pot, and now they are left alone. I only have to move a few stones when I want to dig up some ginger myself. I wonder now if it was a chipmunk? (I'd think a squirrel strong enough to move the stones if it wanted to, but maybe it would just move on looking for some easier spot. But I don't want to put rocks all over my garden bed, so this will only work for troublesome pots).

small harvest

This morning picked fresh a few big Tomatoes, some green Bell Peppers for pizza tonight, and a nice stem of Green Onions. Also my first two Orka! Tossed in the freezer, as Chris advised, until I have more. Still don't know what I'm going to do with it, but maybe I better get used to plants that love hot weather and figure out how to eat them.

Because the rest are succumbing. I had to pull most of my large tomato plants and the two cherries, all sick and nasty. Had to cut down those tall bean poles and trash it all- diseased and bug-ridden. I cut up the broccoli plants into compost as well- what with the weather they just taste bitter. Crawling with harlequin beetles too. Ugh.

Well, the Okra looks lovely and the carrots and beets seem to be holding on, but the garden looks much diminished now. Only the Zucchini and Pumpkins look really lush and stunning, and those Pumpkins are growing sooooo fast! But the cucumber beetles are back; I spend every morning picking them out of blossoms to squish. Don't know if I'll be able to keep ahead of them and keep the plants healthy...

wow

I've been on vacation at my mother's for about two weeks, then they came over here for a bit. Upon returning home we found the garden full of stuff to eat! All this bounty on the table I picked and gathered just this morning. There's loads of Cherry Tomatoes, tons of Green Beans and about ten more ripe Cantaloupes still out there!

I cooked a garden feast for my family (with my sisters and parents visiting too). We had Swiss Chard frittata, Cherry Tomatoes, Carrots and Cucumbers dipped in humus, steamed Green Beans, sauteed Zucchini, fresh-cut Cantaloupe (delicious!) and caprese salad. It was fantastic!

Sadly, many of the plants suffered while I was gone, unavailable to do bug control. I had to pull every last Cucumber vine. So the dozen fat cukes we got today are the last ones. The Corn is all dried and dead, most of the Cantaloupe vines look sicked with bacterial wilt, too. I haven't even begun to look through the Pumpkin vines, but lots of those look sick, too.

Tomorrow I'll start cleaning up, pulling weeds and dead/sickened vines, to see how far the damage has gone. My mom said what's the solution to the cucumber beetle and I said "bats!"

insects

29 cucumber beetles caught today. Not much better. I got one of the red ones, here's a photo. Can you see how I was fooled into mistaking them for ladybugs at first?

I found some nice bugs hanging around on the Basil, though. Lots of fat happy bumblebees which ignore me entirely

and this beautiful tiny butterfly.

What was really curious about this guy was that I watched him rub the tail parts of his wings together- they looked like little feelers, not just decorative parts of the wing, and he moved them independently against each other while the main part of the wing held still.

I also spotted a gang of these bugs on a Pumpkin leaf. They must have just hatched- were crowded all together. When I came close for a photo they scattered. I wonder if they're the same bug as this one? and if they eat a pest for me or not?

beetle count

Got 35 cucumber beetles today. I'm getting good at catching them when they fly, too- slap! between my hands. The usual half-dozen escaped me, though. Here's a clip of a pic from the ones I caught today- you can see all three types, the smaller striped one, the bigger spotted one, and on the left the bronze-colored one which until now I never noticed has a stripe on the outside of its wing cases, spots in the middle. If this is a new kind of cuke beetle in my garden, I'm afraid natural selection is working in their favor- as more of those escape me because they blend in with the dirt, they're going to breed more and be more of them next year. Augh!

bugs!

Anyone know what this curious insect is? I found it out in the garden walking on a tomato stem. I don't know if he's friend or foe. Something has been eating bites and halves of my Cherry Tomatoes, and if it's him I want him gone! (I keep suspecting a tomato hornworm but haven't found one yet).

Here's a picture of this bug on the window, when he flew away from me.

My kid caught a big grasshopper today. I tried to take a photo of him in the glass jar, but it was all wavy because she used a mason jar, with the writing on the glass. I think it looks pretty cool, though!

Here's a better shot, climbing on a twig.

The cucumber beetle war is not in my favor now. I wonder if I should spray again, or if it did any good at all? Yesterday I caught 18 beetles, missed three or four which flew away. Today I got 50! with six escaping. I think perhaps a new generation has hatched recently, as a lot of them are small. And I keep missing the bronze-colored beetles on the Green Beans, when they drop to the ground I can't see them well.

beetle war

The cucumber beetle count this morning was 20. Better! But in spite of the cloudy and relatively cool weather they were pretty agile and five or more flew out of my clutches.

cukes and the beetle

Picked four nice fat Cucumbers from the garden this morning.

The night before last I sprayed half the garden for cucumber beetle control. I used an Ecosmart organic insect killer, which is very soapy and its main ingredients are the oils of rosemary, peppermint, thyme and clove. The very next day it rained hard, and for the first time I was dismayed at rain, fearing it would wash all the spray off the plants! But I started keeping beetle count again, and the results are encouraging already.

The first morning after spraying I picked 54 cucumber beetles total off the garden (and I didn't spray the pumpkin patch, ran out of stuff). Today I only got 28 beetles, missed three which flew away too quick. That's remarkable. Even when I was searching for them I was thinking: there seem to be less! but I wasn't sure until I counted my catch. The bugs seemed to be moving slower, too, though I'm not sure if that's from the effects of the spray or because of the lower temperatures with incoming rain.

The bees seem to be okay; I still see plenty crawling happily in and out of flowers. Funny, I did notice that on the cucurbits most of the beetles are the striped variety, with just a few spotted ones (which are bigger and fatter). On the Swiss Chard and Green Beans I only find spotted cucumber beetles. I wonder if they have more of a liking for certain plants?

pests!

Regular garden pickings again: Chard, Green Beans and Cherry Tomatoes!

 Some of the Cantaloupes look almost ready!

There are lots of small ones starting on behind them, too. Sadly, some of those look sickly.

 I cut four sickly baby melons off, plus some damaged leaves. But the wilt is creeping in. My pinching of bugs is not enough control. I've found an easier way to catch them- either I pick them out of the flowers where they hide with tweezers, or move my hand under the flower. The bug sees the movement and drops off the plant- right into my palm to be squished.

But now the cucumber beetles are also into my Cucumbers, Watermelons, and the Swiss Chard. A lot of the leaves are skinny and a bit wilty, like this

and at first I thought it was just from heat. But when I cut some plants to bring inside for a frittata today I found some cuke beetles in there- I bet they're giving disease to my chard too!

I finally decided hand-picking and basil-soap spray wasn't enough. In fact, the beetles don't seem deterred at all by Marigolds, Basil or Cilantro. When I miss them on the Cantaloupes they often fly straight for a Basil plant (where they're easier to spot and nab). I'm going to have to spray an organic insecticide, but I'm worried about killing bees. Read that if you spray in the late evening, after the bees have gone home, some kinds will be dried off the flowers and not hurt the bees in the morning. I must have taught my daughter well to be a good environmentalist and organic gardener, because when she heard us talking about spraying insecticide she burst into tears! I had to explain that some are better than others, and we're going to try and find one that only hurts the bad bugs. Any recommendations?

garden goods

We ate our last beets just this week, but still have Carrots. They have a slightly bitter taste now from the heat, but taste good steamed with a bit of butter and nutmeg.

Today I picked from the garden a modest handful of Green Beans (added to the handful of a few days ago makes half a dish worth- really poor outcome this year!), a few nice cherry Tomatoes (immediately eaten), three nice fat Cucumbers

 and this lovely Zucchini (from the rogue plant in the pumpkin patch).

I'm excited that there are tons of little bulbous Cantaloupes growing, the first few Pumpkins - itty bitty tiny round things- and my first baby Watermelon!

But to my great frustration, the cucumber beetles have finally found my Cantaloupe patch. They've killed some of my smaller Zucchini plants- I had to uproot and throw away another entire plant today because the wilt is spreading. Every day I pick a dozen or so c. beetles out of the Pumpkin flowers and pinch off withered leaves, but it doesn't seem to be spreading badly there. So far the Cantaloupes look untouched in terms of foliage damage, but I'm finding more and more bugs in their flowers. The first day two, the second day six, today I squished at least a dozen and several more got away from me. The plants are so sprawling and have so many little flowers, I spend a lot of time every morning on my knees peering carefully under leaves and into every flower, to grab and smash them before they fly away.

I'm worried of our trip in August. I have a neighbor who is willing to water my garden if it doesn't rain, and I don't mind if weeds come up, but I don't feel I can ask them to come pick bugs off every morning! and worry when I come back my lovely melons will all be sick and dying from the beetle onslaught. Since it's a rainy week I'm planting Cilantro seed throughout all the plots, hoping with the slightly cooler weather and damp they might actually grow enough before I'm gone to deter the bugs... It seems like a long shot but I don't know what else to do short of spraying pesticides.

pickings

Here's what I gathered from the garden today. Four lovely Tomatoes, the last handful of Beets (most quite small) and a few measly Green Beans.

 They are still under seige by bugs, but do have a lot of new flowers, so I'm hoping if I can route the critters we'll still get enough beans to eat. (I've abandoned my idea of trying to can some this year, unless my second planting does better).

Today sprayed basil sun tea over all the plants. Found that if I spray under the leaves (which is where the bugs hide) they fly up and land on the top surface of the foliage, where I can pick them off before I spray the top as well. I caught a few fat cucumber beetles this way- two from among the Green Beans, one off the small sad Zucchinis and half a dozen from the Pumpkin patch. Also found one in the Rhubarb, but I think he'd just been fleeing the basil fumes in the nearby pumpkins. There's a large grey stink bug lurking among my Green Beans too, but he's crafty. I tried to nab him twice, and the second time grabbed his leg but he broke away from me and hid in the lawn. I'm going to keep my eye out for him- certainly he's causing lots of damage, too!

I'm not too unhappy about the loss of Zucchinis, because I'd rather loose that usually-abundant and not-so-tasty crop as long as the produce I like better is left alone. This year the Cucumbers are doing very well, tucked in their wall of Cilantro and Basil

and the Cantaloupes are amazing me. They've grown huge leaves and are creeping arms all over, creeping across the walking paths to invade the flanking carrot and cherry tomato patches. I keep turning their vines back from going through the fence into the neighbor's yard. I spray them diligently with basil sun tea as well, just in case a cucumber beetle ventures over here from the other side of the garden, I don't want them settling in! They have huge leaves, tons of little yellow flowers, and already many small bulbous shapes that will soon become Cantaloupes!

I like to think that my little wall of Marigolds, which is now blooming furiously, has helped keep the bugs at bay. I mistakenly bought the small marigold variety, that doesn't grow too tall. I wanted the big ones, because planted in a row they make a kind of short hedge. Here's a view of the Marigold row, in one direction at the edge of the Cucumber patch

and the other way alongside the Corn/Cantaloupe plots. You can see the huge-leaved arms of Cantaloupe reaching out. In the middle/right there is the last Romaine Lettuce plant, which I cut down today to gather its seed heads.

So next year the plan of attack is: more marigolds! more cilantro and basil! even more garlics- I think they deter the pests as well, and are growing actively when the flowers and herbs are still just seedlings.

sadness

This does not seem to be a good year for Green Beans, for me. Already the bugs have sickened them enough that I've had to pull one plant out, and some of the beans I pick have funny spots and tiny round holes in them. Then today came out to look at the garden when the rain was done, found this poor plant entirely flat on the ground!

The stem was broken. Did the rain beat it that hard? or my cat squashed it? I don't know. You can see all the bug holes in it, too. Even though I've been picking them off- the brownish cucumber beetle look-alikes- a half dozen a night or so, it doesn't seem to be making much difference. Only slowing the damage, not halting it.

On another note, I found one of those bugs that looks like a rose-colored spotted cuke bettle in the Cilantro! Just crawling around. So whatever that bug is, Cilantro doesn't deter it at all! The Cucumbers nearby were untouched, though. Maybe I'm wrong and it's not in the same bug family?

bugs

My beer traps caught absolutely nothing last night. But by close inspection in the early morning when bugs are sluggish from the cold, I found the culprits:

They look like cucumber beetles, except they're not bright yellow, but brown. Some striped, some spotted. Also some reddish spotted ones on the Swiss Chard that I mistook for ladybugs at a glance and left alone too long. They have a more pinkish tint than ladybugs and look like a rosy version of the spotted cuke beetle. I'm not sure if these are some variation of cucumber beetles, or another kind of bug entirely, but they're doing the same kind of damage!

Holes in most of my Green Beans

and some of the Peppers

I picked off and squashed as many as I could find, but most would immediately drop off the leaf into the mulch litter when they sensed me coming. I have this love/hate thing with organic mulch. I love that it holds in moisture and feeds the plants. I hate that it gives nasty bugs a hideout. So pulled all the mulch off the bean and pepper plots. Now if they drop I can spot them on the ground and squish them before they get away. I'd rather battle heat with extra water than give the bugs an edge.

They're also making my poor Zucchini plants sick- I'm going to have to pull some out. It's sad that what's usually such a prolific plant so far only has two small-sized zucchinis on them. But I'd far rather sacrifice zucchinis than have the bugs ruining my melons and cucumbers. So far they haven't found those- or are being deterred by the interplantings of Basil and Cilantro. Next year I am going to put a wall of cilantro around the entire garden!

They've found my Pumpkins, though (which are huge enough to begin sprawling out of the patch already). Today looking closely I found lots of bees happily poking around deep inside the pumpkin flowers, but also a few cuke beetles and some sad-looking leaves nearby. I pick them out of the depths of the flowers with tweezers and squash immediately.

bug control

I think my Green Beans are in the clear now; all the new leaves that are growing quickly, are more or less untouched.

Today I only picked one cucumber beetle off the Zucchini, and its new leaves are unmarred as well.

 I'm still not sure if the plants have caught any wilt disease, but learned how to test it and I'm going to do that soon. You cut a leaf off and put the stem in water, if any cloudy white sap leaks out, that's the bacteria of the wilt disease (the natural, plant sap should be clear).

cuke beetles

Their numbers are definitely dropping. Last night I caught fifteen cucumber beetles off the Zucchini, and this morning only one. But that one had a very odd appearance. On its back a cluster of brown- eggs?

 I don't know what lays eggs on a cuke beetle. I looked up all the predatory insects I know: lacewing, ladybug, mantis, earwig, wolf spider... none of them have eggs that look like this. I don't think cuke beetles lay eggs on themselves, so I'm assuming these eggs belong to someone who will eat the beetles when they hatch. But I just wish I knew for sure.

Incidentally, I've learned that fireflies are my friends too- their larvae eat slugs! among other things. So I leave them alone when I find them on the plants. (No one seems certain what adult fireflies eat. Some think they don't eat at all.)

bug battle

The cucumber beetles seem to be winning. They've riddled my Zucchini plants with holes, and I'm afraid they might have already got the wilt disease these beetles spread. To my dismay, I've read that the eggs they lay into the soil hatch grubs which eat at the roots of the plants.

My hand-picked seems to be cutting down their numbers, though. The night before I caught a hundred and fifteen beetles, and twenty-eight the next morning.

Last night I only caught thirty bugs off the plants, and five the next morning.

So if I'm diligent in picking off bugs, I might get rid of most of them. But I'm worried about those grubs. I've read up on it and might try buying some beneficial nematodes, which burrow into the soil and eat the grubs (as well as other pests like fleas, ants, gnats, roaches, termites, etc!). I'm also probably going to have to plant new Zucchini, if these are already sickened.

bugs!

My beer trays have not been catching any slugs lately (except for a few among the Rhubarb). So last night I went out with a flashlight to see what's chewing on the plants. The young Green Beans now have holes on the outside margins of the leaves

and I found these cluprits:

pill bugs! I found some climbing up the stems, others perched on the leaves. I didn't know pill bugs would climb plants to eat them! but they sure did. All the ones on plants I pinched off.

The Swiss Chard is nice and big

but still riddled with holes, and I haven't been finding slugs there, either.

By the flashlight I saw some critters, but it was hard to catch one, they let go and dropped down among the stems to hide immediately at any disturbance. I got one. I think it's an earwig.

I didn't know earwigs eat plants. I do know they eat other insect pests (not sure which) so I am undecided if they're enough of a problem to try and get rid of.

The real success of the night, though, was when I decided to just glance at the Zucchini plants I set out recently. They're very happy in their compost hills!

There is no damage to the leaves, so I was completely surprised at what I found crawling all over the plants: my garden nemesis, the cucumber beetle!

I quickly grabbed a jar and nabbed as many as I could. Most of them were paired up and even if they escaped me by dropped off the leaf, didn't go far and I could pinch them easily. I'm so glad I looked, and that I got them as they were in the act of reproducing themselves! I left the jar on counter overnight, planning to count them in the morning. But I think the earwig ate them! I stuck it in the freezer to kill them, then tipped it all out to see what I got. There were all these little specks of bug-poop in there, and only half the number of cuke beetles. I did squish a lot outside too, so all in all I think I killed almost forty. Checked early this morning, and I only found one striped beetle hiding under a leaf. Of all the ones I got, most were striped one, the largest, spotted.