No birds; removed feeders and bath

Well no one is coming by at all, even the peanuts aren't being touched by blue jays etc.  So, removed the feeders for now.

[wrote this post on 3 Jan 2022 because I forgot to write it as it happened, so, the date I assigned to the post may be wrong]

Chickadee! (Finally a bird has returned)

Hadn't seen any birds whatsoever at the feeders since I put them back a week or two ago.  Saw a junco once or twice fly away from the ground, but that's it.  Today saw a chickadee visit the green mesh feeder with the mix of sunflower and peanut.  Yay!

Cedar board -- coat #2 of raw pure linseed oil applied

(And excess wiped off ~30-40 minutes later.)

Harvested some of the fall-sown potted kale and lettuce

With a low of -9 or something like that forecasted for tonight, figured I'd better take a harvest of the fall-sown potted kale and lettuce before it goes kaput.  Clipped off the kale and one pot of lettuce, leaving the rest to grow if they dare, and for the second pot of lettuce I didn't harvest any and instead just brought it inside on the kitchen table to live there for a while.

Hollyhocks -- year 1 update

Wow, they seemed very happy out front, lots of leaves.  However, they're infested with what I think must be rust.  Anyway, trimmed them back to stubs today for the winter, will see if they flower next year.

The ones I had put in the yard along the north wall I pulled a few weeks ago due to the yard reno -- they were much smaller due to all the shade with the compost bin etc.

Cedar board, coating it with raw linseed oil

Bought a cedar board (1" by 8" by 8 feet) to use as an east edge for the northwest bed ($27 + tax at HD).

Today applied a first coat of raw linseed oil (~$21 + tax at HH for one tiny liter).  Applied it with a rag, board supported by plant pots, newspaper underneath.  Used a fresh rag to wipe off excess after 30-40 minutes.

Now to wait a week or so for it to dry, then apply a second coat... then wait again, before finally putting into the garden.

Bought 6 x 2-foot rebar stakes (~$5 each + tax at HD) to use to support it in place.

Grass sowed along new lowered paths

I doubt it will take, given (a) how late in the season it is, and (b) how compacted the ground is on the paths, but why not give it a go.  I used the rake to scratch up the surface a bit, then sprinkled the seed (leftover from a few years ago), then used the rake again to sort of mix things up a bit.

Didn't water, but wetter is on the way, so will let nature do its thing.

Neighbourhood apple tree = best apples ever

Whoa!!  Amazing!  Huge, juicy, tasty, and so apple-smelling.  Pretty sure these are the best apples I have ever had!

Final chard and green onion harvest due to yard makeover

Needed to pull out the chard and green onions to complete phase 1 of the yard makeover.  The chard was still going strong, and the roots were 1 foot long.  Makes me a wee nervous about next year when the central bed depth of good stuff is going to be like half that, but, we'll see.

FIRST FROST in my yard was last night -- tenderest plants kaput

The forecast for cold nights a few days ago didn't quite materialize -- but last night's ~-4 was a definite frost in the yard, officially the first frost in my yard.

The tomato and zucchini plants, and the tuberous begonia, are all wilty/dead now.  The zinnias, however, seem to be fine still (tired / end of season, but not frosted).

I was worried about the chard and celery, as they looked droopy first thing this morning, but they bounced back during the day.  I threw a blanket over them for tonight as it will be going down to ~-5, so hopefully this will help.

The fall sown potted lettuce and kales look good too, but I covered them for tonight as well just in case.  It would suck if they go mushy before I have to chance to harvest anything from them!

Bluejay visits twice/day, but no sign of anyone else yet

As of the day after I put the feeders back, the bluejay reliably has two visits per day, around 08:30am and 9am or so!  Eats a tiny bit (once swallowed a whole shell/peanut!), then flies away with a peanut/shell.

Final zucchini harvested! (26th, or 27th, or 28th) And all of the green tomatoes

Prior to -4 expected tonight, harvested final zucchini – not huge but enough to make a pancake.  The plant got zero sun in recent weeks due to fence / sun angle.

Also harvested the final tomatoes, still green.

Put back up the birdfeeders

I had taken them down mid-October for a few weeks.  Two are back up now; we'll see how long it takes for someone to discover them.

2020 final butternut squash eaten today! Perfectly fine.

After being stored on the kitchen table for over a year, the last of 2020's butternut squashes came to an end today.  It was perfectly fine, just the inside stringy part was pretty dry.  But otherwise great!

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

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

Blue jay confirmed!

Heard and saw bluejays several times!  (one at a time, maybe the same one)

The peanuts-in-shell and cracked corn have proven to be quite popular!  Having to refill both each day.

The chopped peanuts are also getting eaten, but still have some leftover.

Haven't figured out yet if anyone is eating the Nutri-saff -- haven't had to replenish it yet...

Peanuts and corn eaten! (likely blue jays)

Woo hoo!  Someone discovered the peanuts-with-shells and the cracked corn in the new platform feeder!  I suspect blue jays, as I heard some, but wasn't able to get up to look out of the window.

All of the cracked corn was eaten, and most but not all of the peanuts.  And when I replenished the peanuts, again most of those were eaten.  (Total of ~15 peanuts eaten today)

Replaced the peanuts and cracked corn late this afternoon.

Goldfinches much fewer these days, but still frequent visitors; very occasional song sparrows, that's it

To really prevent food from falling to the ground (re: rat), and while waiting for the large seed catcher tray to arrive, I removed all of the mesh feeders that the goldfinches really loved, and replaced them with hopper-style feeders with openings at the bottom only, which are working well with the new fine sunflower chips I picked up.

The hordes of goldfinches had already been much smaller starting on Sunday I think (prior to then it wasn't out of the ordinary to count as many as 15 goldfinches in the yard and eating on the primrose/etc. outside the yard), which I think is due to removing the main feeder because it was raining and the weather dome hasn't arrived yet, so I don't think it was due to the above changes, but, we'll see if the masses come back.  

I do still see goldfinches, as many as 4 or 5 at a time, occasionally throughout the day.

New bird sighting!!! Wren?

I had just sat down in the yard, with both dogs, when a teeny bird appeared on the fence.  I didn't get a good look, as it was bordering on dusk and I didn't have binoculars handy, but the tail was up, which makes me think maybe some kind of wren?  (I haven't the faintest though)  Most definitely wasn't a goldfinch though.  Had a different call too.

Lingered on the fence for a moment, then clung onto the brick wall of the neighbour's house while deciding me and the dogs weren't worth trying to brave, and flew off.

New platform feeder!

Exciting!  Bird's Choice 16 x 13 platform feeder.  The mesh screen holes are too wide to use it for the millet or the fine sunflower chips, but that's fine, those foods have their own feeders.  It's perfect for the peanuts (shell and shelled), cracked corn, and safflower, so I put a mix of that.  Hopefully someone will discover it!

Habitat experiment: Slugs and sow/pill beetles

Dismantled it today and got rid of it due to the rat situation.

Saw only tons of slugs and sow/pill beetles!  I guess it was a good habitat for them!

Still many goldfinches; occasional song sparrows; no chipping sparrows anymore

^^^

25th (or 26th or 27th) zucchini harvested -- surely this is the final one of the season

From one of the early-season plants that was never tulled, amazingly enough.

Aha: Chipping sparrow in non-breeding plumage

Finally got a photo of the mystery sparrow.  A facebook group identifies him/her as a chipping sparrow in non-breeding plumage.  This photo convinces me:  https://www.audubon.org/field-guide/bird/chipping-sparrow?fbclid=IwAR3T_poKwLwUs6hUmW3BsgwiiePYWkIe6MrTP26Jb8BFwUOwGvxpDkaxMP0#photo6

Goldfinch article -- very detailed

 https://www.hww.ca/en/wildlife/birds/american-goldfinch.html

Goldfinches eating seeds from the Ivory Silk Lilac tree out front!

Wow, the goldfinches are sure having a party around here these days -- five different foods inside or in front of my yard!

- lilac tree seeds

- wild primrose seeds

- purple coneflower seeds

- sunflower seeds from the one remaining plant

- sunflower seeds from the feeder

Blue jay pair briefly sat on fence while I was in yard

Argh, of course they had to try stopping by while I was in the yard taking a 30 second break from mowing the grass...   They sat on the fence for maybe 10-15 seconds, then flew away. 

Goldfinches eating purple coneflower

(The perennial outside the fence)

Golfinches galore; and song sparrows, house sparrow (female), and chickadee

6 goldfinches in the yard all at the same time!

And on another occasion, a bunch of goldfinches, and a song sparrow, and a chickadee all at the same time!

So fun.

I'm assuming there's also a female house sparrow, but seeing only one at a time, sometimes two maybe, and no males, so I'm not totally sure if these are house sparrows.

Harvesting volunteer ground cherry

Nice, the volunteer in among the zinnias in the SE central bed is producing a nice surprise harvest after I had to tear out all the other plants because they were feeding the rat(s).  No rodents have found this ground cherry plant yet, as evidenced by the undisturbed fruit on the ground.  Yay!

Also I haven't seen any rats in several weeks now.  I think removing their food source (the row of ground cherry plants, plus adding a seed-catcher tray to the birdfeeder), removing their compost bin hideout, plus clearing out junk around the kitchen step did the trick. 

Buckwheat sick in west bed? Leaves falling off and/or drying up

Weird... Thought maybe it was related to the cooler weather, but the buckwheat in the north bed looks fine...

Fall kale crop a total flop!?!?

First there were the issues with something nibbling down the leaves.  So then I covered it in row cover and that seems to fix that issue.  But now, the plants are growing all stunted and deformed, very similar to how the earlier plants succumbed to some kind of rot a month or two ago, though in their case they were very mature and provided great harvest.

There's still the more recent kale seeds I started in a pot, and the lettuce seeds also in two pots -- so far those are looking good but they're still very small, just getting in their first/second leaves.

24th (or 25th or 26th) zucchini harvested -- likely the last one of the year

Two others flowered in recent days (and I hand-pollinated as usual), but they don't seem to be doing anything.  So, that might be it for the year for the zucchinis.

So all in all, not a total loss from the zucchinis...  As many as 26 total harvested, BUT that's with I believe 16 zucchini plants (between the original 10 and the late-season ones)!!!!  Oh my!  Still, I'll take it :-)

Don't try to get seeds out of the buckwheat

Yeah, definitely grow it for the soil enhancer, but my seed collection attempt didn't quite work out.  First, I had only 30% germination rate for the final batch of 10 seeds I had collected.  Second, during stormy weather many seeds fell off the plant and were eaten (the eater opens the seeds for the insides) so there were a bunch of seeds I never got to harvest.  Third, the plants go all spindly and lose a lot of biomass during the seed stage, so less soil enhancer given there was no extremely minimal seed collection.

Was worth a try, though!

Buckwheat biomass applied to north part of central bed

Just plucked out of the pots, root balls and all, and laid on the surface.  Not chopped or dug in or anything.

23rd (or 24th or 25th) zucchini harvested

Another to come in a day or two; and a hopeful flowered this morning.

Baby goldfinches! Song sparrow! Other sparrow!

Definitely saw a song sparrow and some other kind of sparrow (white throated maybe? didn't get a good look) eating the millet!

And 3 baby goldfinches came by with their parent(s)!  Brown rather than yellow, and being fed.

Oh and there was a flock of some kind of small bird (didn't see white in flight, so don't think they were juncos) just down the sidewalk this morning!

Fun!  But bummer I'm having to spend 12 hours a day upstairs working!

Millet disappeared!!! Have some sparrows returned?

Very exciting -- the millet that had been sitting in the tray feeder completely untouched for several weeks finally all disappeared today!  (short of a few pieces)  I was working all day so didn't see who ate it.  But I've been hearing bird songs more the last few days and one I thought sounded like a song sparrow...  So hopefully I'll see the glutton(s) soon!  (put a bunch more millet into the feeder today to replace it)

Common Yellowthroat in yard!!!

Oh wow!  First time I ever saw one of these in the yard (or around home)!  Clear as day a bold male was in the yard twice this early evening, with the bright yellow body, black mask, and grey above the mask.  Hopping around on the edge behind the tomato plants, and a bit on the one remaining sunflower (but didn't notice eating seeds).  Sooooo cool!  No interest at all in the feeder.

I therefore conclude that the mystery bird I saw this morning on the wild primrose outside the yard was most definitely a female common yellowthroat!  

Buckwheat biomass into the NE part of central bed

Just plucked it (out of two of the former potato pots) and layed it down.  Didn't cut it at all or scratch it in etc.

It's a good amount of biomass for this one little zone, which is part of where next year I plan to grow broccoli followed by later season zucchini.

Pileated woodpecker chased by hawk!

Whoa, heard a ruckus in the skies of the neighbourhood (seen/heard from my yard); saw one large bird chasing another large bird; grabbed the phone, Merlin identified a Pileated Woodpecker, which I then confirmed visually.  The other bird I'm sure was a hawk, saw the white/tan patterning on wings or tail or something, but no idea what kind, nor what the outcome of this was.

Mystery bird ate seeds from self-sown wild evening primrose! --> FEMALE COMMON YELLOWTHROAT!

Bold yellow belly but definitely was not one of the goldfinches!

My bet is on a migrator!

Other than the yellow belly, the upper side and head were sort of an olive/tan.  Flitted around the primrose plant while eating.

From looking through the Audubon app's suggestions for yellow birds in Ontario in September, maybe one of these...   --> UPDATE:  Aha!  This evening I saw what was definitely a male common yellow throat in the yard! (see other post)  And I see from Google that the bird I saw on the primrose was I am quite sure the female!  I hadn't put this on the list below because the bird had no mask!  

- Nashville Warbler?

- Philadelphia Vireo?

- Orange-crowned Warbler?

- Yellow-bellied Flycatcher?

- Mourning Warbler?

- Connecticut Warbler?

- Western Kingbird?

- Yellow-breasted Chat?

- None of the above?  I have no idea!  But a fun sighting while stuck at home with my broken-leg dog for two months.

Broccoli seeds self-germinated within the pods!

Noticed two such seeds today, in two separate pods.  Planted them, and a couple of other broccoli seeds from dried pods, in the cucumber area, just for fun.

2 of 10 of the Sep 15th buckwheat seeds have germinated so far

Planted them in front of the former cucumber place.

No collected buckwheat seeds have germinated yet; started new batch today

(Have discarded the two earlier batches of collected seeds, because they did nothing even after 4-5 days.)

Started a bunch more today in PT.

22nd (or 23rd or 24th) zucchini harvested

Pure green, from a yellow zucchini plant.  These late-season gems do their own thing!

Looking quite promising for a few more yet, especially with mostly warm weather ongoing so far and into next week.

Buckwheat biomass scratched into the the hydro meter bed

(north and south sides of the hydro bed)

Goldfinch eating wild evening primrose seeds!

Cool!  The wild evening primrose that sprung up this year outside the fence is now going to seed, and several times today I saw a goldfinch eating the seeds!  Google confirms this is very much to be expected.  Kept some seeds today and wow, sooooo many seeds from just one pod.

I was going to chop it down, until seeing the goldfinch.  So, it will stay!

A few sunflower heads harvested from the NW multi-branching sunflower

I'm doubtful that the seeds are viable at this stage, but the branch broke off so I figured I'd take the seeds and see what happens.

Buckwheat biomass scratched into the two air conditioner beds

So, those two beds (north and south of the a/c) are done for biomass.  This comes from one of the pots, which I harvested today, chopped up with scissors, and scratched in to these beds.

I have no idea if this is enough to make a difference, or two much, or whatnot, but it is what it is!

Buckwheat seed test: The first ones didn't germinate; started 3 others

The 3 buckwheat seeds collected and started in PTs on Sep 6th didn't germinate, so I tossed them.

Plucked 3 more today and put them into PTs.

That first pot of buckwheat is looking really tired -- leaves/stems turned/turning orange, like autumn.

Sorrel transplanted and divided into new home

The sorrel is losing its long-time home in the NE corner, as that area will be turned back into patio stones this fall due to the window well flooding issue.

So, today I dug it all up.  I was amazed at how easily it dug up, and at how easily it divided -- the leaves were growing in clearly distinct clumps that were easy to tear apart.

The new home is still along that north wall, but now west of the patio stone section.  Divided it into four clumps there, with two bigger clumps on the ends and two smaller ones in the middle.

The web says sorrel is supposed to be divided in spring or early summer, so, time will tell whether it will survive this move.

Lemon balm -- yum!!!!

How can it be that all these many years of having renegade lemon balm (mostly in the NE corner), I never even once tried to make something with it?  (It wasn't even a tag on the blog until today!)

Until today!

Today I sniffed a leaf, thinking I'd be repelled as I thought I used to be, and wow I really liked it.  So, googled recipes, and made these:

- Lemon Balm Pesto:  Actually pretty good!  Same type of basil pesto recipe, but all lemon balm instead of basil.

- Lemon Balm Tea / Iced Tea:   Verrrry nice!  (The iced tea is TBD -- it's currently in the fridge.)  Boiled 1 cup of water on the stove; once boiled, added in 1 Tbsp finely chopped leaves; steeped for 10 minutes; strained leaves; stirred in 2 tsps sugar.

- Lemon Balm Cookies:  Hmm, the dough was delicious, but once they were baked they lost the magic.

- Candied Lemon Balm Leaves:  Well I don't have corn syrup, so I couldn't try this one yet, but I want to soon!

More kale and lettuce sowed -- in pots under floating row cover to keep out whoever is eating them

Argh, all but one of the lettuces sowed recently was nibbled away and is gone.  And the 7 or 8 remaining kales also look nibbled (these I placed floating row cover over today so try to protect them).

So, sowed more lettuce (from this year's collected seed, direct from plant to pot) and kale, all in pots thickly sowed for max harvest, and under floating row cover.

Here's hoping for some delicious falafel salads this fall!

21st (or 22nd or 23rd) zucchini harvested

From the one remaining first-batch in the central bed.  Looks like it has another that I think also took.

Kale round 2 started in PT

Only ~8 of the kales from the first round started August 26th are still around, and hardly any of the lettuce -- something has definitely been eating the very young seeds.

So, why not start more kale in PT today.

House sparrow seen twice

Eating from the mixed seed that I had put out the other day.  However, I've now replaced it back with the millet tray since the mixed seed feeder results in lots of spillage.

Test: Placed 3 collected buckwheat seeds into PT

Figured I'd do this test to see if the seeds at this stage are viable.  I had to pry the seeds off.  I imagine when viable the seeds would fall right off.  So, we'll see!

Waiting to see if a ronde and a zucchini took... if not, likely no more

They both flowered (and I hand-pollinated) within the last two days.  I'm hopeful for the zucchini as that plant looks decent still (despite nearly hollow stem from suspected SVB damage), but the ronde plant looks quite sad, full of powdery mildew so I'll be surprised if the ronde grows.

Cucumber storage tip really works! Going on 3 weeks!

Wow!  Susan Mulvihill's tip definitely works.  Simply wrap the cucumber in a dry kitchen towel (I used these) or dry paper towels, place in a plastic bag (I didn't seal the bag), and place in the fridge. The cucumbers harvested August 15th are looking as good as they day they were picked -- that's 3 weeks ago!

More rat sightings despite removing food and compost bin

Saw the rat a few times, but s/he ran out of the yard when I went out.

Then today noticed a hole dug once again under the kitchen step.

20th (or possibly 21st or 22st) zucchini harvested

 From one of the originals in the central bed.

19th (or possibly 20th or 21st) zucchini harvested

From the central bed, southmost of the late starts.

Made Shepherd's Pie

I love that this uses all these things from the garden:

- potatoes

- celery

- carrots

- tomatoes

- chard

And, sooooo delicious.

Original pot of buckwheat (sowed July 11th) has seeds

The seeds are dark brown but don't seem quite ready yet,but soon.

That's about 50 days from sowing.  Plus a few more days since the seeds aren't quite ready yet.

Zero sparrows/chickadees; only occasional goldfinches

So bizarre, went from tons of sparrows eating 2 Tbsp of millet a day, to zero.  Not hearing them singing, not seeing them in the yard, nothing at all.  Neither the chickadees.  Did they start to migrate?  Something else?  Hmmm.

I do still occasionally see goldfinches, both at the feeder and at the one remaining sunflower plant.

Also, this year I never saw the white throated or white crowned sparrows of last year.

Zucchini plants not looking very good

I'm especially puzzled why three of the four central late season zucchinis have been flops.  Didn't produce anything, and now are flopping over / looking wilty, maybe borers.  But sheesh.

I still hold out hopes for the southmost central late season plant -- it still looks good, harvested one off it today and another on it will be ready in a few days.  But then its next pre-flowering starts are looking white/pale, so, perhaps this will be it...

One of the original zukes in the north bed flowered yesterday and I pollinated it; if it takes, it will be that plant's second zuke...!  Sigh!

Powdery mildew is certainly taking over this must be a factor for sure.

18th zucchini harvested

From the only one of the four late-season plants in the central bed.  This is the second or third zuke from that one plant.

(The hydro meter late-season zucchini also produced several zucchinis.)

Sowed buckwheat in west bed and north bed

From the seeds started in paper towels a couple of days ago.

Just scattered them randomly, didn't "plant" them as such.

Covered lightly with soil, then with row cover directly on the ground to try to keep out whoever ate all those seeds I had sowed a month or so ago.

Sowed lettuce directly from this year's seeds!

The lettuce left to go to seed by the air conditioner has tons of seeds at the moment, so I sowed a bunch of them in the same spot, by the air conditioner.  Right off the plant and back into the ground.

Sowed pre-germinated kale seeds

Wow, many of the kale seeds placed into PTs yesterday germinated already!

The weird thing is that I swear I started Siberian and Premier Forge, but I didn't notice any of those paper strips the Siberian is in.  But some of the "PT" was all clumpy... so maybe that was them?  Hmmm.

Sowed in vermiculite pockets. Placed row cover over top until they pop up.

17th zucchini harvested (or 18th -- I might have missed logging one a few days ago)

^^^

More buckwheat started in PTs

^^^

Kale started in PT for fall crop

Been a crazy heat/humidity wave the last 2-3 weeks.  But it should be over in a day or two.  And have all this room now from having removed the ground cherries etc. etc. so, why not try some kale.

Started both the Premier Forge and Siberian varieties.

SVB frass -- BTK'd a zucchini

Clearly frass in two spots of the stem of one of the older zucchinis in the central bed.

Decided to try to save it.  Applied BTK in both holes.

16th zucchini harvested; new ones are greenish/yellowish

From the hydro meter plant.

Removed all ground cherries :-((((((((((( (due to rat)

Oh so sad.  Oh my.  There would have been hundreds, even likely thousands of ground cherries to harvest.  But the plants are simply feeding the rat(s) so I just can't keep them.

So now, there is nothing in the yard that interests the rats, save maybe a few tomatoes if they get to them before I do.

Compost bin gone.

Kitchen step blocked off.

Bird feeders anti-drop tray.

So with any luck, the rats will soon move along to some other more hospitable place.

Goldfinches are back today, but still no sparrows

No idea why the goldfinches came back today, as it's still very hot and humid.

Removed all but one sunflower plant

A sad task.... they were still blooming and stuff.  But I really need to minimize all rat food sources.

Kept the one in the NW corner as I've never seen rats up there and it's so cheerful.

15th zucchini harvested

From the northwest of the older plants in the central bed.

Farewell, compost bin

"Garden Gourmet".  Gave it away, it left today.

No more "odours"s for the neighbourhood.  And no more shelter for rats.

Some day when I get my country place, I will for sure have another compost bin.  Or two.  Or three.

Officially no winter squash harvest this year

That one cushaw that had taken and was a nice size is all rotting now at the neck.  Gross.  Officially kaput.

So I removed the winter squash vines to get things cleaned up.

Will take a break from winter squash for a few years!  Which is just as well, because I still have two butternut squashes from last year sitting on the kitchen table...

Few birds the last few days? Maybe due to high heat/humidity? (Were TONS of birds before that)

I had been seeing SO many birds at in recent days.  Where did they all go?

SVB eggs found on ronde

I have not been checking for SVB eggs whatsoever, but happened to see several while looking at the air conditioner ronde today.  Removed the ones I saw but wasn't actively searching the out so quite likely more eggs on it.

Confirms what I thought, that the SVB moths are still egg laying well into August.

Forget-me-not seeds harvested from a great plant

This particular plant grew so nice and big and strong, with lots of flowers.  I harvested some seeds from it in past weeks but the branches weren't fully brown/dry by that point.  They are now so I harvested a ton of seeds.

The one and only cushaw that took is rotting on the vine :-(((

Sigh....  About a week ago, noticed some browning in the neck area...  Now noticing it's getting all sunken in in the neck area and there are more of those brown spots.  Will see what happens...  Sigh!!

13th and 14th zucchini/ronde harvested

The ronde was yesterday from the air conditioner plant; the zucchini was today from the southmost of the newest transplants in the central bed.

Potato taste test: Banana are definitely the best, so smooth and creamy and nice-flavoured

Steamed the three kinds of potatoes from this year:  cherry, bintje, and banana, and had them with margarine, salt, and pepper.

Banana are far and away the best:  A delicious smooth, creamy texture, and scrumptious soft flavour.  Luxurious!

Bintje was second:  Flavour is ok, but a sort of pasty texture.

Cherry was least good:  Earthy tasting.

PT buckwheat sprouting like crazy! Transplanted into former-potato-pots

Wow, started in paper towels yesterday and today tons have sprouted.  Scattered them onto the pots freed up from the potato harvest.  Then sprinkled soil, then placed floating row cover over top, weighted down with rocks.  

Potatoes all harvested

The plants got all diseased looking in recent weeks so I harvested today.  These are the weigh-ins.  Cumulative, for the 5 pots, almost 8 lbs of potatoes.  It didn't seem like a lot as I pulled them out, but looking at them in the fridge, it's some good eating.

- cherry red (3 seed potatoes) = 3 lbs

- bintje pot #1 (3 seed potatoes) = 1.5 lbs

- bintje pot #2  (3 seed potatoes) = 1.5 lbs

- bananas pot #2 -- the unique taller pot (4 seed potatoes) = 1.2 lbs

- bananas pot #1 (4 seed potatoes) = 0.5 lbs

Tomato plants dying, limited harvest, no new flowers

The cherry tomato looks the worst, with many yellow and/or crispy leaves, but the other tomato plants though look better also haven't produced new flowers/fruit in several weeks.

So it will be a relatively limited tomato harvest this year, but still actually pretty good, had many sandwiches and orzo salads, and have made two batches of bolognese so far, with likely at least two more batches to come using the rest of the tomatoes once they're ready.

Picking them at breaker stage has been working great, especially with the full size tomatoes; the cherry tomatoes are tending to be a bit weird texture like when they're harvested totally green.

Buckwheat sown a few days ago mostly didn't take -- eaten by birds and/or rat -- re-started in paper towel

A few popped up but hardly any.  (And no one is bothered them once they're up.)  So today I started more in paper towel. Once germinated, I'll place them out, and will cover them with row cover until they pop up.

Removed cucumbers (diseased) and several more zucchinis (unproductive / clutter re: rat)

The cucumbers had a great run, huge harvest so I can't complain that the vines have been dying in the past few weeks, looks like some kind of disease (maybe what they had last year?  haven't compared photos).  So I removed them completely today, along with a final harvest of cucumbers.

Removed all 3 of the remaining zucchini plants in the north bed.  None of them had ever produced anything nor looked like they would do anything, plus today I noticed a tunnel where a rat dug near the compost bin, so I did a big clean-up / decluttering of that area.  Maybe SVB sign in one, but not the others though  I didn't look all that closely.

Tray suspended under sunflower seed feeder working on goldfinches' sloppy eating

The goldfinches are so darn messy.  Even though the sunflower seeds are shelled, they seem to be interested in only one bite from each and they toss their rejected portions onto the ground.  So, I now have a clear plastic pot tray thing (nice and big, a few dollars at Ritchie's) hanging under the sunflower seed feeder.  So far so good, it really seems to be catching pretty much everything, and the sparrows come along and happily eat the stuff that falls onto the tray.

Sightings of the rat(s) are much fewer now that the sunflower heads from the mammoths are gone.  The presence of the ground cherries is I'm hoping the only thing keeping them here, plus the shelter they've taken under the kitchen step and in the compost bin.

Finally enough ground cherries for a pie (slow due to rat) -- aphid damage minimal

The aphid thing is gross, but not horrible, minimal impact to the harvest.

The larger impact is the rat who, out of all the things in the garden, seems interested only in ground cherries and sunflower seeds (rather from bird feeder or from sunflower plants themselves).  Oh and s/he also took a bite here and there from a couple of tomatoes that I didn't pick soon enough.

11th and 12th zucchinis harvested

Both from one of the original zucchinis in the central bed.

Powdery mildew marches on

Whoa, all of a sudden (or so it seems) there's powdery mildew all over the upper leaves of the cushaw, and to a less extent some other cushaw leaves too.

And some of the central zucchini leaves, so I removed their tulle permanently for more air flow.

Pruned the worst leaves and some other leaves too for air flow.

First loss to SVB

The ronde in the central bed that never produced anything.  Noticed today there was really nothing coming in at all, so inspected more closely, and sure enough the stem was all eaten through.  Removed.

9th and 10th zucchini/ronde harvested -- both from the newest transplants

^^^

Removed all mammoth sunflower heads :-( (to deter rats)

Alas, so sad.  The mammoth sunflower heads just can't stay -- the rats are a big fan even long before the seeds are anywhere near ripe.  So, removed all the remaining ones today.  

So far I've kept the non-mammoth sunflower heads, will see if the rats make their way onto those ones too or if their stems are too fragile or whatnot.

The goldfinches have the sunflowers at the feeder, plus the remaining non-mammoth heads (for now at least).

So many birds! My birdfeeder dream come true

Oh wow this is so much fun!  So many birds coming to the feeder these days.  They obviously aren't bothered by its new spot.

Seeing these -- in various combinations too which is even more fun:

- song sparrows (eating more sunflowers now, bulking up for winter?)

- chipping sparrows with young (eating mostly millet)

- goldfinches (sunflowers of course)

- chickadees (noticed them starting today -- hadn't seen them since several months, maybe they didn't like it against the wall) (sunflower seeds)

- house sparrows (occasionally, and only one at a time)

Chickadees!

Fun, spotting a chickadee a few times today!  Haven't seen them in a few months, maybe they didn't like the birdfeeder being against the wall and are a fan of its current location.

DO try horsetail fungicide again next year -- this year I got too busy to use it properly

With powdery mildew making its presence gradually but persistently known the last few days, I just don't feel like fighting it much.  Due to the dog broken leg situation etc. I haven't been on it and I really should have been spraying it in recent weeks.  Also hesitation to use it due to risk of "aroma" and bothering neighbours, combined with the rat situation -- I don't want to push my luck.

So, next year yes definitely try horsetail fungicide again, as this year was not a test of it.

Sowed buckwheat round #2 in multiple vacated spots

- in the formerly basil bed (north bed along south edge)

- in the formerly carrot bed (central bed, southwest corner)

- in the formerly beet bed (south of hydro meter)

- north of the air conditoner where a zucchini was formerly

Powdery mildew on underside of air conditioner ronde leaves

Sigh... The march of the powdery mildew.  Didn't do anything about it.  Don't have the energy to deal with it right now what with the lame dog situation.

This ronde is freestyle:  no tulle, no vertical, so relatively decent amount of air circulation.

Powdery mildew all over a/c zucchini vertical and under tulle -- so I removed whole plant

My vertical method is quite terrible -- the leaves get all squished up in there, no air flow at all.  Then factor in the tulle too.  Hadn't noticed until today all the PM in this plant, but then, have been pretty preoccupied the last week with a dog with a broken leg and then another dog who turned up three-legged lame three days later.

Didn't feel like trimming the plant -- it has produced one single zucchini all year and might have produced another at some point but nah, decided to just toss the whole thing.

A second cushaw flowered, but I didn't notice until it closed... did the bees take care of it?

Time will tell...

Carrots ALL harvested -- great harvest! Bolero next year for sure!

Harvested ALL the remaining carrots today.  Previously I had harvested only a handful.  So, there were lots, and they almost all were very decent sizes. Best carrot harvest in several years for sure -- by far!  My guess is because of the minimally enhanced soil in this bed (central bed southwest corner), plus trying Bolero.

Next year I will forego Nantes and Touchon, and grow only Bolero, as they seem to have done the best.  (Hard to say 100% sure the difference because I used Bolero seeds to fill gaps in the Nantes/Touchon.)

Oh, and I came across an article (can't find it now) saying Bolero are very good for longer term storage, bonus.

Reason for harvesting them all in one go is because I moved the birdfeeder to that area today.

Beets ALL harvested -- not the best harvest

Due to finding a tunnel at the step from our furry visitor, harvested all the remaining beets.  Tossed the leaves because I just won't have time to do anything with them given the dog broken leg situation.  The beets themselves were definitely on the small side.  Not the best beet harvest, but then, I'm not the best beet fan either, so it's not really a bad thing.

Celery rotting too, maybe same as what kale had?

So I removed / cut down all the celeries in the central bed.  Some of them looked ok so far, but I've moved the birdfeeder there so I won't be eating anything there anyway.

The two remaining celery in the pot next to my chair I didn't have a close look at, but harvested some today and didn't notice anything.

Bird feeder moved, and harvested/trimmed a bunch of things, due to rat

Moved feeder from west wall to central bed.  Removed climbable plants/sticks near it. Cleaned up etc. too.  

Cushaw looking amazing!!!! Supported it with nylon

The cushaw that opened July 28th most definitely took!  (Noticed it a while ago but didn't blog it until today.)  It's a decent size already!  Used an old nylon to support it.

Removed tulle from the last tulled north bed zucchini

To give the plant a good pruning and increase air flow as much as possible, now that signs of powdery mildew have appeared in that north bed.

Removed all leaves from volunteer sunflower in central bed -- to remove shade from central zukes

The head drooped a long time ago and critters (ahem) are eating a bunch of the seeds now even though they're still white.  Should have pruned the leaves a long time ago to give those original central bed zucchinis the best chance.

Wonder what will happen to its sunflower head now that all the leaves are gone.

Removed the north bed basils due to downy mildew

I do think there was home for some of them as new growth was appearing, but, overall the bed looked just gross and I didn't want to look at it anymore.  Left one plant just because.  Will plant buckwheat there soon.

Powdery mildew starting to appear in north bed wimpy zucchinis

Pruned the zukes/rondes today and noticed first signs of PM but only on the north bed.

Haven't been applying the horsetail fungicide much.  Should.

6th, 7th, and 8th zucchini/ronde harvested

^^^

Buckwheat in container started flowering a few days ago (under-roof buckwheat didn't do well due to rain)

^^^

1st zucchini harvested from the newest transplants = 48 days (7 weeks) from sowing to first harvest

From the plant north of the hydro meter.

Its seed was sowed June 19th, so that's 43 days from sowing to flowering, and a total of 48 days (7 weeks) from sowing to first harvest.  In line with various webpages, ~45-55 days.

Many goldfinches visiting; also song sparrows and chipping sparrows, with the occasional house sparrow

The goldfinches are starting to really get into the ripening sunflower heads, which is great especially since I'm not harvesting any myself.

Baby chipping sparrow! (soooo cute)

I decided I really like chipping sparrows.  They're just so darn small and adorable.  Baby was pretty cute too.

Removed tulle from southmost central zucchini

Noticed a big gap where the tulle was floating rather than being anchored.  Given that, plus the plant was getting squished under the tulle, I removed it and will take my chances with the borer.  The plant doesn't have anything promising yet.

Female zucchini flowered on one of newest plants

The plant north of the hydro meter, under tulle.  Pollinated it with a couple of males.  

Its seed was sowed June 19th, so that's 43 days from sowing to flowering.

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.

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)

Most kale plants rotting at stem, no new growth -- removed most kales

Oh no!  I did a big harvest a few days ago (Saturday June 26th when I noticed that Premier Forge has flat leaves and Siberian has curly leaves -- I didn't notice anything amiss then) and have a bunch of it in the fridge, so I haven't been looking at the kale lately, but today I noticed most of the kale plants have some or all of these symptoms:

- blackening of leaf stems near ground level

- crumpled/stunted mini-leaves 

- rotted stems at ground level

- no new growth

- the most mature leaves look healthy otherwise, until it gets too bad and the leaf wilts and/or breaks off.

I pulled the clearly-affected plants -- there's an unpleasant odour to the rotting part, but the roots look normal white/grey and are firm.  When removing the plants, I didn't shake off the dirt from the roots like I normally would -- plunked the whole thing into the yard waste bag.

The southeast kale bed for now gets to keep two plants which so far look fine (one Premier Forge, one Siberian).  The northwest kale bed for now gets to keep more plants, only removed two or three there.

Maybe stem and root rot? (although the roots aren't rotted, at least not yet)

https://www.gardeningchannel.com/how-to-fight-stem-and-root-rot/

https://ask2.extension.org/kb/faq.php?id=291177

Transplanted a zucchini into central bed

This is one of the zucchinis that were sowed June 19th, and it's now in the central bed, opposite the parsley.  (Where some broccolis were until I removed them today.)

Mixed in 6 Tbsp mineralized phosphate, some vermiculite, and nothing else (no kelp meal, no alfalfa meal).  Mulched with broccoli leaves.  Covered with tulle.

Cucumber beetles have appeared en masse! ~20 caught on cucumber plants

Wow, I saw none at all for the last several weeks (only having seen two prior to then), then today all of a sudden there they are.  Maybe because I was out when it was showering, not sure.

Removed two more broccoli, to make room for zucchini

Removed the two south-most broccoli in the central bed to make room for the zucchini seedlings.  These two broccoli plants were pretty much done -- maybe more side shoots would have come out later, but, maybe not and I'd rather give the zucchinis a good shot.

3 goldfinches at once! no interference by song sparrow on the ground

Fun!  I love having multiple birds in the yard at the same time.  I can pretend for a moment like I'm one of those amazing You Tubers who have 24/7 cams of their bird feeders that 24/7 have crazy amount of birds at them.

Anyway, first the male flew in, and called.  A few minutes later the female arrived.  Then a few minutes later, a third goldfinch!  Either there were two females, or maybe one of the females was a juvenile.  One of them ate a bit from the mixed seed feeder, using a perch.

One flew away after a couple of minutes, the other two stayed around for a bit longer.

A song sparrow had been on the ground the whole time, never interfered.  Maybe it's only the males who are bullies, or females.

Fireflies even more galore

There must be 20-30 who light up every evening.  For just a brief window of time as dusk sets in.  Really fun to see.

Transplanted a zucchini into the hydro meter bed

This is one of the zucchinis sowed June 19th, into the hydro meter bed that I prepared yesterday with 3 Tbsp mineralized phosphate.

Covered with tulle.

Cardinals lacking, but still seeing the goldfinches and of course song sparrows

Haven't seen the cardinals in a week or two (nor any more of the house finches nor house sparrow), but still seeing the goldfinch couple a few times a day (always on the mesh perchless sunflower feeder), and of course ample visits from the song sparrows.

A carrot harvested but it was small and forked

From the west-most third of the carrot bed, so might have been a Nantes unless it was one of the Boleros that I used to fill gaps throughout the bed.  The top at the soil looked like a nice size, so it was disappointing to see it was only a couple of inches and forked.  Tasted ok though.

The carrot greens are over 18" high, but I'll still wait before harvesting more.

Garlic stems/leaves applied as "floating mulch"

After cutting the garlic bulbs from the big stems/leaves, I scattered the stems/leaves in a few places in the garden, many of them sort of suspended in air by the growing plants underneath.  Added them mostly to the two kale beds and various other spots, with the faint thought that maybe they'll help repel the cabbage moth etc.

Prepped former garlic bed for a zucchini transplant - 3 Tbsp mineralized phosphate (not transplanted yet)

Now that most of the garlics are out of the hydro meter bed, to get it ready for a zucchini I added in a good scoop of vermiculite, plus 3 Tbsp of mineralized phosphate.  It really doesn't seem like much MP, but, sometimes less is more...  Did not add anything else:  No kelp meal, definitely no alfalfa meal, etc.  The garlics were mulched with shredded leaves which got turned in when I mixed up the vermiculiate/MP.

Garlic mostly-flop in hydro meter bed (the covered bed!)

The hydro meter bed garlics (Metechi variety), which were first covered with floating row cover early in the season and then with tulle when the Amazon tulle arrived, got off to a roaring start, but since the last several weeks or even month or so they haven't been looking so great anymore.  Many yellow leaves and that was even before the scapes appeared, and the plants are bending over, just not looking good at all.  This, combined with looking for places to put the late-season zucchini transplants, had me digging up most of the bulbs today.

About half the bulbs look quite questionable, two of which I downright didn't consider keeping as they were rotting so there were pillbugs etc, so I tossed them into the central bed.  The rest of these questionable bulbs have a part of the bulb that isn't sealed over, so I wonder if there might be someone hiding inside.  I left these to sit outside on the front step for now, to dry.

The other half of the bulbs look decent, fully sealed.  I brought these inside to dry.

I left two bulbs in place for now, one on either end of this mini bed, since they won't interfere with placing a zucchini there soon.

I haven't dug up the north wall garlics yet, will give them more time since there's no rush and it's early yet.  (Those ones look small -- that bed received the smallest cloves and are given a poor growing area what with all the rain and less amount of sun -- but they don't look half dead like these ones.)

Three leaves broken off sunflower plant next to bird feeder... chipmunk?

Yesterday I put a pole to support the plant during yesterday's crazy winds, but then today I saw a chipmunk climbing the pole to try to reach the feeder.  So, I went out and removed the pole (since the winds are done).  But then this evening, I'm seeing three leaves broken off, all on the side of the feeder -- I'm pretty sure it's the chipmunk who caused these sunflower leaves to break, while trying to climb the plant to reach the bird feeder.  (One of the leaves broke off in the past week or so, but I'm quite sure two of the leaves broke today.

It's a wonder the squirrels haven't been an issue with the feeder at all this year...

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

SVB moth & cabbage moth seen

SVB was at noon, right on her daily schedule... Saw her fluttering around the tulled zucchinis, unable to enter.  Wasn't able to catch.

Have been seeing cabbage moths too, will mention it in the blog every few weeks or so.

Tuberous begonia in full flower, so many bright yellow blooms

This is the one remaining viable tuberous begonia whose tubers I overwinter each year.  I don't know if they get more and brighter blooms each year, or maybe the weather has been just right, but wow, looking amazing right now.

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.

House sparrow! and song sparrow at same time

First time seeing a house sparrow at my feeder.  Fed from the upper perch of the mixed-seed feeder.

The strange thing is a song sparrow was there at the same time eating from the other mesh feeder and didn't seem to care about the house sparrow.

Cucumber males and females, saw a pollinator in a flower

A had thought to try hand-pollinating, but cucumbers are very different from zucchini, I don't even really see any pollen... so I haven't hand-pollinated, instead will wait to see if they take on their own.

Today saw a type of bee in there.  Have not seen many bees so far this year, though maybe it's because I have hardly any flowers.  (More flowers next year sure.)

Goldfinch couple ate sunflowers from non-perch mesh feeder

They stayed for about 5 minutes, until the song sparrow arrived.  The sparrow simply had to land assertively on a nearby stake and the goldies immediately flew off.  While they were here, they ate by clinging on to the mesh (rather than perching on the edge), and they showed no interest in the millet nor the mixed seed.  One of them drank from the table bath.

Non-curly kale = Premier Forge, curly kale = Siberian

The Siberian wasn't so curly in its younger days, but now it's full curl.

I prefer non-curly because it's sooooo much easier to see insects.

Yay me for actually labelling things properly the whole way through! :P

Spiders of Ontario (reference)

https://onnaturemagazine.com/spiderguide.html?fbclid=IwAR3Qkg_ZSh3lXYcZce8jdHTkwPwf8hwNs-Mt9A9JwymXiUJN6scgGOT4bT4

Are the song sparrows eating all of the insects?

Wow, still not seeing cucumber beetles or three lined beetles.  And have seen hardly any cabbage worms on the uncovered plants.  (Some eggs yes.)  Not many spiders around either, though that was the same the past few years.

I wonder if the song sparrows, who are often hopping about (particularly in the west and north beds), are to thank?

Tomatoes are on the way

Some are the size of a large kiwi.  

Tall zinnias are still kind of sparse

The tall ones are being slow to take off, both the ones in front and in the yard.  The plants look healthy, just, still sparse if that makes sense.  They're all still on only their second opened flower (or still their first in some cases).  Maybe it's still early...

The short zinnias in containers look great though, lots of flowers.

The promising zucchini fizzled before opening, but, the same plant has another promising one

So far the one ronde that flowered the other day, plus the early female zucchini that had no male, are the only zukes/rondes to flower.  

Flea beetles were a total non-issue this year, maybe thanks to early kaolin applications?

Really happy with how that worked out!  Though next year I do want to dilute the kaolin more, as I definitely burnt leaves with it.

Chopping and dropping -- pruned zucchini leaves (healthy), excess kale and chard leaves

I had thought the "chop and drop" compost/mulch method meant cutting the matter into small pieces.  Happy to read that it's often just dropping the leaves etc. intact, no chopping needed.

Since I'm not using the compost bin any more (due to the odour issue with being so close to neighbours), I'm really happy to have this method.  Hoping it won't result in any odours!

It's a mind shift to get used to the appearance, but knowing it's great organic matter feeding the worms and soil etc. I'm happy to get used to the look.

Strange yellow/green leaves on east-most zucchini in central bed -- removed those leaves

The leaves/plant look strong overall (but still puny / not producing), just that strange colouring.  Took photos.  Removed those three leaves and put into yard waste bag.  (The other leaves on the plant look fine so far, as do the leaves of the two neighbouring squash plants and the cukes etc.)

Mineralized phosphate by GG is fossilized bat guano

Great customer service by GG, I asked them few questions about their mineralized phosphate (0:9:0) in terms of how it differs from their rock phosphate (0:3:0) via direct message on FB and they provided answers to all of them.

"Our Mineralized Phosphate is definitely more popular than our Rock Phosphate as it is quite hard to get! Our mineralized phosphate is actually fossilized bat guano from thousands of years ago. This is why the P value is much higher on this product than our rock phosphate. Many Gardeners who enjoy our All-Purpose and Powerbloom pair it with Mineralized Phosphate due to this reason!"

When I asked if one is faster release than the other: "All of our products are slow release however, with the higher NPK value you will get more of it but we cannot guarantee it will be quicker."

"The maximum annual rates given on our labels are industry regulated and not necessarily what your soil or crop requires. For Rock phosphate, a reasonable application rate for most gardens and plants would be 11.5 lbs per 1000 ft2. For Mineralized phosphate, with a higher percentage of available phosphate, a comparable application rate would be 3.8 lbs per 1000 ft2." [These are different rates of application than stated on their label and website, and make more sense because these recommend a lower rate for the MP than the RP wheres the label/website recommend a lower rate for the RP than the MP.]

Basil has holes.... earwigs?

The basil looks healthy but quite a lot of holes.

My guess is earwigs, otherwise slugs.

Tonight I've set out some newspaper "traps" -- moist newspaper crumpled up.  Will see if they collect anything.  Put two in the main basil bed, one in the mini bed.

Rat sighting #2

Around 5pm, at the fence line again.

Not seeing any signs of damage in the yard...

Wild raspberries ripe behind BH mall

Might not be a lot this year given the drought, but the few I had today tasted juuuust fine.

Basil looks good after having covered during multiple chilly nights (e.g. down to 11 last night)

I said this a week or two ago and it turned out to be untrue, but:  forecast looks good, not seeing any more chilly nights.

(Covered during the <13 nights with upside down pots and then a few blankets over top.)

Dragonfly perched on stake and hung out for a bit

A beautiful golden dragonfly perched on the yarrow stake next to my chair while I sat there; got up and flew around the yard a bit, then returned to the perch, etc.  Sounds like dragonflies are top predators so I hope s/he will make repeat visits.

Ronde flower opened!!!! (air conditioner)

^^^

Powdery mildew on peas!

I don't recall seeing this in past years.  So far the squashes look ok...

SVG eggs found on a/c ronde; kaolin washed off untulled zukes/rondes a few days ago

Some kaolin left on the undersides and stems but otherwise they're bare/exposed.  More rain on the way so I haven't bothered re-applying.

Zucchinis/rondes starting to look better -- maybe they liked the mineralized phosphate?

Several promising pre-flowering fruits...  we shall see.

One tulled broccoli main stem went all soggy and hollow after harvesting main head

Discovered it today while removing the tulle.  Gross, I'm not going to inspect it closely.  Removed the plant to go into yard waste.

Removed tulle from central broccoli; harvests are puny nowadays

No more trapped flies under the broccoli's tulle.  The tulle was great for before the main head harvesting, but now with itty bitty side shoots it will be a lot easier to not have to wrestle with the tulle.

Had a piece of today's harvest and it was awful though, so bitter.  That was raw without dressing.  Hopefully will be better with dressing.

Bumper pea harvest (without innoculant)

2 litres harvested today, a bunch harvested a couple days ago too.  The plants are about 8 feet tall and some stems have started to topple over.

This great crop was without the help of any innoculant (the store didn't have any this year).  Maybe the peas really like all the nitrogen in the alfalfa?

Goldfinch pair again

^^^

Covering the basil again tonight (+10) and tomorrow night (+8)

Sighhhh.  Another couple of cold nights, so back out came the upside down pots and blankets.

Goldfinch pair!

A goldfinch pair ate sunflower seeds from the big-hole mesh feeder (they sat on the rim), while a song sparrow ate millet from the platform.  Then the song sparrow seemed to try briefly to scare them off, but it didn’t work, so he left to sing in the tree while the goldfinches kept eating for a few more minutes.

Where did all the birds go? Do they go elsewhere when there's been a lot of rain?

Wednesday/Thursday there was a ton of activity at the bird feeders/baths, as I watched from the computer room using the spy cam.  Mostly the song sparrows, but there were those occasional visits from the cardinals and even most recently the house finches.

But yesterday/today (Friday/Saturday) only seeing a few occasional visits from the song sparrows.

Certainly there are puddles around now with all the rain we've had the last few days, so they don't need these baths.

Saturday evening update:  Seriously!  Where did they go... even the song sparrows I'm hardly seeing.

Come back!!!

Yesterday I bought/installed a new feeder (the plastic walls with nice big roof and "floor" -- using this one for sunflowers), and this evening another one (the all-metal one with perches -- using this one for the mixed seed).  The plastic home-made tray feeder is still being used for millet.

Pruned lowest leaves of tomatoes and most zucchini/rondes

Just to keep things from touching the ground (tomatoes) and try to keep up air flow to help delay powdery mildew (zukes/rondes).

Potato plants doing well after the blackleg (?) issue

I had pulled the diseased/dead/dying potato stems around June 9th when I first noticed the issue.  So far the remaining stems look fine.  Some of the plants have flopped over, but they aren't wilted and their stems look good, so I think it's just because they're too big.  (Too much nitrogen !?!?  :P)

Pea harvest going great

I had put "lots" of alfalfa pellets and kelp meal when transplanting.  Looks like peas were happy with it (unlike the poor zucchinis and tomatoes).

2 SVB moths captured

They seem to be mid-day fliers.  Saw one around 12:15pm, the other around 2:30pm.

One of them was hovering around the cucumbers...!?

Checked the zuke/ronde plants, didn't find any eggs.  There's still some kaolin left, particularly on the undersides, but yesterday's / last night's rain has washed off a lot of it.

Prepared two pots for zucchini

(Prepared the pots, but they won't contain the zucchini plants until later once I have seedlings from the new seeds.)

One pot says on its edge 6 gallons.  The other pot doesn't say but is a bit smaller because tapered bottom, so it's maybe ~5 gallons?

Contents in each pot:

Pro-Mix Premium Potting Mix

Soil from under eaves (north bed)

Vermiculite

Mineralized phosphate:  Directions say 2 Tbsp per gallon, so, 12 Tbsp per 6-gallon pot.  So, that's what I did.  (Oops, the tapered pot got a little extra because I forgot it was smaller.)

Kelp meal:  Directions say 2 Tbsp per gallon, but, I don't want to risk too much nitrogen, so I'll halve that.  So, I put 6 Tbsp per 6-gallon pot.  (Oops, the tapered pot got a little extra because I forgot it was smaller.)

Cabbage moth seen

I was wondering if at some point I could remove the tulle from the broccoli.  Answer:  No, well, at least not yet!  Moth seen fluttering around today, including when I stepped back out into the yard with the tulle raised up from doing a harvest.  I don't think she was in there but it's possible!!

No more three-lined potato beetles seen

Checked the ground cherries for eggs again today and didn't see any.  So, haven't seen any three-lined potato beetle signs since a few weeks ago when I saw an adult and removed eggs.

Started zucchini round ?? in paper towel

Determined to get at least some zucchini this year or at least try everything to help my odds.

So started ~6 seeds in paper towel today, a new packet of yellow zucchini seeds bought yesterday.

There's zero space in the garden right now, but my plan is to move some of the ground zucchinis into pots (or tear them out, outright) and inject new mix into the ground using a mix of

- Pro-Mix premium potting mix

- vermiculite

- mineralized phosphate

- maybe some kelp meal

i.e. NO alfalfa meal.

Mineralized phosphate applied to zucchinis/rondes/winter squash and most tomatoes

Bought mineralized phosphate (Gaia Green) from Ritchie's today.  Desperate to try something to get the dang zucchini to make viable fruit (instead of growing to 1 or 2 cms and fizzling out before even getting close to flowering).  I had this problem last year as well with most summer squash, and then there was the winter squash that kept fruiting/flowering but not one single one made it to maturity despite ample hand-pollinating.

I'm unsure of the difference between Gaia Green's rock phosphate and their mineralized phosphate but if the interwebs are true the latter might be fossilized bat guano?  Weird, why wouldn't they call it as such?  It looks like cocoa powder, brown so I could see it being guano as I would have imagined rock being grey?  I dunno.  I messaged Gaia Green last night to ask what the difference is between these two products but haven't yet heard back.  So anyway I fell into the trap of "if it's more expensive then it must be better" and bought the mineralized phosphate, $90 plus tax for 10 kg (22 pounds)!!!!

So for all of the summer/winter squash, plus all of the tomatoes except medium, I used my fingers to sort of dig in shallowly (an inch or two) around each plant and dusted some MP.  Covered back up, then gave everything a watering (it rained this afternoon but that was before I applied the stuff).

Probably too late to do much good, but at least I'll be more prepared for next year...

1 zucchini looks like it might flower

On one of the north bed plants.  If it makes it to flowering, this would be only the second female to flower (the first had no males available).  Out of TEN zucchini/ronde plants.  Fingers crossed :/

Mystery bird

Saw briefly posing on the fence holding a piece of plastic or something.  Small sparrow-size and brown/tan of course, but no streaking at all on the underside.

House finch pair and cardinal seen briefly

^^^

Broccoli harvest update -- a great big head from a Sprouting Green broccoli plant

Great head of broccoli harvested today from one of the Sprouting Green variety (gorgeous and nice and big! from under the tulle), but overall broccoli harvest has been small given the amount of space, especially as most heads were on the small side, enough to add to daily salads over the past couple of weeks, but not enough to make batches of soup etc.

I'll give broccoli another good go next year now that I know to raise it outside, will see how it does then, then re-evaluate for future years.

8 degrees last night -- basil was covered with pots/blankets and looks good today

Looks like that may have been the last chilly night of the season.

House finch couple!!!!

I was in the yard this evening checking out the plants, when some birds flew from the roof area onto the fence.  I looked at them, they looked at me, they flew off.  Definitely a house finch male and female!  Hopefully I didn't scare them off too badly and they'll come back another time!

All tomato plants except one have fruit forming!

Exciting!  Looking forward to seeing what these Rainbow Blend mixed types will turn out as.  Not a lot of fruit forming yet, but, some.

The only tomato that doesn't yet have any fruit is the SW-most one, which is one of the Rainbow misc.

Rat-proofing the bird feeder

Ok so as of tonight, here's what I've done so far:

- removed the table plates (and certainly not scattering bird food on the ground anymore) -- all bird food is now on feeders hanging from the pole

- removed bird bath from the ground -- it's now on the table, which is probably dumb since rats can surely access it for a drink, but for now it is what it is

- added seed-catchers (home made) under the feeders

- added a home-made baffle to the pole to prevent climbing (used a Pure Leaf plastic bottle, drilled a hole into the bottom, placed it on the pole, wrapped a couple of pieces of duct tape strictly around the pole to make a bit of a lip to help keep the baffle in place)

Here's what else I want to do:

- buy hulled sunflowers instead of the classic hulled black oil sunflowers I've been using (for less mess since less mouth maneuvering to open seeds equals less chance of intact seeds ending up on ground, or so I say anyway)

- buy high quality mixed seed (for less discarding -- the sparrows especially seem to discard the corn)

Here's what a good link to deterring rats from bird feeders, including a good video on how to make a seed-catcher:  https://birdslife.co.uk/how-to-stop-attracting-rats-to-bird-feeders  

Kaolin re-applied after yesterday's today's rain -- and mixed up a new batch / new spray bottle

Even with all of yesterday's and today's rain, there was still some kaolin left on the leaves.  But I didn't want to risk anything, so applied a good new coating today to all the exposed zucchini/rondes and the cucumbers.  Applied some around 4pm, the rest at 6pm, so sun burn shouldn't be an issue.

The old spray bottle (noname window cleaner bottle) clogged up, which might have been because the kaolin was the first batch which started in a pail into which some plants were dunked and bits of soil mixed into it.  So, mixed up a new batch in the dollar store clear spray bottle:  3 cups water to scant 1/2 cup kaolin.