Oh no! One of the central covered zukes wilting?

The northmost of the most recent transplants in the central bed looks.... partly flattened today.  I wonder if a SVB made it in a few weeks ago when I noticed the tulle had been disturbed and had a gap.  

Harvested first big tomatoes! Yellow Rainbow Blend ("darker seed")

At first I thought I was harvesting it at the breaker stage, but once I brought it inside I realized it's actually a yellow tomato.  This plant was from a "darker seed" from the Rainbow Blend.  Wasn't totally sure if it was ripe, but decided to throw caution to the wind and slice it and have it with a cucumber sandwich.  It seemed nice and ripe, but, I have to say, it was kind of bland.  Maybe I'm just not used to non-red tomatoes and it's a mental thing?  But it was very edible, and nice and firm to have in a sandwich.

Oh and while part of the exterior was nice and yellow, other parts are weird looking... looks like the inside is brownish...  I haven't sliced into those parts yet... hope there's nothing "interesting" in there...!  --> Edited to say I didn't find anything "interesting" in the brown parts.

Decided to also harvest the other blushing one on the same plant.  It's just as big but less yellow, has more ripening to do.  It also has weird-looking brownish colouration... we shall see...

Chipping sparrows!

Saw a chipping sparrow eating from the feeders several times today.  And a couple at the same time, too.  I've heard chipping sparrows in the neighbourhood many times, but it's the first time I noticed them in my yard

I think mostly ate millet, but I think also sampled from the sunflowers and mixed seeds.

A second big tomato ripening, on same plant as first one

Haven't pulled either one yet.  The first one to blush, I'll probably pull in the next few days, and let it finish ripening in the kitchen.

Insects not causing issues, few in number

Seeing hardly any Japanese beetles or cucumber beetles.  The occasional one, but that's it.  Kind of nice.

Haven't noticed any three-lined potato beetle babies on the ground cherries, but I haven't been checking, and I did find several adults over the past weeks, so I'm sure the babies are there or will be soon, but I'm not too worried.

Pulled one of the Rainbow Tomato plants -- diseased, not progressing, few fruit

The Rainbow Blend plant in the SW quadrant of the tomatoes.  It's been sickly for a while.  Figured why not get the darn thing out of there and help improve a bit of air flow.

"Harvested" about half a dozen small (small) green tomatoes, an interesting sort of pear shape.

This leaves three other Rainbow Blend (one of which has only TWO tomatoes, though they are huge), the medium, and the cherry.  I count about 25 tomatoes on those remaining plants, excluding the cherry which has lots.

Basil continues to die due to downy mildew, even the central bed and pots :((((

Yeah I don't think there's any hope for any of the basil.

However, I'm still holding out a teeny tiny sliver for some of the plants in the main basil bed which still have some pure, untouched new leaf clusters...  

Cucumber plants starting to die -- disease? And ~8 cucumbers in fridge right now

A few days ago I started noticing some crispy cucumber leaves.  There seem to be a few more now.  I imagine it will spread to all of the cucumber plants and their days are likely limited.  I don't mind too much, though it would be nice of some of the tomatoes and some of the cucumbers could coordinate themselves and be ready at the same time!

It has been a good cucumber harvest.  About 8 in the fridge today, and have eaten / given away probably around 10 or 12 so far.  This is with 6 cucumber plants.

"Breaker stage" tomato harvesting experiment: Yes!

How did I never come across this tomato harvesting tip until this year.

Did an experiment with the cherry tomatoes.  On the same day, I harvested one cherry tomato that was perfectly ripe, and several that were at the blushing / breaking stage.  I put the ripe one into its own container, and the others into another container.  The blush tomatoes ripened really quickly, within just a few days.  Then did a taste test.  Wow!  The tomatoes harvested at breaker stage were delicious, very flavourful!  Maybe even more so than the one that has harvested ripe, which had also split while sitting in the container waiting for the others to ripen.  Very unlike when in the fall I bring in totally green tomatoes to ripen -- those ones are pretty bland and have a weird texture.

So anyway, yes, I will definitely start harvesting tomatoes before they're fully ripened.  

Some of the benefits...

- Less splitting on the vine / rotting / flies getting into it

- Less chance of critters getting a taste of ripe tomatoes

- More energy available to send to green tomatoes on the plant

A cushaw opened this morning! Tried to hand-pollinate, but sketchy males, so not sure if it worked

This is only the second cushaw to open (the first had no males at the time).  I had been saving the few winter squash males from the last few days, but they had been rained on and already visited by the pollinators, so not much pollen was left on them, but some, and I did my best.  Also pollinated with a summer squash too, just in case, no idea if that is effective.

Harvested zucchini(/ronde) #5 -- and a few more are on the way

#5 was from the central bed, east-most plant which gave one of the earlier zucchinis.

That same plant will soon provide #6 (just another day or two to go.)

And, the ronde south of the air conditioner has one that took and has started to swell, and a second flower that opened this morning, so potentially #7 and #8 on the way there.

And, another of the central bed zucchinis flowered today; we'll see if it takes.

No females have opened yet among the youngest transplants.

Male flowers opening on the late-start zucchinis

Hopefully some of the females will start opening in the next week or so...... TBD.

A tomato (Rainbow Blend) is starting to blush!!! Finally!

^^^

Cucumber wrapped in paper towels / dish towels and put into plastic bag in fridge

I have 4 or 5 cucumbers in the fridge that I'm not sure when I'll have a chance to eat them all, so I decided to try this tip from Susan Mulvihill.  Simply wrapping them in dry paper towel or dish towels (I did two of each), placing them into a plastic bag, then placing into the fridge.

Hoping they'll keep until some of the tomatoes are ready!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gV2Dxhb2enE

Removed tulle from container zucchini (one of the late starts) because leaves crowded

Really need to figure out what is the best way to give the zucchini lots of room (in my small garden) and be under tulle.  Next year will improve on things...

Ronde de nice more compact that zucchini plants?

Hmmm, I'm noticing that the ronde de nice by the air conditioner (which has been producing) is a lot more compact / shorter leaves than the zucchini.  Even the newest zucchini transplants' (which haven't yet produced) leaves are much taller than the ronde's.

I can't remember if previous years' rondes were also so compact, but a web search finds lots of pages that describe rondes as compact:  "... savory "bush" variety squash that remains very compact and is great for growing in tight spaces or raised beds. "

I didn't cover this ronde, but it would have been way easy to cover than the crazy zucchini plants.  So, I think next year I'll put more emphasis on rondes, and will try to give them their own area where they won't be shaded out by zucchinis.

Beet leaves have poops and holes, despite being under tulle entire time?

While harvesting three more beets today, I noticed what definitely looks like some kind of poop on the underside of some of the leaves, and there are what look like some chew damage on some of the leaves. The root parts look fine.  The beets have been under cover the entire season, so I have no idea what this could have been.  I couldn't find any actual insects.  Will just give the leaves a good rinse before using them.

Two more zucchinis took and will be ready soon!! And a ronde flowered today!

Wow, the SE-most zuke in the central bed, which already produced one of the four zukes/rondes I've harvested so far, currently has TWO zukes on it that have flowered and took!  And it even has a third zuke that hasn't yet flowered but looks promising!  Whereas the other two zukes in that bed have done nothing.

Also, the air conditioner ronde, which has produced two rondes so far, has one that opened today, and it has several promising ones too.

Last basil harvest before downy mildew completely destroys everything?

Harvested from the few central bed basil plants which I can see the downy mildew is now taking these ones down too (despite having applied horsetail fungicide several times).  Froze most of this harvest (didn't rinse or anything), hoping I can use it for the two zucchinis that will be ready within a few days.

The main basil patch in the north bed is essentially totally kaput and nothing there looks appealing to harvest.  I haven't pulled them yet, just to see if by chance they might bounce back some how.

Harvesting ~1-2 small handfuls per day of ground cherries

Since the past week or so.

Enough to snack on, not enough for pies yet.

Aphids inside ground cherry husks!!! But they seem to be ok?

I had been noticing that the ground cherry plants still look healthy and strong after having noticed aphids on the ground cherry plants on July 4th.  I also noticed some lady bug larvae on the ground cherries recently.

Well today I noticed that the inside of some of the husks look dirty -- you can see it through from the outside of the husk.  Opened one up and...  aphid poop and some aphids (mostly deceased?)!!

Sigh!!

They're in a bunch of husks, but a bunch of husks look fine.

The good thing is that the cherries inside the affected husks actually look fine.  So, maybe will just need to give them a good rinse, rather than chuck all of the affected husks.

Sprayed horsetail fungicide proactively on most zukes (no signs of PM yet)

^^^

Sprayed the central and potted basils with horsetail fungicide again (to try to curb downy mildew)

^^^

Goldfinch ate seeds from front-of-fence "daycare" sunflower!

^^^

Milkweed Assassin Bug? Or Scarlet Plant Bug?

Have seen a few here and there around the yard starting a week or so ago.  Not exactly sure what they are.  I think too small to be Milkweed Assassin Bug.  But, will leave them be.

Hummingbird drinking from zinnias!!!

Soooooooo cool!  Happened to see today while sitting at the computer in the kitchen during lunch break.  Ate for a few minutes from the central bed's zinnias!  Then moved on to check out the black-eyed susans, but didn't like those.  So fun to watch!  Looks like a little green shimmery mermaid. 

I saw one very briefly a year or two ago as well, drinking from the zinnias.

Harvested a few beets (have been ready for a while)

Harvested the first three beets, now that I finally used up all of last year's beets.  Huge beets, with gorgeous leaves thanks to being under tulle the whole time.  

Flanders Fields poppies have been blooming for several weeks; Oriental poppies flopped (they didn't grow/flower)

^^^

Fuzzy-leaved black-eyed (or maybe brown-eyed) susans volunteered in yard

In the early season I noticed some interesting volunteer plants in the yard.  I left some to grow in the edge of the tomato bed, and put a couple on the south edge of the central bed.  They're all about 3 feet tall now, and with nice yellow flowers, with a brownish/burgundyish central, and the leaves are fuzzy and soft.  I think they're a variety of black-eyed susans (or brown-eyed susans in this case) but I was thrown off at first because the black-eyed susans in the front bed aren't fuzzy at all.  But this forum says they come in a wide variety, including fuzzy or smooth leaves:  

Evening primrose (wild) volunteered in front of fence

Very tall and striking, several stalks, with nice yellow flowers.  Japanese beetles like them too.

Itty bitty zucchinis appearing on 4 of the 6 newest zucchini plants!

Spotted the first teeny tiny zucchinis in the threesome plants in the central bed, and the one in the hydro meter bed!  Dare I hold out hope that these will do better than the rest of the zucchini plants...  will these bitty zucchinis grow into wonderful freezer meals and pancakes?  Or will they flop off before opening, like their brethren... Time will tell.

They're all under tulle.  (Though I did find some SVB eggs in the central three-some a few days ago (see other post).)

The two that don't yet have them are the youngest ones -- the solo one in the central bed, and the one in the container.  (Both also under tulle.)

Used the last of last year's beets (from the fridge)

Wow, these stored amazingly well!  These last of last year's beets looked great after all these months in the fridge.  Made the "Beets with Balsamic Vinegar" recipe.

Uh oh: Ground cherry leaves have white speckling, gradually spreading among ground cherry plants

First noticed it a week or two ago.  Kind of reminds me of last year's disease, but maybe not.  So far it's just affecting the ground cherries.  The plants look healthy so far, other than the white speckling.

Harvested the first cherry tomatoes (only a few); all other tomatoes still green

^^^

Celery harvestable starting ~a month ago (nice big stalks)

I've harvested only a few stalks, but it's been really nice and harvestable for about the past month or so.  It's doing well in the container next to the chair too (two plants in the container).

Sprayed horsetail fungicide on best basils due to downy mildew, and as PM prevention on youngest zukes and a/c ronde

Smells soooooo much better when it's not two months old!

Gave the basils in the central bed a good spray, as well as the two container basils, and the three west-most basils in the central bed -- upper and undersides of leaves.  For the central bed I gave an overhead-only spray to the three plants next to the west-most ones, just for fun.  The other basils in the central bed are goners, didn't bother doing anything with them.

Pro-actively sprayed the youngest zukes (all are still under tulle), upper and undersides, as well as the ronde south of the air conditioner.  Ran out of the spray so didn't do the other more mature zukes/rondes.  Not seeing powdery mildew on the squash yet, though it has already been on the grass, peas, goldenrod, and yarrow.

Evening Sun sunflower - deep red / brownish seed

This is the first of the three Evening Sun sunflowers to open (it's the one in the SW corner of the yard).  Very nice, deep reddish colour with yellow/orange tones too.  Multi-branching, but those are much slower to grow in compared to the daycare sunflowers.  ~6' tall.

Daycare sunflower seeds: All 3 are different!

The 3 seeds from the daycare flower head collected last fall all turned into different-looking sunflowers.

- The one in front of my chair (central bed) is most similar to the original daycare plant:  Similar height (~6'), similar or same colour (orange/red inner ring, yellow outer ring), same plentiful multi-branching.  However, this one takes up a lot more space!  Not compact at all.  Although, the daycare one might have just looked more compact when it wasn't in my yard :D

- The one in the west bed (near compost bin) is taller (~7+'), and the flower is pure yellow.  Same great multi-branching though.

- The one in the front is most different:  Only about 5' tall, with the smallest flowers of the three, and the colour is burgundy inner ring, light yellow outer ring.

Fun to see how they all turn out!  I love that they're all multi-branching. Currently they have only 1 open flower each, except the central bed which has 3 so far.  Looking forward to them all having multiple flowers.

Pruned and un-tulled more zucchinis; most zukes are quite shaded

Another round of pruning.

Un-tulled two more zucchinis, because my system with the upside down tomato cages has them way too squished at the top.

Between the volunteer sunflower in the central bed, the tall parsley gone to seed in the central bed (much of which I chopped today to remove some shade), the crazy tomatoes, etc., I'm realizing the deck is really stacked against my poor zucchinis.

Oh no! Downy mildew destroying basil!!!

Wow, just a week ago I had a great basil harvest and the plants looked fine.  Then a day or two ago I noticed the main basil patch was looking off.  I offhandedly thought maybe there had been some cool nights.  Today I went to do a good harvest and decided to look into what's going on.  Clearly it's downy mildew:  the underside of the leaves have the brownish powdery spores, and the tops of some leaves are yellowing / turning brown / dying.  Some leaves fell right off as I harvested (particularly the purple basil).

On the down side the crop is probably doomed; on the plus side it sounds like it's host-specific, so won't spread to other types of plants, and it doesn't live in the soil nor over-winter.

The handful of basil plants in the central bed also has it, now that I closely inspected it (at first I thought those were fine) -- I removed the affected leaves, will spray them with horsetail fungicide tomorrow once batch #2 is ready, and hope or the best.

Some resources:

https://extension.umn.edu/diseases/basil-downy-mildew

https://www.hobbyfarms.com/basil-downy-mildew-big-trouble-garden/

Horsetail fungicide batch #2

Collected horsetail to make a fresh batch of fungicide.  (Having tossed the horrible-smelling 2 month old leftovers from the first batch.)

3 ounces, soaked in 6 cups water for 24 hours.  Tomorrow I'll boil it for 20 minutes and let it cool, then strain.  That will be the concentrate.  Then, 1 cup of concentrate can be added to 4 cups of water.

(From the recipe on this page.)

Harvested zucchini #2!

From the zuke north of the air conditoner.

There's a second ronde well on the way, which will make for a total of 4 summer squash harvested so far...  yowzers.  After that, nothing promising...

SVB eggs on the central tulled zucchinis?!!?! -- some tulle edges had come a bit loose

By chance while hopefully admiring the new zucchini transplants in the central bed, and after lifting up the tulle to tweak them, which have been under tulle since day one, I espied not one, not two, but three things that I think were SVB eggs!!!!  I was flummoxed, but as I went around the edges adding more rocks, I noticed a few spots where a determined moth could have gotten through.  I almost wonder if the neighbourhood rat might have pushed his/her way under, which could explain why the pockets were there.

So, I removed the eggs, and resecured the tulle using more rocks.

While typing up this blog, I felt something on the back of my hand.  Upon close inspection, it's a teeny tiny whitish/opaquish caterpillar -- with a black dot where the head is.  Could it be a very newly hatched SVB who crawled onto my hand while I was fiddling with these plants!?!?!?!?!?

Well, at the very least there can't be a ton of eggs, and hopefully now with more rocks it will be more secure.  If I lose these plants, well, it's been a real learning year, next year will be a fresh start...

Harvested first ground cherries!

Only a half dozen or so, and not fully golden, but a decent size, and very tasty!

The plants look relatively sparse at this point though, hard to imagine hundreds coming off each plant... but it's early still, so hopefully they'll bush out more in the coming weeks.

Buckwheat has made an appearance (was sowed 4 days ago on July 11th)

And.... they're up, poking their way through the soil.  Though I must say, they don't look very healthy.  A lot of yellowish tone, and twistiness.  Maybe this is normal for buckwheat, I have no idea as this is my first year trying it.

Powdery mildew never bothered the peas; I removed the pea plants today

The powdery mildew that I first noticed on the peas on June 23rd gradually spread up to cover pretty much the whole pea plants, but it never affected harvest at all.  In fact it was a bumper harvest, very roughly 6 or 8 pints or so, which is plenty for my needs and I was able to share some too.

I pulled all of the pea plants today, and with that another couple of cups of final harvest.  This will improve air circulation in the area, and allow sunlight through to the recently sowed buckwheat along the north wall.

Several zucchini and the cushaw are are all close in that area -- not seeing PM on them yet, but I wonder if they'll be among the first to show it...

Seeds collected from a so-so forget-me-not

From the front bed.  A decent forget-me-not, but not the best --  Collected these seeds as an insurance policy in case a tragedy were to befall the stunner of a plant (super tall, had so many flowers) before its seeds have a chance to mature.

Harvested first zucchini!!

A beauty of a yellow!  In the central bed. 

Tomato leaves turning yellow/brown splotchy!

Further to the brown/crispy leaves noted yesterday, other leaves, mostly on some of the front-most tomatoes, and mostly towards the bottom, are yellowing with brown spots.  Looks like one of the diseases I've read about.  Removed those leaves, discarded in kitchen garbage.

Tomato leaves turning brown and crispy/dead!!!!

Noticed this a couple of days ago on the lowest leaves of the tomato plant just south of the sunflower... didn't do anything about it... then today noticed some leaves up on the upper tire of the plant are doing the same thing, and one upper leaf on a neighbouring plant!!!  So, removed those upper leaves and brought them inside to the kitchen garbage.

The tall grass on the hill was mowed today

^^^

Proactively sprayed horsetail fungicide made May 16th on most zucchinies/rondes

STINKY!!!!!!!  OMG I hope the smell will dissipate after it dries!  Maybe it's meant to be used a little fresher than this...

Because of its stinkiness, I didn't spray any of the central bed plants, nor the hydro meter plant, nor most of the cushaw, nor any of the butternut.  For those under tulle, I sprayed through the tulle.

This is just as a preventive, not seeing any powdery mildew on the squashes yet.  (Despite seeing it on the peas, goldenrod, and yarrow.)

Brown lacewing larvae (beneficial)

I've noticed several times in the past few weeks these really skinny small insects in various parts of the garden.  Finally got around to looking them up today:  brown lacewing larvae.  Yay!  

3 zucchini/rondes are producing!!!!

Yay!  The zucchini north of the air conditioner, the ronde south of the air conditioner, and one zucchini in the central bed are flowering and producing fruit!!!  3 fruiting plants out of 10, not exactly a passing grade but I'll take what I can get!  (Haven't harvested any zucchinis yet but it at least one will be ready in a few days.)

Unfortunately only one of these plants is covered, so I fear the wrath of the SVB for the other two plants...  We shall see...

Insect update (going well, no big issues)

- Cucumber beetles:  Finding several every day, mostly on cucumbers, occasionally on zucchini/rondes, but numbers aren't overwhelming, and plants don't seem to be suffering.

- Japanese beetles:  Finding one or two every few days, pretty much only on the zinnias.  

- Squash vine borer:  Finding occasional eggs.

- Aphids:  So far the aphids I've seen on the cucumbers, carrots, and ground cherries don't seem to have done any damage so I haven't been paying much attention.

Broccoli harvest finished ~a week ago, pulled almost all plants

Pulled most of the remaining broccoli plants to improve air flow, and to make room for the buckwheat.  Only one broccoli left, in the central bed, and I'm letting the last florets open.

Great basil harvest -- lots of pesto

Admittedly I typed this entry retro-actively, to make note of this great harvest a week before noticing the downy mildew in mid-July.  Made several jars of pesto with this batch.

House sparrow pecked at unopened sunflower head

I wonder if they'll be all over them once they've opened?  Surely they would wait until the seeds have formed though?  Didn't seem interested in the one opened sunflower (the daycare one by my chair).

Song sparrows still visit to eat/drink/bathe, but no longer forage along ground -- tomatoes / ground cherries too dense?

They still come by to eat millet, grab a drink and/or a bath, then eat a few sunflowers, but then they leave.  I think it's because the tomatoes have gone a wee bit unruly and the ground cherries too are fairly dense.

Buckwheat sowed (first time!)

So excited to try buckwheat as a cover crop!

Sowed it along a stretch of the north half of the north wall, where the puny leftover kales and broccolis had been attempting to grow (I removed them).  Definitely not a prime spot due to the rain and shade, but the peas will soon be out which will allow more sun at least until the cushaw starts climbing all up the pea structure.

Also sowed some in one of the pots I had prepared for zucchini and ended up not using since ground spaces were available.

I plan to pull them at some point to use them on mulch in the main beds.  (Especially since that north wall bed I'm going to convert its east portion back to patio stone because of the window well flooding issue.)

Many articles recommend pulling before it goes to seed.  I'll probably let these plants go well into flowering, for the beneficial insect aspect mentioned in this article which recommends letting it flower for at least 20 days:  "Flowering buckwheat provides a food source for beneficial insects such as hover flies, predatory wasps, minute pirate bugs, insidious flower bugs, tachinid flies, and lady beetles. These insects are predators of common insect pests and can help reduce their populations.  To provide a beneficial insect habitat, allow buckwheat to flower for at least 20 days to allow beneficials such as minute pirate bugs to breed a next generation."

Tons of delicious wild raspberries at CHM

So many!!  Especially on the east-west trail at the bottom of the lookout.

Beautiful straight, nice sized non-hairy carrot harvested!

This is the second or third nice carrot harvested this year.  It's been many years since I've had any half decent carrots -- they've been short, split, and very hairy.  Loving the carrots so far this year.  Doesn't look like the aphids were an issue.

No leek moths on garlic this year

Never saw any sign of them this year.  The main bed by the hydro meter was under tulle so that makes sense, but even the north bed (uncovered) I never noticed anything, and the bulbs look healthy when I harvested them today (small, but intact / nice looking).

Harvested remaining garlic in north bed

Those north bed garlics have really died down, just kind of fizzled away, I think maybe partly due to lack of sun since the enormous potato plants have created a lot of shade.

The bulbs look healthy, papered over, just very small and looks like lots of annoying small cloves to peel when cooking time comes.

Never saw any signs of leek moth this year (will post separately about that).

Might give garlic a break for next year.

Many cucumbers have taken; harvesting some early

Not sure if I have the cucumber beetles to thank, but there's a nice half dozen or so cucumbers coming along.  Harvested a couple already even though not fully grown, to have with hummus.

Tomatoes still all green, no sign of ripening (including cherry tomatoes)

Though there aren't a ton of tomatoes, there are some nice big ones.  None have even started to blush yet.  I hope they will soon, as the cucumbers are coming in nicely these days.

Zucchini update: Two more flowered, pruned all (except newest transplants), aphids on a/c ronde!!

The two more that flowered are the zucchini north of the air conditioner -- it flowered this morning, and luckily there was a male flower around that I used to fertilize it -- and one in the north bed under tulle which flowered while I was away so it didn't take and I've removed it.

There are some promising ones that I'm hopeful might make it to flowering in the coming days.

Found two aphids on the air conditioner ronde!!!  Far from an infestation, but sheesh, the aphids are everywhere this year.

Gave them all a good pruning, mostly to try to help deter powdery mildew, but also it's helpful to remove some SVB eggs for the un-covered ones.

Tulle + vertical does not seem to be a great combination, at least not with my setup (upside down tomato cages), because the tulle squishes the leaves which become squished/misshapen and can't be very helpful to the plant.  Removed the tulle from one of the north bed ones because it was so hopeless.

The batch of recent transplants are coming along.  Not seeing any zucchinis yet, but I think it won't be long.

Several of the plants are getting shaded by other things.

Flock of ~5 house sparrows visited but didn't eat anything

They just hung around on the (unopened) sunflowers and the top of the vertical structures.  A few sat on the birdfeeder pole for a bit but didn't eat anything.  Well one ate a few sunflowers.

Aphids (black) on underside of a nasturtium leaf

Removed that leaf but didn't bother with the few on other leaves.  

Ronde flower #2 opened!!!!

Oooooh, the same ronde by the air conditioner than made a beautiful ronde that I harvested last weekend now has another flower opened.  There was a bee inside it this morning, but to be safe I tried to hand pollinate as well, though the males didn't have much pollen left.

There have been a good number of bees (squash bees I think) visiting the squash every day.

Another great pea harvest today; will soon be over

So many peas this year, it was great, lots to share.  There will be another smaller harvest to finish them off soon.

Few raspberries at berry alley, but many blackberries and thimbleberries on the way

The few raspberries I found were wonderfully ripe and flavourful.  Look to be a lot of blackberries and thimbleberries on the way (will be a while yet though).

Golden lovin' is in the air

A male goldfinch was attempting to be romantic with a female goldfinch.  Wonder if there will be another round of babies?  And if so, will I get to see them?

Daycare sunflower opened!!! It looks true!! -- But not attracting bees?

The main flower of the daycare sunflower in the central bed opened!!  It's beautiful!  The same two-tone that I loved last year.  This is from the seeds (flower head) the daycare owner gave me last fall.  I wasn't optimistic that they'd be true, but so far I'm totally impressed, there will be oodles of flowers on the plant thanks to all the branching, just like the plant I oohed and aahed over last year.

The two other daycare sunflowers are behind -- the one in the NW corner is coming along for sure, but looks smaller an not opened yet -- the one in front of the fence is quite runty looking, but so are the other two sunflowers in front of the fence.

Added this note a few days later:  Hardly any bees/etc. attracted to it...?  (Compared to last year's mammoths which were "hives" of activity)

First cucumber harvest! (sort of)

A cucumber took!  There have been lots of females and males, so I was wondering when the show was going to get started.  This one had some more growing to do, but I harvested it now because the garden will be untended for a few days.

Cucumber beetles (on cukes mostly, s/t zukes) and three-lined potato beetles daily (on ground cherries)

Not an infestation yet, just a slow and steady incoming amount.

Sunflowers in yard as as tall/taller than me; sunflowers in front of fence are short/wimpy

Almost all of the yard sunflowers are at least as tall, if not taller than me.  The exception is the Evening Sun at the SW of the yard, it's ~4' or so.  The two daycare sunflowers in the yard are doing great, with prolific/advanced growth of flowers all along the stem, can't wait to see what those flowers will look like.

However, all three sunflowers in front of the fence are much farther behind -- and actually the eastmost one (Evening Sun light-striped) is clearly a dwarf variety, only about 2' tall.  I'm surprised that the mammoth and the daycare in front of the fence are so far behind -- though granted they were among the last transplanted I think.

Aphids on ground cherries and a zinnia!!!!!

The aphids on the ground cherries are multi-colour -- some are green, some red, some yellow.  Not a big infestation yet, but all the ground cherries have some -- even the volunteer at the south end of the central bed.  Removed a few leaves with many red aphids on them but otherwise didn't do anything.

Also a bunch of aphids on one stem of the zinnia behind the cucumbers.  My guess is the aphids that were on the cucumbers (I occasionally still see some on the cukes but not many/often) shifted over to the zinnia.  I cut off that stem.

Transplanted the final zucchini seedlings

So, all 6 of these late starts are under tulle, all have had mineralized phosphate added, and none have had alfalfa meal or kelp meal added (though some are planted in spots that had alfalfa/kelp added in the spring when planting the first plants i.e. the former broccoli and kale beds).

Today's final plantings were in the central bed (after pulling the finished broccoli and the rotting kale), plus the smallest runtiest one is in the container I prepped a week or two ago.  The southmost one on its own, and the two northmost ones, had about 6 Tbsps of mineralized phosphate.  

Cedar mulch for most, but the second from the north is the last of the ground up dried leaves.  And the second from the south has first a layer of broccoli leaves, then cedar mulch on top.

First (only?) ronde harvested!!!! No other promising rondes/zukes yet

It may be the only summer squash I get all year at this rate, with 10* plants argh!!  But at least all was not lost, I did get this one, precious, beautiful ronde, almost 1 pound.  Absolutely no other promising rondes/zukes have appeared yet.

*Actually 16, now that I've just finished putting in 6 new transplants.

More kales succombing to the rot; removing those

^^^

Chilly nights again!!! 11-12 degrees forecasted for five of the next six nights

Sigghhhhhhh.  It's just the basil I'm wondered about, but the cool temps can't be great for the zucchini babies.  I brought in the not-yet-transplanted zukes tonight and will do the same the next few nights.

Covered the basil with a fleece blanket over top the tulle, but the sides are open, whatevs.

Itty bitty song sparrow fledgling

While poking around the garden today, what did I suddenly see looking up at me from atop a parsley stalk in the central bed, but a teeny tiny fledgling.  Well not teeny tiny, but definitely itty bitty, much younger than the other ones I saw a few weeks ago.  Was just sitting there.  So I went inside and herded the dogs inside (they hadn't seen) and watched.  About half an hour later an adult song sparrow came along and tended to the baby.  I didn't see feeding, but eventually the adult showed the baby how to get through the fence at the bottom (since the baby wasn't flying).  The baby looks weird in that s/he doesn't seem to have a tail / long tail feathers, though Google images seem to suggest that may be normal.  I hope s/he will be ok.  But it does go to show what they say about not rushing out and interfering when we see a baby animal -- chances are the parents are around and will come back.

Three-lined potato beetle and eggs found on ground cherries

It's been a while, I wondered when they'd be back.  

Japanese beetle (FOY) -- on basil -- so, covered basil with tulle

Here we go!

To protect the basil I've now covered it with tulle.  It's only about a foot high, very easy to cover.

Actually, I wonder if maybe they won't be much of an issue in my garden this year.  The basil is covered, I'm not growing beans, the peas are almost finished -- the zinnias will likely take a hit.  But will anything else be affected?  Maybe the tomatoes / ground cherries?  We'll see.