Allotment: Bush beans are starting second flowering

Neat!  It's my first year trying bush beans and I had heard that they often give a second flush.

Lots of blackberries at berry alley; a few last thimbleberries

Lots now, and looks like the harvest will be going on for a few more weeks, though this will probably be my one and only visit this year.

Wild plum tree has zero plums or any sign of plum!!!

Wow, I wonder why!  Last year, when I first found the tree at MF, it was so loaded, so many plums on the ground all over.  This year, absolutely zero sign of anything (flowers or plums, either on the tree or on the ground).  The tree looks puny and the leaves are full of holes.

Maybe just a bad year?  We'll see what next year brings.

All zukes now untulled

^^^

Gradually removing tulles from zukes

As of today, removed the tulle from the two central bed zukes.  I had previously removed the tulle from the one remaining potted zuke.

Just because it's the end of the season soon, so que sera sera with the borer.

Buckwheat sowed in front of fence (removed bleeding heart)

Just scattered the seed on top, gently "raked" it a bit with my fingers and that's it.  Didn't water it, will let that happen when it happens.

Raccoons!!!! x3!!!

I just happened to be up late tonight, and noticed Jasper showing interest at the patio screen door in the kitchen.  I peered out and saw some eyes on the fence.  My first thought was skunk.  But then I realized no -- it was a raccoon!  And another raccoon!  And another raccoon!  3 raccoons!  They look a little small, juveniles perhaps?

Being concerned about the garden is one thing, but far more important is my dogs, including my little 15 pound guy.  No way can I risk a run-in the next time he has to do his business in the middle of the night.

So I went out in the yard to try to scare them away with my voice and motion.  They looked at me from the top of the fence but didn't seem scared at all, though I think there was some hissing.

Fine then -- I went to dig out a water gun.  But then I was like, wait a minute -- I have a much better water gun in the yard...  So yes, I gave them a good spraying with the hose.  They quickly descended the other side of the fence.  A few minutes after, I went out the front door to see if I could hopefully spot them going somewhere else.  Alas, they were still in the bush by the fence and I must have scared them because they then climbed up the fence again.

Jasper got out into the yard and peered at them from the other side of the fence but oddly wasn't as excited as I thought he would be -- he wasn't barking or anything, though he was definitely interested.  I tried to call him back in with "cookie", and he kept coming towards me and then going back to the raccoons.  Finally "supper" worked to get him inside.  But in the meantime, the raccoons didn't seem all that scared of him.

Another spraying and they left again.

I do wonder whether or not this was their first visit to my yard?  If they've been here before I never saw any signs -- no damage at all that I could see.  So, I'm doubtful that they've been here before.  Hopefully the hose + Jasper have worked to convince them not to return.... but we shall see. 

Allotment: Squirrels eating ground cherries!! So I'll pick them a bit unripe

Someone, squirrels likely, is eating the ground cherries at the allotment!  Sigh!  So, today I picked a few that hadn't fallen yet, and will let them finish ripening at home.  Will try to do that for the rest.

The zuke that was un-tulled all season still looks great -- no sign of SVB yet

I mean, I'm positive there must be eggs (haven't been checking for them), and so there must be baby borers happening... but so far so good, and it's looking amazing after a slow start -- so big and bushy and producing nicely.

Un-tulled the other potted zucchini bec it's also not looking great

Not sure what's wrong with this one -- though several of the in-ground zukes are equally sad -- I am definitely thinking because I didn't do a mid-season amendment soon enough (did it only a few days ago after seeing all these sad zuke plants).

So, figured I'd just take off the tulle and que sera, sera.

Allotment: Onions are officially a flop -- hardly grew much despite tops dead

Alas, my 100% failure record at growing an actual onion remains.  Figured it was worth a try at the allotment as I think it gets more sun than my yard.  But the onion sets hardly doubled in size, despite the tops being mostly all gone now.  So, plucked some of them, left a few more for now.

Woolly bear caterpillars in the removed zucchini

Found two cute caterpillars which I think are woolly bears, fell out of the zucchini when I ripped it up.  Left them be.

Oh no! Zucchini plant due to broken stem -- no evidence of SVB

The potted zucchini in the big terra-cotta-coloured container by the a/c, which had been doing really well and producing nicely, slowed down in recent days (as have all the other zukes -- I'm guessing it's generally because I have't done a mid-season amendment) -- and a few days ago I noticed it was all floppy.  At first I was sure it would be due to a SVB making it in under the tulle because I hadn't secured it all that well -- there were definitely gaps.  But -- in looking at the plant more closely, suddenly the main growing part broke right off.  I dissected it and didn't see any trace of SVB.  I think the stem broke either from me / people damaging it, or potentially from the weight of hanging down from the container.

So, removed the whole plant and will use it for the leftover bush beans -- 4 left over still in the little seedling pots from several weeks ago.

Amended the zukes with kelp, mrp, and azomite

Alright alright.  My zucchinis are so pathetic these days that I declare my experiment over and decide that yes I really do need to do a mid-season amendment to keep the zucchini plants happy.  So, today I amended almost all (other than the one dying one) with 2 Tbsps kelp meal, 1 Tbsp mrp, and 1 Tbsp azomite.  Sprinkled it on top of the soil at the root, will let rain/animals bring it down to the roots hopefully.

Bush beans sowed June 8th are coming ready for harvest

The bush beans planted in the northwest corner of the central bed (where the barese was), sowed June 8th, now have some harvestable beans.  (I haven't harvested any of them yet though.)

So, that's about 60 days.

Powdery mildew started a week or two ago; and, zuke production has slowed

So far only on the tulled zukes, not the one untulled zuke yet.

I wonder if the slow-down in zucchini production is related to the mildew, or if it's because I'm not doing a mid-season amendment.

Dill seeds harvested -- but have aphids

First of many dill seed harvests happened today.  Tons of seeds from just a few umbels (is that the right word?)!  The first set had tons of green aphids in them though, so rather than keeping them I scattered them where the amaranth is, hoping they won't germinate until next spring?  But whatevs.

The second set which I didn't notice until dark had at least two aphids in it, but light was low so I put them in a tupperware, for a closer inspection tomorrow before deciding whether to store or scatter.

Little green caterpillar found ON the kale tulle cover (central bed)

Interesting!  Found a little green caterpillar which I would assume is the cabbage butterfly's doing, on TOP of the double-layer of tulle over the kale in the central bed.  Relocated him/her.

Did a harvest of kale after that and didn't notice any worms inside the tulle..... fingers crossed...  Though I had been a little delinquent in harvesting enough to keep them completely from touching the tulle -- but not badly...

Transplanted bush beans -- how will they fare?

Transplanted into the garden (in-ground and in pots) most of the bush beans that I started in potting mix on July 30th.

This involved also splitting them up from their cell-mates.

So, I'll be curious to see if they do ok, since I think I read that beans don't like to be transplanted.  But, worth an experiment, especially given the issues I have with getting them to germinate in-ground.

Some of the beans went into two of my nice-sized black pots from which I harvested the first two sets of potatoes.  I amended before transplanting with alfalfa, mrp, azomite, and kelp meal.  The north pot has the white bush beans and the south pot has the other bush beans.

The others went into the gaps in the central bed's SW corner.

First two pots of potatoes harvested! Decent yield, much better than last year

Wow!  Much better yield than last year!

Pot 1 (the first one to die off, had blight):  Nice-sized black pot. Had 3 x grocery store white potatoes.  Yield = 2 pounds.

Pot 2 (the second one to die off, had blight:  Nice-sized black pot. Had 3 x grocery store white potatoes.  Yield = 2 pounds, 9 ounces.

Way better than last year, when the same pots were giving like 0.5 to 0.75 pounds per pot.

Some of the potatoes in the bottom third of pot 1 were all mushy / not much left of them -- I tossed those obviously.  I think it may have been from poor drainage.  Pot 2 didn't seem to have that though.

Quite a few more potato plants still to be harvested from other pots and the ground (and the allotment)...

House sparrows eating Japanese beetles I think! (STILL NEAR-ZERO BEETLE ISSUES THIS YEAR)

While there's an occasional Japanese beetle feasting on bean leaves, it's extremely minimal, to the point that all I do is move them over to the wild evening primrose.  I've been noticing the sparrows (house mostly I think) hanging around in the various vegetation.  Well, today I saw a house sparrow chasing a flying big beetle of some sort -- maybe a Japanese Beetle?  Google says it wouldn't be odd.  Very cool if the sparrows are helping out!

Cucumber beetles continue to be a complete non-issue, haven't seen any other than that one several weeks ago.

Stopped harvesting dill, letting it all flower / go to seed

^^^