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