One zucchini plant lost to the borer

The big zucchini plant near the air conditioner is gone.  Pulled it out today as it was clearly almost all dead.  Looked inside the rotted stems and sure enough, squash vine borer.

I guess the aluminum foil I had set down on the ground around the plant months ago didn't work!  Oh well, at least I tried it.

Next year, maybe I'll try garlic spray.

The other plant, although the stem also looks a bit rotty, has no sign yet of going downhill.  Well, zucchini growth/production has slowed somewhat, but one should be ready soon and the leaves still look normal and healthy.

Massive zucchini -- and, is the end near?

Woops -- a few zucchinis escaped my gaze until today, discovered 3 ginormous ones.  (2 on the a/c plant, 1 on the other.)

Also, the a/c plant in particular has suddenly started to look like its days are soon coming to an end.  It's become mostly floppy, some leaves dried up... So, I wonder if (a) letting those zukes grow to such huge proportions have shut down production, and/or (b) squash vine borer?

The plant near the compost doesn't look all flaily, with the exception of one "branch" which had rotted or something (borer?) near the joint, so I pulled that branch and so far the other part looks good, although production has slowed as well.

There are at least 2 more zukes well on the way; hopefully more too.

Lastly a note, I haven't hand-pollinated the zukes for quite a few weeks.  Apparently the bees and wasps are doing it for me now.

Poor sad little indoor sowlings

The kale, chard, and cabbage sowed indoors on June 18th have looked absolutely horrible inside.  Hard to believe they're 2 months old.  The chard looks healthy but extremely small / only a few leaves.  The cabbages look awful -- more than half dead, really.  The kale looks terrible as well, but maybe they have a chance.

So, transplanted them all out today, in room vacated by some more pulled up Brussels sprouts plants as well as some other little gaps here and there.  We'll see how they do.

Beet harvest

Harvested 3 beets today which had grown into a decent size, like small tennis balls.

Cooked them on the stove with some garlic and salt.  Not scrumptious, but certainly quite edible.

A few more beets remain.  Will let them keep growing as they're still small.

Transplanted fall peas (part 1)

Transplanted about half of the indoor-peat-pot-sown peas today.

The rest I'll give a few more days inside as they're a little shorter.

Sowed carrots

Sowed some fall carrots today.  Back in 2015 I sowed some on August 1st and they were a fantastic crop.

Cucumber harvest

Cucumber harvest has started, about 3 so far in the last few weeks.  The vines are fairly sparse at this point, but at least they are producing something.