GA: Scotia are ripening (plants diseased like the other tomatoes but still producing)

^^^

GA: Watermelon (x1) harvested FOY

It was nice and big (as far as Blacktails go), so I decided today was the day.  The little tendril at the vine joint was still green, but it lacked vibrancy, so it looked like it would be turning brown soon.

The inside was -- mostly green, some pink tinge, so I was disappointed at first.  But, it was sweet and juicy, very nice!  The seeds were fully edible / inoffensive.

There's another nice big one getting ready too -- that one I'll wait until the tendril turns brown, will see if that makes any difference in pinkness.

And a few others that are growing too.

GA: FOY Colorado Potato Beetle!!

Well that didn't take long!  While transplanting zukes, suddenly I saw a CPB crawling on the soil.  Not sure if s/he had been under the soil and recently emerged or had flown in from elsewhere.

I'll definitely have to keep an eye on the potatoes since even though they were covered since day 1, always a chance CPBs could pop up from under the soil.

FOY cucumbers! ** Finally ** (allotment)

The allotment cukes were the first to give a harvest.  2 harvested today.

Sadly, no tomatoes to go with them!!

Cabbage butterfly moth thing seen in yard!!! FOY

Wow!  Seems so early in the season.  The one I saw was on the ground at first, walking/futzing around -- I wonder if s/he was newly emerged from inside the backyard!  Flew away eventually.

Therefore, I ran inside and quickly netted all of the relevant hardies (they're still in their small pots).

FOY Japanese Beetle (on lemon balm patch)

^^^

First cucumber beetle of the year! Seen on cukes (haven't tulled or kaolined them)

Wasn't able to catch him/her.  I'm sure it won't be long before I see their friends!

Song sparrow, FOY in the backyard!

Sitting in the tray feeder.

Welcome!

Juncos! On roof while I was in yard. Surely they'll come back?

First time this fall seeing juncos in the yard!  Bag timing as I was out there so they didn't come down, but hopefully they'll be back.

Japanese Beetles (FOY) -- 2 on pea plants

^^^

Junco (FOS)! (despite having temporarily removed all feeders)

Hopping along the ground.  First of season in my yard.

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.

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)

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

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.

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.  :/

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.  

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.