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.