veggies in the yard spot

Surprisingly, although my young cantaloupes disappeared, the other vegetables I put out in the back bed are doing okay, even though they get less attention and not once have I gone there to handpick bugs.

Butternut squash

They're in a barren strip between lawn and fence- but on a pile of compost and looking good so far.

Watermelon, pretty close to the spot that had cantaloupes, but untouched by whatever killed those.

Zucchini keeps flopping one way, then another. I think it doesn't get enough sun. Bug holes, too. I should check this one over soon.

final planting out

One of them, at least. I still have tithonia and a few late seedlings to go. Here's the bigger sun-lovers that went into my back planting bed:

cantaloupe

butternut squash

watermelon

zucchini. I only have two of these, so don't know if they will manage to fertilize each other... Also planted out the okra-

and cucumbers into the garden space. It's a long shot, putting these in the back area. It hasn't had as much bug control or compost feedings, and I don't check on it as often being further from the house and full mostly of plants I expect to take care of themselves.

Everything was doing fine until yesterday I noticed my cantaloupe plants are getting eaten. Not sure if it was slugs and then pill bugs moved in, but pill bugs were all over them munching.

the final start

of seeds for my garden. I planted into trays, pots and toilet paper tubes zucchini, cucumber, bush green beans, butternut squash, icebox watermelon, parsley, chives, echinacea and tithonia. Also on a whim some seed I collected from my mother's place years ago, off of a cedar shrub and a cypress. No idea if they are viable or would sprout but I'd like to see.

watermelon!

Cut my second homegrown Watermelon open yesterday. It's not quite as sweet as the first one, and not as large (probably because of the hot dry weather we've been having) but still tasted good!

watermelon!

We have Watermelon! I can't believe I got one to grow so nice. It tasted delicious, although my husband grumbles that there's so many seeds. Four more out there in the garden to eat as well, yipee!

more stuff

In this wild jumble of vines, already filling their space entirely

I have a little Watermelon growing!

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.

new bed

Made a new garden bed by covering a patch with garbage bags (full of the dead leaves) for a few weeks so it would smother the grass and weeds. Works very well, if unsightly for a while! After a heavy rain, it was easy to pull up the remaining roots from some vine that was in there. I raked up all the litter then planted in the little Watermelons, which had crowded up their pots.

One already has a small flower.

planting

Today I put out my last few corn plants. On top of the remaining frozen fish scraps.

One of the other, older ones (front left here) has suddenly gotten thicker, darker leaves than the others, looks very robust. I wonder if its roots just hit the fish?

Then among the corn I planted Cantaloupe

and among the cilantro and basil I put the little Cucumber plants.

Finally gave in to my desire for more flowers in the garden and dug up and moved the Marigolds, too. Now they flank the vegetable rows.

So I'm doing a lot more inter-planting this year. This plot has Cilantro around the edges, Basil in the middle, Marigolds on the end, and Cucumbers staggered throughout (with darker soil ringing them, as they just went in and got watered).

 The only thing left in my coldframe is the Watermelon plants.

I've put them into pots and they'll go out into the ground soon (clearing a corner of weeds right now to make another piece of garden for them).

Found a surprise in the Rhubarb patch! I had moved a tiny plant over from Isa's garden spot, where it got neglected. (It was from a tiny root we found hooked onto one of the main sets when I bought them). It shriveled soon after I moved it, but now is growing again!

And then I want to start more flowers, and perhaps a few more cucumber and bean plants!

seed starts

More seed starting in trays and cardpots today. Not, this time, in order to be ahead of the weather, but to keep them from being eaten by the animals. Last year the birds watched me plant, then came after all the large seeds, and slugs (or pill bugs) got to the tender seedlings that survived. Started them indoors keeps them out of reach of pests until they're big enough to withstand a few bugs.

I planted Canteloupe, Zucchini, Cucumbers, Pumpkins, Watermelon and Corn. The last two unsure of success: last year all my corn failed early (eaten) and I don't have a space assigned to watermelon, this year. So it's kind of an afterthought, but I'll figure out where to put it.

Plants that did poorly for me:

Corn- most of them grew, but something ate the young plants (slugs?)
Oregano- grew well, but died when its pot dried out (weekend away)
Watermelon- only one seed germinated, eaten by bugs immediately
Spinach- only a few plants grew, the slugs got 'em
Sweet Peas- a few grew, but never flourished
Cauliflower- planted too late, didn't mature in time
Cabbage- actually one grew into a  huge plant, but no one wanted to eat it! got composted

I am going to grow Oregano again, and try the Cauliflower and Corn simply because I still have seed. The others, not this year.

setting out

Today weeded all the garden plots- one Potato plant is sick, some leaves yellowing, curled brown at the edges. A bug? A deficiency? More stuff to look up. Pea pods are forming. A few of the largest Beets almost ready. There's even one seedling coming up near the corn that has the large, broad leaves of a squash- could it be the Watermelon I gave up on?

I put tomato cages around the five heirloom Tomato plants. Planted outside some of the indoor-started seedlings: two rows of Chard, one row of Basil (all of the plants brought form the safeway are recovering and sprouting new leaves!) and ten Broccoli plants under the kitchen window.

planting

Planted more today. Watermelon and Corn in the new space, then these to fill in gaps in the other areas: Radish, Simpson Lettuce, Romaine Lettuce, Chard, Broccoli, Sweet Peas, snap Peas, and Thyme (around the Potatoes).

Corn- Sweet Early Sunglow (7-14 days)
Watermelon- Bush Sugar icebox size (7-10 days)

Looking at how healthy and untouched the romaine among garlics is, and how eaten everything I plant in the long bed is, I broke open a head of garlic from the fridge and planted a line of cloves against the fence. Hoping it will deter more bugs.

melons

I've got two baby watermelons! Ice-box sized, they're not supposed to grow bigger than a canteloupe. This one is about the size of a large grapefruit now. I'm hoping in a few more weeks we can eat it!

We're actually eating out of our garden, now.

Just lettuces, spinach and herbs so far, but it makes every meal taste better. Fresh oregano is great with sauteed mushrooms. And we love pizza with just basil and tomatoes heaped on it. The cucumbers, zucchini and beans are all in flower, and I spotted the first green infant tomato today. My second-planted garden plot is sprouting now, too: small watermelons, more lettuces, lots more herbs and flowers. And the carrots are finally coming up. Maybe we'll get some after all.

But, more exciting: we have a froggie friend. (Or toad?) Twice we've caught him while weeding - he hangs out under the thick plants where the ground is damp. I put him in a jar so Isa can look at him for a while, and then we let him go. He's brown and pretty small, almost the length of my thumb. Here's some pictures:

Oh, and our mantis is thriving. He's shed his skin and doubled in size. He now eats houseflies, and moths, but not spiders. I stuck a firefly in there once and he tried to catch it, bit it, then immediately let go and bit a leaf! They must taste terrible. We don't give him fireflies anymore. I did catch a small brilliant blue dragonfly (or damselfly? I don't remember the difference) once and he caught and ate that. It was nearly as long as the mantis himself.

Irwin has been catching (and leaving on the patio) voles every now and then. And today Asher our supercat caught a bird- I saw him nab it on the lawn. He chewed on and played with it for a while, then I buried it in the garden before Isa could see. That cat was pretty pleased with himself!