Aphids on carrots (FOY)!!! (lots of them) but harvested a nice carrot -- and some on parsley too

Geez, it was just yesterday that I was admiring the carrots (and harvested one runty forked carrot) -- then today I happened to notice the carrot leaves have many aphids... yellowish aphids in various life stages. (seems to be a different type of aphid than the ones on the cucumbers)

Some of the leaves upon close inspection are looked tired/bothered/not-quite-right.  A few leaves are distorted/skinny.  Harvested one carrot with a distorted leaf -- it was beautiful and delicious, a nice size, not huge but pretty perfect!

It seems aphids might not do too much damage to mature carrot plants, so I guess for now I'll just do nothing.

What a day -- discovery today of cucumber beetles, rotted kale, and carrot aphids, augh!!

p.s. / edit:  Harvested a sprig of curly parsley this evening and lo and behold, a couple of aphids there too.  (but much less density than the carrots -- so far, at least)

Most kale plants rotting at stem, no new growth -- removed most kales

Oh no!  I did a big harvest a few days ago (Saturday June 26th when I noticed that Premier Forge has flat leaves and Siberian has curly leaves -- I didn't notice anything amiss then) and have a bunch of it in the fridge, so I haven't been looking at the kale lately, but today I noticed most of the kale plants have some or all of these symptoms:

- blackening of leaf stems near ground level

- crumpled/stunted mini-leaves 

- rotted stems at ground level

- no new growth

- the most mature leaves look healthy otherwise, until it gets too bad and the leaf wilts and/or breaks off.

I pulled the clearly-affected plants -- there's an unpleasant odour to the rotting part, but the roots look normal white/grey and are firm.  When removing the plants, I didn't shake off the dirt from the roots like I normally would -- plunked the whole thing into the yard waste bag.

The southeast kale bed for now gets to keep two plants which so far look fine (one Premier Forge, one Siberian).  The northwest kale bed for now gets to keep more plants, only removed two or three there.

Maybe stem and root rot? (although the roots aren't rotted, at least not yet)

https://www.gardeningchannel.com/how-to-fight-stem-and-root-rot/

https://ask2.extension.org/kb/faq.php?id=291177

Transplanted a zucchini into central bed

This is one of the zucchinis that were sowed June 19th, and it's now in the central bed, opposite the parsley.  (Where some broccolis were until I removed them today.)

Mixed in 6 Tbsp mineralized phosphate, some vermiculite, and nothing else (no kelp meal, no alfalfa meal).  Mulched with broccoli leaves.  Covered with tulle.

Cucumber beetles have appeared en masse! ~20 caught on cucumber plants

Wow, I saw none at all for the last several weeks (only having seen two prior to then), then today all of a sudden there they are.  Maybe because I was out when it was showering, not sure.

Removed two more broccoli, to make room for zucchini

Removed the two south-most broccoli in the central bed to make room for the zucchini seedlings.  These two broccoli plants were pretty much done -- maybe more side shoots would have come out later, but, maybe not and I'd rather give the zucchinis a good shot.

3 goldfinches at once! no interference by song sparrow on the ground

Fun!  I love having multiple birds in the yard at the same time.  I can pretend for a moment like I'm one of those amazing You Tubers who have 24/7 cams of their bird feeders that 24/7 have crazy amount of birds at them.

Anyway, first the male flew in, and called.  A few minutes later the female arrived.  Then a few minutes later, a third goldfinch!  Either there were two females, or maybe one of the females was a juvenile.  One of them ate a bit from the mixed seed feeder, using a perch.

One flew away after a couple of minutes, the other two stayed around for a bit longer.

A song sparrow had been on the ground the whole time, never interfered.  Maybe it's only the males who are bullies, or females.

Fireflies even more galore

There must be 20-30 who light up every evening.  For just a brief window of time as dusk sets in.  Really fun to see.

Transplanted a zucchini into the hydro meter bed

This is one of the zucchinis sowed June 19th, into the hydro meter bed that I prepared yesterday with 3 Tbsp mineralized phosphate.

Covered with tulle.

Cardinals lacking, but still seeing the goldfinches and of course song sparrows

Haven't seen the cardinals in a week or two (nor any more of the house finches nor house sparrow), but still seeing the goldfinch couple a few times a day (always on the mesh perchless sunflower feeder), and of course ample visits from the song sparrows.

A carrot harvested but it was small and forked

From the west-most third of the carrot bed, so might have been a Nantes unless it was one of the Boleros that I used to fill gaps throughout the bed.  The top at the soil looked like a nice size, so it was disappointing to see it was only a couple of inches and forked.  Tasted ok though.

The carrot greens are over 18" high, but I'll still wait before harvesting more.

Garlic stems/leaves applied as "floating mulch"

After cutting the garlic bulbs from the big stems/leaves, I scattered the stems/leaves in a few places in the garden, many of them sort of suspended in air by the growing plants underneath.  Added them mostly to the two kale beds and various other spots, with the faint thought that maybe they'll help repel the cabbage moth etc.

Prepped former garlic bed for a zucchini transplant - 3 Tbsp mineralized phosphate (not transplanted yet)

Now that most of the garlics are out of the hydro meter bed, to get it ready for a zucchini I added in a good scoop of vermiculite, plus 3 Tbsp of mineralized phosphate.  It really doesn't seem like much MP, but, sometimes less is more...  Did not add anything else:  No kelp meal, definitely no alfalfa meal, etc.  The garlics were mulched with shredded leaves which got turned in when I mixed up the vermiculiate/MP.

Garlic mostly-flop in hydro meter bed (the covered bed!)

The hydro meter bed garlics (Metechi variety), which were first covered with floating row cover early in the season and then with tulle when the Amazon tulle arrived, got off to a roaring start, but since the last several weeks or even month or so they haven't been looking so great anymore.  Many yellow leaves and that was even before the scapes appeared, and the plants are bending over, just not looking good at all.  This, combined with looking for places to put the late-season zucchini transplants, had me digging up most of the bulbs today.

About half the bulbs look quite questionable, two of which I downright didn't consider keeping as they were rotting so there were pillbugs etc, so I tossed them into the central bed.  The rest of these questionable bulbs have a part of the bulb that isn't sealed over, so I wonder if there might be someone hiding inside.  I left these to sit outside on the front step for now, to dry.

The other half of the bulbs look decent, fully sealed.  I brought these inside to dry.

I left two bulbs in place for now, one on either end of this mini bed, since they won't interfere with placing a zucchini there soon.

I haven't dug up the north wall garlics yet, will give them more time since there's no rush and it's early yet.  (Those ones look small -- that bed received the smallest cloves and are given a poor growing area what with all the rain and less amount of sun -- but they don't look half dead like these ones.)

Three leaves broken off sunflower plant next to bird feeder... chipmunk?

Yesterday I put a pole to support the plant during yesterday's crazy winds, but then today I saw a chipmunk climbing the pole to try to reach the feeder.  So, I went out and removed the pole (since the winds are done).  But then this evening, I'm seeing three leaves broken off, all on the side of the feeder -- I'm pretty sure it's the chipmunk who caused these sunflower leaves to break, while trying to climb the plant to reach the bird feeder.  (One of the leaves broke off in the past week or so, but I'm quite sure two of the leaves broke today.

It's a wonder the squirrels haven't been an issue with the feeder at all this year...

Aphids on cucumbers (FOY)!!!! Sprayed cucumber plants with kaolin

Oh no!  Spotted a little green insect here and there in the last few days, made a mental note but not any real concern... Then while looking at the cucumber plants today, oh no, the more I looked, the more I saw, mostly on undersides but also top sides, and some teeny and others a bit bigger.  Not yet at the infestation level I had last summer on the asparagus and lupins, but, I imagine it would get to that degree with time.

So, re-applied kaolin (which I hadn't in quite a while and there has been a lot of rain).  The rain will come back on Wednesday, but for now at least hopefully this is something...

Here's an article about kaolin on aphids (though not specifically cucumber aphids):  https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Effect-of-Kaolin-Particle-Film-Formulation-Against-Alavo-Abagli/20f7c744e281f36324d1601aa32aa3a8282e9329

SVB moth & cabbage moth seen

SVB was at noon, right on her daily schedule... Saw her fluttering around the tulled zucchinis, unable to enter.  Wasn't able to catch.

Have been seeing cabbage moths too, will mention it in the blog every few weeks or so.

Tuberous begonia in full flower, so many bright yellow blooms

This is the one remaining viable tuberous begonia whose tubers I overwinter each year.  I don't know if they get more and brighter blooms each year, or maybe the weather has been just right, but wow, looking amazing right now.

Long-legged fly (FOY)

Saw what I think is a long-legged fly -- can't remember where, but on a leaf of some sort as I puttered around.  Would never have noticed, if I hadn't read Susan Mulvihill's book about garden insects.  S/he was quite slender, but with definite long legs, and the wings had distinctive black marks towards their ends.  These are helpful for eating aphids, thrips, etc.

House sparrow! and song sparrow at same time

First time seeing a house sparrow at my feeder.  Fed from the upper perch of the mixed-seed feeder.

The strange thing is a song sparrow was there at the same time eating from the other mesh feeder and didn't seem to care about the house sparrow.

Cucumber males and females, saw a pollinator in a flower

A had thought to try hand-pollinating, but cucumbers are very different from zucchini, I don't even really see any pollen... so I haven't hand-pollinated, instead will wait to see if they take on their own.

Today saw a type of bee in there.  Have not seen many bees so far this year, though maybe it's because I have hardly any flowers.  (More flowers next year sure.)

Goldfinch couple ate sunflowers from non-perch mesh feeder

They stayed for about 5 minutes, until the song sparrow arrived.  The sparrow simply had to land assertively on a nearby stake and the goldies immediately flew off.  While they were here, they ate by clinging on to the mesh (rather than perching on the edge), and they showed no interest in the millet nor the mixed seed.  One of them drank from the table bath.

Non-curly kale = Premier Forge, curly kale = Siberian

The Siberian wasn't so curly in its younger days, but now it's full curl.

I prefer non-curly because it's sooooo much easier to see insects.

Yay me for actually labelling things properly the whole way through! :P

Spiders of Ontario (reference)

https://onnaturemagazine.com/spiderguide.html?fbclid=IwAR3Qkg_ZSh3lXYcZce8jdHTkwPwf8hwNs-Mt9A9JwymXiUJN6scgGOT4bT4

Are the song sparrows eating all of the insects?

Wow, still not seeing cucumber beetles or three lined beetles.  And have seen hardly any cabbage worms on the uncovered plants.  (Some eggs yes.)  Not many spiders around either, though that was the same the past few years.

I wonder if the song sparrows, who are often hopping about (particularly in the west and north beds), are to thank?

Tomatoes are on the way

Some are the size of a large kiwi.  

Tall zinnias are still kind of sparse

The tall ones are being slow to take off, both the ones in front and in the yard.  The plants look healthy, just, still sparse if that makes sense.  They're all still on only their second opened flower (or still their first in some cases).  Maybe it's still early...

The short zinnias in containers look great though, lots of flowers.

The promising zucchini fizzled before opening, but, the same plant has another promising one

So far the one ronde that flowered the other day, plus the early female zucchini that had no male, are the only zukes/rondes to flower.  

Flea beetles were a total non-issue this year, maybe thanks to early kaolin applications?

Really happy with how that worked out!  Though next year I do want to dilute the kaolin more, as I definitely burnt leaves with it.

Chopping and dropping -- pruned zucchini leaves (healthy), excess kale and chard leaves

I had thought the "chop and drop" compost/mulch method meant cutting the matter into small pieces.  Happy to read that it's often just dropping the leaves etc. intact, no chopping needed.

Since I'm not using the compost bin any more (due to the odour issue with being so close to neighbours), I'm really happy to have this method.  Hoping it won't result in any odours!

It's a mind shift to get used to the appearance, but knowing it's great organic matter feeding the worms and soil etc. I'm happy to get used to the look.

Strange yellow/green leaves on east-most zucchini in central bed -- removed those leaves

The leaves/plant look strong overall (but still puny / not producing), just that strange colouring.  Took photos.  Removed those three leaves and put into yard waste bag.  (The other leaves on the plant look fine so far, as do the leaves of the two neighbouring squash plants and the cukes etc.)

Mineralized phosphate by GG is fossilized bat guano

Great customer service by GG, I asked them few questions about their mineralized phosphate (0:9:0) in terms of how it differs from their rock phosphate (0:3:0) via direct message on FB and they provided answers to all of them.

"Our Mineralized Phosphate is definitely more popular than our Rock Phosphate as it is quite hard to get! Our mineralized phosphate is actually fossilized bat guano from thousands of years ago. This is why the P value is much higher on this product than our rock phosphate. Many Gardeners who enjoy our All-Purpose and Powerbloom pair it with Mineralized Phosphate due to this reason!"

When I asked if one is faster release than the other: "All of our products are slow release however, with the higher NPK value you will get more of it but we cannot guarantee it will be quicker."

"The maximum annual rates given on our labels are industry regulated and not necessarily what your soil or crop requires. For Rock phosphate, a reasonable application rate for most gardens and plants would be 11.5 lbs per 1000 ft2. For Mineralized phosphate, with a higher percentage of available phosphate, a comparable application rate would be 3.8 lbs per 1000 ft2." [These are different rates of application than stated on their label and website, and make more sense because these recommend a lower rate for the MP than the RP wheres the label/website recommend a lower rate for the RP than the MP.]

Basil has holes.... earwigs?

The basil looks healthy but quite a lot of holes.

My guess is earwigs, otherwise slugs.

Tonight I've set out some newspaper "traps" -- moist newspaper crumpled up.  Will see if they collect anything.  Put two in the main basil bed, one in the mini bed.

Rat sighting #2

Around 5pm, at the fence line again.

Not seeing any signs of damage in the yard...

Wild raspberries ripe behind BH mall

Might not be a lot this year given the drought, but the few I had today tasted juuuust fine.

Basil looks good after having covered during multiple chilly nights (e.g. down to 11 last night)

I said this a week or two ago and it turned out to be untrue, but:  forecast looks good, not seeing any more chilly nights.

(Covered during the <13 nights with upside down pots and then a few blankets over top.)

Dragonfly perched on stake and hung out for a bit

A beautiful golden dragonfly perched on the yarrow stake next to my chair while I sat there; got up and flew around the yard a bit, then returned to the perch, etc.  Sounds like dragonflies are top predators so I hope s/he will make repeat visits.

Ronde flower opened!!!! (air conditioner)

^^^

Powdery mildew on peas!

I don't recall seeing this in past years.  So far the squashes look ok...

SVG eggs found on a/c ronde; kaolin washed off untulled zukes/rondes a few days ago

Some kaolin left on the undersides and stems but otherwise they're bare/exposed.  More rain on the way so I haven't bothered re-applying.

Zucchinis/rondes starting to look better -- maybe they liked the mineralized phosphate?

Several promising pre-flowering fruits...  we shall see.

One tulled broccoli main stem went all soggy and hollow after harvesting main head

Discovered it today while removing the tulle.  Gross, I'm not going to inspect it closely.  Removed the plant to go into yard waste.

Removed tulle from central broccoli; harvests are puny nowadays

No more trapped flies under the broccoli's tulle.  The tulle was great for before the main head harvesting, but now with itty bitty side shoots it will be a lot easier to not have to wrestle with the tulle.

Had a piece of today's harvest and it was awful though, so bitter.  That was raw without dressing.  Hopefully will be better with dressing.

Bumper pea harvest (without innoculant)

2 litres harvested today, a bunch harvested a couple days ago too.  The plants are about 8 feet tall and some stems have started to topple over.

This great crop was without the help of any innoculant (the store didn't have any this year).  Maybe the peas really like all the nitrogen in the alfalfa?

Goldfinch pair again

^^^

Covering the basil again tonight (+10) and tomorrow night (+8)

Sighhhh.  Another couple of cold nights, so back out came the upside down pots and blankets.

Goldfinch pair!

A goldfinch pair ate sunflower seeds from the big-hole mesh feeder (they sat on the rim), while a song sparrow ate millet from the platform.  Then the song sparrow seemed to try briefly to scare them off, but it didn’t work, so he left to sing in the tree while the goldfinches kept eating for a few more minutes.

Where did all the birds go? Do they go elsewhere when there's been a lot of rain?

Wednesday/Thursday there was a ton of activity at the bird feeders/baths, as I watched from the computer room using the spy cam.  Mostly the song sparrows, but there were those occasional visits from the cardinals and even most recently the house finches.

But yesterday/today (Friday/Saturday) only seeing a few occasional visits from the song sparrows.

Certainly there are puddles around now with all the rain we've had the last few days, so they don't need these baths.

Saturday evening update:  Seriously!  Where did they go... even the song sparrows I'm hardly seeing.

Come back!!!

Yesterday I bought/installed a new feeder (the plastic walls with nice big roof and "floor" -- using this one for sunflowers), and this evening another one (the all-metal one with perches -- using this one for the mixed seed).  The plastic home-made tray feeder is still being used for millet.

Pruned lowest leaves of tomatoes and most zucchini/rondes

Just to keep things from touching the ground (tomatoes) and try to keep up air flow to help delay powdery mildew (zukes/rondes).

Potato plants doing well after the blackleg (?) issue

I had pulled the diseased/dead/dying potato stems around June 9th when I first noticed the issue.  So far the remaining stems look fine.  Some of the plants have flopped over, but they aren't wilted and their stems look good, so I think it's just because they're too big.  (Too much nitrogen !?!?  :P)

Pea harvest going great

I had put "lots" of alfalfa pellets and kelp meal when transplanting.  Looks like peas were happy with it (unlike the poor zucchinis and tomatoes).

2 SVB moths captured

They seem to be mid-day fliers.  Saw one around 12:15pm, the other around 2:30pm.

One of them was hovering around the cucumbers...!?

Checked the zuke/ronde plants, didn't find any eggs.  There's still some kaolin left, particularly on the undersides, but yesterday's / last night's rain has washed off a lot of it.

Prepared two pots for zucchini

(Prepared the pots, but they won't contain the zucchini plants until later once I have seedlings from the new seeds.)

One pot says on its edge 6 gallons.  The other pot doesn't say but is a bit smaller because tapered bottom, so it's maybe ~5 gallons?

Contents in each pot:

Pro-Mix Premium Potting Mix

Soil from under eaves (north bed)

Vermiculite

Mineralized phosphate:  Directions say 2 Tbsp per gallon, so, 12 Tbsp per 6-gallon pot.  So, that's what I did.  (Oops, the tapered pot got a little extra because I forgot it was smaller.)

Kelp meal:  Directions say 2 Tbsp per gallon, but, I don't want to risk too much nitrogen, so I'll halve that.  So, I put 6 Tbsp per 6-gallon pot.  (Oops, the tapered pot got a little extra because I forgot it was smaller.)

Cabbage moth seen

I was wondering if at some point I could remove the tulle from the broccoli.  Answer:  No, well, at least not yet!  Moth seen fluttering around today, including when I stepped back out into the yard with the tulle raised up from doing a harvest.  I don't think she was in there but it's possible!!

No more three-lined potato beetles seen

Checked the ground cherries for eggs again today and didn't see any.  So, haven't seen any three-lined potato beetle signs since a few weeks ago when I saw an adult and removed eggs.

Started zucchini round ?? in paper towel

Determined to get at least some zucchini this year or at least try everything to help my odds.

So started ~6 seeds in paper towel today, a new packet of yellow zucchini seeds bought yesterday.

There's zero space in the garden right now, but my plan is to move some of the ground zucchinis into pots (or tear them out, outright) and inject new mix into the ground using a mix of

- Pro-Mix premium potting mix

- vermiculite

- mineralized phosphate

- maybe some kelp meal

i.e. NO alfalfa meal.

Mineralized phosphate applied to zucchinis/rondes/winter squash and most tomatoes

Bought mineralized phosphate (Gaia Green) from Ritchie's today.  Desperate to try something to get the dang zucchini to make viable fruit (instead of growing to 1 or 2 cms and fizzling out before even getting close to flowering).  I had this problem last year as well with most summer squash, and then there was the winter squash that kept fruiting/flowering but not one single one made it to maturity despite ample hand-pollinating.

I'm unsure of the difference between Gaia Green's rock phosphate and their mineralized phosphate but if the interwebs are true the latter might be fossilized bat guano?  Weird, why wouldn't they call it as such?  It looks like cocoa powder, brown so I could see it being guano as I would have imagined rock being grey?  I dunno.  I messaged Gaia Green last night to ask what the difference is between these two products but haven't yet heard back.  So anyway I fell into the trap of "if it's more expensive then it must be better" and bought the mineralized phosphate, $90 plus tax for 10 kg (22 pounds)!!!!

So for all of the summer/winter squash, plus all of the tomatoes except medium, I used my fingers to sort of dig in shallowly (an inch or two) around each plant and dusted some MP.  Covered back up, then gave everything a watering (it rained this afternoon but that was before I applied the stuff).

Probably too late to do much good, but at least I'll be more prepared for next year...

1 zucchini looks like it might flower

On one of the north bed plants.  If it makes it to flowering, this would be only the second female to flower (the first had no males available).  Out of TEN zucchini/ronde plants.  Fingers crossed :/

Mystery bird

Saw briefly posing on the fence holding a piece of plastic or something.  Small sparrow-size and brown/tan of course, but no streaking at all on the underside.

House finch pair and cardinal seen briefly

^^^

Broccoli harvest update -- a great big head from a Sprouting Green broccoli plant

Great head of broccoli harvested today from one of the Sprouting Green variety (gorgeous and nice and big! from under the tulle), but overall broccoli harvest has been small given the amount of space, especially as most heads were on the small side, enough to add to daily salads over the past couple of weeks, but not enough to make batches of soup etc.

I'll give broccoli another good go next year now that I know to raise it outside, will see how it does then, then re-evaluate for future years.

8 degrees last night -- basil was covered with pots/blankets and looks good today

Looks like that may have been the last chilly night of the season.

House finch couple!!!!

I was in the yard this evening checking out the plants, when some birds flew from the roof area onto the fence.  I looked at them, they looked at me, they flew off.  Definitely a house finch male and female!  Hopefully I didn't scare them off too badly and they'll come back another time!

All tomato plants except one have fruit forming!

Exciting!  Looking forward to seeing what these Rainbow Blend mixed types will turn out as.  Not a lot of fruit forming yet, but, some.

The only tomato that doesn't yet have any fruit is the SW-most one, which is one of the Rainbow misc.

Rat-proofing the bird feeder

Ok so as of tonight, here's what I've done so far:

- removed the table plates (and certainly not scattering bird food on the ground anymore) -- all bird food is now on feeders hanging from the pole

- removed bird bath from the ground -- it's now on the table, which is probably dumb since rats can surely access it for a drink, but for now it is what it is

- added seed-catchers (home made) under the feeders

- added a home-made baffle to the pole to prevent climbing (used a Pure Leaf plastic bottle, drilled a hole into the bottom, placed it on the pole, wrapped a couple of pieces of duct tape strictly around the pole to make a bit of a lip to help keep the baffle in place)

Here's what else I want to do:

- buy hulled sunflowers instead of the classic hulled black oil sunflowers I've been using (for less mess since less mouth maneuvering to open seeds equals less chance of intact seeds ending up on ground, or so I say anyway)

- buy high quality mixed seed (for less discarding -- the sparrows especially seem to discard the corn)

Here's what a good link to deterring rats from bird feeders, including a good video on how to make a seed-catcher:  https://birdslife.co.uk/how-to-stop-attracting-rats-to-bird-feeders  

Kaolin re-applied after yesterday's today's rain -- and mixed up a new batch / new spray bottle

Even with all of yesterday's and today's rain, there was still some kaolin left on the leaves.  But I didn't want to risk anything, so applied a good new coating today to all the exposed zucchini/rondes and the cucumbers.  Applied some around 4pm, the rest at 6pm, so sun burn shouldn't be an issue.

The old spray bottle (noname window cleaner bottle) clogged up, which might have been because the kaolin was the first batch which started in a pail into which some plants were dunked and bits of soil mixed into it.  So, mixed up a new batch in the dollar store clear spray bottle:  3 cups water to scant 1/2 cup kaolin.

Pea harvest has begun

Crunchy and sweet!

Fence line cleaned up in yard, and millet placed up on hanging tray

Hopefully these actions will help dissuade the rat from coming back.  The song sparrows discovered the hanging tray millet, so I won't place food on the table anymore.

3 grackles and a robin sat on fence briefly

I don't want the worms eaten, so the robin can move along please, but interesting to see three grackles pause very briefly on the fence, then they flew off without going into the yard.

Cardinal (male) ate briefly from plastic tube feeder (mixed seed) then ate some millet from plate

Due to the rat and chipmunks I'm not going to put mixed seeds on the table plate for a while.  So only millet on the table plate, then the two feeders.

Chickadee ate some paper wasp larvae

The things I see from the kitchen table.  This time, a chickadee swooped in twice and absconded with (I presume) a paper wasp larvae from the apex of the next house's roof.  Google says this is a thing.

Heavy thunderstorm with threat of hail -- so I covered with sheets, but no hail -- sunflower casualty?

Egads, what an exciting day...

That was a crazy hard rain.  The basement flooded again, the north window well was nearly full to the top and it came in through the basement.  Sigh.

Used bedsheets etc. to cover nearly everything.  Most were supported by something underneath but some weren't, and the west-most of the front sunflowers was bent under the weight of the soaked sheet.  I've tied it up to stakes and will hope it will recover.

Cardinal pair at same time as song sparrows! Arguments! -- and a rat! chipmunk too!

At lunch time (it's a work day) I noticed a female cardinal at the green feeder!  At the same time as 3 song sparrows were eating!  Then a male cardinal came by and ate from the table (from the mixed-seed plate)!  The male then hopped to the ground and foraged there for a while.

Some minor arguments as the song sparrows tried to shoo the cardinals away, but I think they worked it out fairly amicably.

But wow, so cool, 5 birds of 2 species at the same time!

A few minutes later, I had my first sighting of the neighbourhood rat.  Very cute!  But I feel like not something I should encourage.  So, placed my dog's fur at the fence and at a spot of the bed s/he was trying to dig, no idea if that will work.

Also, yesterday started seeing the chipmunk, and earlier today too.  (Actually saw 2 chipmunks at once yesterday)

It's a zoo around here...!

Cardinal ate from mixed plate holding sunflowers and cheap mix

Very cool!  Was here for only a minute or two, then flew away.

Sunflower maggot flies (FOY a week or two ago)

I forgot to blog it, but they've been around for the last couple of weeks or so.  (Not doing anything about them.)

Blue mud dauber (I think) (FOY) -- on sunflower plants (no flower heads appearing yet)

Wow are they ever neat-looking:  Big (1"+), and metallic blue/purple.  Google tells me they're blue mud daubers, and that they eat spiders.  :/

Zucchini/ronde fruit petering out long before flowering, sighhh

Not sure why I keep having this problem in recent years.

Teeny tiny fruit appear, but they're pale and sickly and stop growing -- this is long before the flower opens, so it's not a lack of pollination.

So far only one nice-looking fruit has made it to flower-opening (the air conditioner zucchini) -- and sadly it was before there were any males around.

Since then, others on that plant, and on other plants, not looking promising.  I'm removing the fruit that clearly look like duds, so that the plants can focus on other things.

All zucchinis, rondes, and cucumbers now kaolined or under tulle re: SVB and cucumber beetles

Funny that my FOY sightings for both these insects was today.

Will be interesting to see if the kaolin deters egg-laying.

Cardinal (male) again this morning!!!!

Super cool!  Didn't stay for long, was before I had set out the plates for the day, but tried eating from the green feeder (sunflower seeds) -- it was low stocked so after he left I filled it up to make it much easier for him in case he returns.

4 song sparrows: 2 adults and 2 babies!

Seeing all 4 in the yard at the same time, with 2 squawking babies -- well, teenagers I guess.  Today I'm seeing the young'uns eating on their own occasionally, though they still ask to be bed too, but parents are feeding them less and less.

So fun to see the whole fam.

The adults are bathing frequently but I don't think I've noticed the teens bathing yet.

Cucumber beetle (FOY) seen in unkaolined cucumber flower!

Here we go...

Will kaolin the other half of the cucumbers today post-sun.

SVB moth (FOY) seen at zucchini!!!!! Found eggs on several!!!!!

Here we go!  Saw the moth fluttering at 12:15pm, around/on the not-yet-covered-nor-kaolined zucchini in the north bed.

Found ~5 eggs on the not-yet-covered-nor-kaolined air conditoner ronde, and a few on other not-yet-covered-nor-kaolined zucchini/rondes too.

After the sun passed, I kaolined that north bed zucchini's stems (in case I missed an egg) then covered it in tulle.  Also kaolined all remaining zucchini/rondes.  

Cardinal in yard!!!!!!!!!!

OMG OMG OMG OMG!  A bird other than a song sparrow (bless their hearts) was in the yard!  7:40pm, I was at the kitchen table, looked out, and lo and behold, Mr. Cardinal was on the table eating a bit of food from the plate (I think -- not totally sure if ate anything from plates, was on phone so was distracted).  Then hopped onto the ground and wandered around the tomato / ground cherry bed bit a few minutes.  Then flew up onto the roof, paused, hopped to the other roof, then flew away.

My guess is the squeaking of the song sparrows drew his attention to the yard.

Kaolined half the cucumbers (removed their tulle) and k'd another zucchini

Preferring to minimize tulle as much as I can to avoid trapped insects, so removed it from the cucumbers and instead sprayed half the cukes with kaolin (at 4pm, after sun passed for the day).  Will see how they react, then spray the rest if ok.

Also sprayed the eastmost of the central zucchinis.  So, now, 4 zukes (/rondes) are under tulle, 2 are kaolined, and 4 have no protection.

(Still no sign of cucumber beetles yet.)

Covering basil at night -- going down to 11 tonight -- more cool nights coming

Sheesh, what's with these cold nights.  Covered the basil a few nights ago, and again tonight, especially as it's going down to 11, and will below 13 for several hours.

Forecast is showing more <13 degree nights coming up -- including 10 degrees next Tues, June 15th!

Basil is the only thing I'm worried about at these temperatures.

Baby song sparrow(s)!

3 song sparrows in the yard today, seen a few different times.  At first I thought it was both parents and one baby, but actually I think it was two babies and one parent, because the babies look a bit different.  Well not actually "babies" -- they look like normal birds, so they can't be super young, but the parent is feeding them.  Their chirps sound different, and their feathering is a bit darker, and the head feathers don't look quite the same as the adult.

Anyway, neat!

Removed tulle from chard/parsley/kale bed

Removed the tulle from this bed because I'm over chard for now (enjoying kale instead), parsley doesn't need a cover and will soon outgrow it, and the kale under the tulle has been all sluggy, which I'm not sure is because of the tulle or because of the intense spacing in that bed.

Kaolined a fourth tomato and the lower leaves of a fifth (re: flea beetles)

The ones already kaolined look fine still, and don't seem to have flea beetles on them.

No sign of cucumber beetles yet, but covered a fourth zucchini, and semi-covered the cucumbers

So now 4 of the 10 zucchinis/rondes are covered by tulle.

For the cucumbers, they're just very loosely protected, due to running out of clothespins/rocks.

Potatoes dying from blackleg!!

Out of the blue it seems, several of the potato stems have wilted and flopped over, and their stems near the soil level are all brown and dead!  Both of the "banana" potato pots are affected (those are the new seed potatoes I bought this spring), and it looks like the Bintje potato is following suit as the stems are brown but they haven't wilted/flopped yet.  Google suggests it's blackleg, a bacterial disease.

This is new, never dealt with this before.  Sigh!  I pulled the flopped pieces and put them in the garbage... leaving the rest of the plants intact for now...

I can't find any tips on how to fix it once it happens.

Carrion beetle (FOY)

Caught up in the tulle over the chard.  Freed from the tulle and placed into the adjacent carrot bed.  Hid under the leaf mulch.

Falafel sandwiches galore -- soooooo good -- kale and broccoli from garden

Rather than just having salads, tried adding falafel (from mix) for some protein.  Didn't bother with pita bread (because, pandemic) and wow I don't miss the bread at all.  SO good.  Have been having these salads for lunch and supper daily.

- kale

- Annie's copy-cat goddess dressing (mix with kale, then add rest of ingredients)

- seed parmesan (home-made is fine)

- broccoli (from garden)

- falafels

- pickled turnips

Fireflies galore

Must have been at least 6 or 7 all lighting up.

1 new leaf on the kaolined potato is crispy

Just the one leaf is looking not so good.  So far everything else that's been kaolined still looks fine.

Pea tops/tips BURNT, but new growth appearing

I imagine it's the heat wave and/or I didn't water enough, but a few days ago I noticed the tips/tops of the peas were all flopped and dead-looking.  Sure enough they weren't just wilted, as they're now drying up.  But, the rest of the plants (to the ground) look good, and, at the tops new growth is appearing.

Powdery mildew on yarrow AND goldenrod -- applied horsetail fungicide

A week or two ago I noticed what looked like powdery mildew on the yarrow (the volunteer in the patio stones next to my chair which started growing last year), so I sprayed it with the horsetail fungicide.  Google says yarrow is susceptible to PM so I do imagine that's what it is.

Lately I've noticed more of it, so, I sprayed it again today.  (This is still with the original batch I whipped up a few weeks ago.)

And today I noticed the goldenrod (the volunteer in front of the hose well which started growing last year) also has white powdery specks on the leaves, so I sprayed it too.  And Google says goldenrod is also susceptible to PM.

So far not seeing signs on the squash/zucchini, but it's early days yet... (haven't sprayed them with the fungicide yet)

Scapes (part 1) harvested

Most of the north wall garlics have scaped and I harvest all but two of the smaller ones.

Two of the east bed garlics have scaped and I harvested both of them.

More (small) heads of broccoli harvested; heat wave ongoing

We're right in the middle of a heat wave (+30+ not including humidex) and I've been watering the broccoli daily to try to keep the roots cool, but many of the small/medium heads that have formed are looking like they're threatening to open up, so I harvested several today.

Sure hope the side shoots will give good ongoing harvests, otherwise this is a lot of space for what's otherwise not even one store-bought set of broccoli :-)  (but, grown veganically which is worth a TON)

Three-lined potato adult beetle found on an unkaolined ground cherry, and some eggs

Relocated the bettle and removed the eggs.

So far, the kaolined plants look fine

^^^

Firefly (FOY)

So fun to see them lighting up in the dark.

Kaolin application #2 given on half ground cherries and tomatoes, 1 zucchini and 1 potato pot

Only the second application so far.  Re-applying because of presence of three lined potato beetle eggs on ground cherries, and starting to gradually see flea beetles so want to hold off a major flea beetle invasion before the plants are more mature.

Diluted it a bit more than the first application by adding more water to the bottle.

Applied it at 4pm (i.e. post-direct-sun) to 3 of the 7 ground cherries, 3 of the 6 tomatoes, 1 zucchini (the one in the back by the compost bin), and 1 of the pots of potatoes.

I'll wait a week or so to see how the sprayed ones do, before spraying the others.

Eggs of three lined potato beetle (FOY) found on ground cherry leaf undersides -- will re-apply kaolin

^^^

First broccoli harvest

From one of the covered plants.  Def not a huge head by any stretch but it looked like it was just starting to separate, so harvested it.  Tasted fine with the delicious Goddess copycat dressing recipe, and so nice to not worry about caterpillars!

Twice-stabbed stink bug (FOY)

First time seeing one of these.  Was on the floating row cover over the a/c zucchini.  Apparently they don't do much damage, so put back after identifying.

Buckwheat as cover crop

Ordered buckwheat seeds today from Baker Creek.  Could take up to 8 weeks to arrive, but regardless hoping to try it for example on the garlic and broccoli beds when they're done.

Choosing buckwheat because it seems to have these good qualities:

- fast growing (flowers in 4-6 weeks, then once it starts flowering you have 7 to 10 days to turn it into the soil (or else it can get a little unruly))

- easy to pull out

- once pulled, can be left intact as cover mulch

- breaks down quickly

Need to wait at least 3 weeks after digging in before planting new plants, otherwise the new plants won't grow well.

https://www.walkerland.ca/buckwheat-green-manure-home-gardens/

https://extension.missouri.edu/publications/g4163

 

Scapes on the north wall garlic; none yet in the east wall bed

I swear I looked at the north wall garlic just the other day and saw no scapes, but today there are several and quite long, some almost the full curl.

No scapes yet on the covered bed on the east wall.

Cabbage moth caterpillars (FOY) on un-covered kale and broccoli

Teency weency caterpillars on the underside of one of the uncovered kale leaves I harvested today.

And found one big chunky caterpillar on the underside of one of the uncovered broccolis.  Cut off the leaf and relocated.

Ivory Silk Lilac Tree is what's out front of the house

At least, based on the tag of another same-looking tree just down the sidewalk.  

"Ivory Silk Lilac Tree -- Syringa reticulata Ivory Silk -- Full Sun -- Zone 3 -- H: 8m -- W: 5m -- Creamy white large size flowers in May-June, disease resistant"

(This is the tree that was planted ~3-4 years ago, that the song sparrow is often in this year.)

Zucchini female flower bloomed, but no males blooming yet

Sigh!  More females are on the way, so I hope the males can their act together soon.

Purple/thai basil going to seed

Even the store-bought purple basil, and with the colour of the leaves I almost didn't notice the seed heads coming up.  Also my own "purple" (which are green) and thai basil.

Genovese basils not yet going to seed, though many pointy leaves so I'm pruning actively.

Transplanted everything else (except front bed SE corner, will do that tomorrow)

Evvvvverything's in now.  Well except the front-of-house bed at the SE corner.

Squash bug (FOY) and stink bug (FOY)

Eeeps, found a squash bug (full size / adult) and a stink bug today.  The squash bug was I think on the beet tulle and the stink bug was on a ground cherry.  Rehomed.

Squash bugs haven't been a "thing" for my garden in the past, hope not this year either...

Replaced remaining row cover with tulle (now that it arrived in the mail)

(The chard/parsley/kale bed, the garlic bed, and the beet bed.)

Best zucchini transplanted north of air condioner

Has three mini zucchinis forming already, definitely the best-looking zucchini at this point.

Pulled out all of the lettuce that had been growing here, except 3 left to go do seed.

Mixed in horse manure and kelp meal.  Didn't mix in alfalfa pellets for this one.

Mulched with dried grass clippings.

Placed upside down tomato cage for vertical growing.

Transplanted rest of tomatoes and ground cherries

Grand total transplanted:

- 7 ground cherries

- 6 tomatoes, consisting of:

    - 1 cherry tomato

    - 1 medium tomato

    - 1 Rainbow Blend light coloured seed

    - 1 Rainbow Blend dark coloured seed

    - 2 Rainbow Blend in-between coloured seed

Mulched with grass clippings and mowed leaves.

No flea beetles lately, and have applied kaolin only once so far

However, now that the tomatoes and ground cherries are back to living outside full time, I imagine the flea beetles may reappear, especially as there's now a lot of new green growth uncovered by the kaolin.  It has been very dry, hardly any rain at all, so the original kaolin application is still largely there.  I won't re-apply kaolin for now, will just monitor, and when I do re-apply it, I'll dilute it more, because I do wonder if it had a harmful effect on the plants to some extent.

Kale harvesting galore -- lettuce and swiss chard too

Have been harvesting lots of kale.  Chard isn't being as productive but still getting some harvests.  Tons of lettuce -- and there's no need at all to thin lettuce -- it's fine for it to be super thick, still get lots of harvest.

Transplanted half the ground cherries, tomatoes, and cucumbers

Will plant the other half in a day or two.

Here's where I've put the tomato varieties:

- back row:  rainbow blend misc, rainbow blend misc, medium

- front row (when I plant it, will be):  rainbow blend dark seed, rainbow blend light seed, cherry

Tall zinnias from collected seeds are all yellow/orange/reddish!

This year I started the tall zinnias from only the following 3 baggies of collected seeds.  Interesting that so far, every single one is on the orange/red/yellow spectrum (varying shades, especially some pure oranges) -- none in the pink/purple/peach range!

- "neat special orange/red, I love it!" collected 2018

- "nice orange red by living room door" collected 2020 from previous year's collected seed

- "yellow" collected 2020 from previous year's collected seed