GA: First frost hit within the last few days (not in yard yet)

Saw today that first frost hit at GA, whereas it hadn't hit when I was last there a few days ago.  

The yard hasn't had its first frost yet.

GA: Started early havesting but probably still a bit too early

My first potatoes harvested were about a week ago, to use in a recipe with zucchinis since the zucchini plants have been dropping to SVB etc.  Then harvested some more today, but still just a little corner of one of the patches.  The potatoes are so far medium size, no big chonkers yet.  Hopefully they'll keep growing, but the plants are definitely dying back, with some stems completely dried out.

GA: Broccoli harvest definitely slowing, but still some

^^^

GA: FOY leeks harvested

Not a ton of them are on the thicker side, but hopefully they'll still grow.  Today harvested 5 of the bigger ones, to have with potato leek soup.  Of the 5, one had bolted so it was useless.  Since the all the leeks are under cover, not sure how many others may have bolted, we'll see later on...

GA: FOY sweet corn harvested; but a bunch of them have zero corns forming

Ooooh YUMMMMM the sweet corn is delicious!  So crispy and perfect!  

BUT a whole bunch of the sweet corn patch has stalks with nothing growing -- the tassels thing at the top yes, but no hint of any cobs whatsoever.  Seems to be a lot of the earlier round of sowing -- maybe too shaded???

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

^^^

GA: Onions horrible, all dying / several already dead :(((

Alas!  Onions horrible, all dying / several already dead :(((  Pretty sure it's due to the leek moth.  (Though I poked around in some of the dying/dead "green"s and didn't find anything but I'm guessing they've already left or whatever.)

Even the covered ones, because (a) one of the covers developed a large gaping hole a 4-6ish weeks ago that I never bothered doing anything about, and (b) the other covered area I had removed the cover for a week or twoish a while ago (because I think it too had broken) before deciding to put back the cover.  So I'm pretty sure the leek moth got all up in both of the covered onion beds.

But yeah, basically all onions look awful with thoroughly dead/dying "green"s (more like "brown"s).  And, a surprising amount flopped over / got the crick in the neck which means they won't grow any more, yet they're very small. Harvested some of the worst today.  I mean, there's still a mini harvest as they did bulb up to varying extents, but definitely small small small.  Some others not yet harvested are relatively bigger but still doesn't look like any will grow to nice sizes.

So!  Next year I will grow all onions under proper cover for the whole season.  (Except maybe one foot uncovered as a comparison.)

GA: Southern bean patch has anthracnose -- ~half beans inedible

The southern bean patch has anthracnose -- at least I'm pretty sure that's what it is -- the beans are covered in very unappealing brown spots.  About half the beans in this patch are so badly affected that they're completely inedible.  Some aren't affected at all.

The other bean patches including L's don't seem to be affected.

Still getting plenty enough harvest for several batches of the bread recipe.

GA: 2 zukes are wilting!!! SVB? ==> Update: No, not SQB!

Feels early for SVB but maybe not... I'll cut open the stems once they're fully gone, to see.

Update on August 1st:  Pulled one of those plants and inspected the stem -- not seeing any SVB evidence.  There was, however, a squash bug on it.  Pretty sure it was some type of disease, which is supported by the leaves not actually having gotten wilty as when it's SVB, but rather drying/dyring in a curled/crispy way.  Haven't pulled the second affected plant yet bec it's still hanging on for now...

Stopped doing insect patrols a week or two ago -- will see how long the zukes/cukes last

I just got tired of killing things, plus all the time I spent last year constantly checking for squash bug eggs etc.  When I first uncovered the zukes/cukes I checked a few times for the eggs, and would destroy any cuke beetles.  But for at least the last week or two I stopped.  If I see any squash bugs (have seen a few so far, not many) then I'll deal with them, but not doing the patrols, and not bothering about the cucumber beetles anymore.  Que sera, sera!

GA: Weeding Wednesday -- weeded all exterior paths and full plot -- ~4.5 hours

Today was a big weeding of the east and west exterior paths.  So satisfying after!  Then, wandered the beds to wee those too but they're looking pretty good from previous weedings.

For the exterior paths, I'm learning it's best to let those weeds grow a fair amount because they're a lot easier to pull when a bit bigger and they shade / out-compete other weeds.

GA: OH NO --- PEPPERS DISEASED!!!! LEAVES YELLOWING / FALLING OFF! Some tiny fruit fell!

Argh!!!! Just when I thought the peppers were starting to look good, now the leaves are splotchy/yellowing and falling off!    A couple of home-started plants are 4-5 green peppers each growing nicely but otherwise very sparse.

This includes my home-started and store-bought (all varieties) ----- EXCEPT Witch's Stick which has produced nicely so far...

GA: FOY cucumber -- several more on the way -- BUT LOOKS LIKE DISEASE MAY BE STARTING

Wow, this is the first year of my three at GA that the cukes have looked good!  Today got my first cuke.  

However, some leaves at the bottom are turning brown/crispy... and some are wilting.... So I fear disease will be taking over!

Will see how many cukes I get...

(All cukes at GA are Straight 8 this year.)

GA: ALL 5 cauliflowers bolted -- zero cauliflower harvest :((( (this was Early Snowball) -- Next year will try a heat-tolerant variety

^^^

GA: Pulled two more cauliflowers that bolted / unusable

Only one or two left in the ground still and I'm guessing both of those will bolt next year.

GA: Cucumber plants looking good so far! Very vigorous! (All are Straight 8 variety)

The cucumber beetles are there too, but wow, the first two years at GA my cukes (Eureka) all did horrendously.  With how well these Straight 8s are looking, maybe I'll actually get a decent GA harvest of cukes this year... or will the cucumber beetles be their detriment?  I'm hopeful that the long period of being covered will help.  And they are on the vertical fence post thing again this year.

GA: All zukes are now un-covered

Decided to remove ALL of the covers from the GA zukes, even the ones that aren't close to producing.

Several have been uncovered for a few weeks now.  Have seen definitely cucumber beetles and a few squash bugs.  I haven't been spending tons of time checking for insects like I did last year but do check every now and then and remove.

GA: Spooned all onions

I've never ever "spooned" onions before but learned about it recently (though a random YT video I think) so decided to do that.  Just used my finger to ring around each onion to loose things and try to expose the bulb (most have started to bulb out).

Some of them, the ground is SO hard, like cement, once you get below the few cms of compost.  Next year I definitely want to add chopped straw to the soil when tranplanting, to help have a softer soil.

GA: A cauliflower has bolted! And tied the leaves of the other four cauliflowers

The one that bolted, the "head" is still very small BUT it went all spikey -- I tied its leaves anyway because why not, but pretty sure that one will be no good.

The other four -- one has a wee head, the others I didn't look closely into but tied them all up, we'll see how it goes.  This week is a mega heat wave so I'm not too confident!

GA: 3rd and 4th Belstar broccoli heads harvested -- still nice and big!

^^^