Pea harvest underway, a small handful per day

Not the most sweet, but nice and fresh.

First Japanese beetle found

Found on a plant in the fence-front bed.  Here it comes!

Spotted a spotted asparagus beetle on the asparagus

Very cute!  Red with dots.  Big green book says they don't do much damage at all, so, put back.

Ground cherries -- first harvest

The first ground cherries have fallen to the ground!  A small handful.

About half were still green or semi-green.

Cucumber beetles appearing daily, but still only a few -- and only on squashes

Only 1 or sometimes 2 per day that I'm seeing.  Relocating.

First ronde de nice harvested

It's cute!  Will take some getting used to though, the colour and shape.

Haven't eaten it yet.

2nd zucchini harvested

From same plant as 1st zucchini.  The other zucchini plants are far behind.

Zinnia tally -- hopefuls early in process, vs. actually planted out

Early in the seed-starting process, this is how many zinnias I thought I'd have (i.e. the ones that were transferred from paper towel baggie into soil -- v.s. -- how many actually made it into the garden:

Tall:  58 hopefuls; 48 planted into garden

Short:  27 hopefuls; 14 planted into garden

Some were tossed because they were looking suspicious for thrips.  Others were tossed because of failure to thrive.

Ground cherries look GREAT now! Maybe thanks to the hot weather?

We've been in a heat wave; they seem to quite like it.

A few more three-lined potato beetles and cucumber beetles found

Still just the occasional one though.

Haven't actually seen the potato beetles on the potatoes (they've been on the ground cherries).

The one recent cucumber beetle was in a squash flower.

First zucchini harvested!

Looks like one more is on the way soon.  Then after that it might be a bit because there's been a rash of male flowers.

First ronde female flower

And there was a male to pollinate it with.

Cucumber beetle found in squash flower

Only the one.  Removed.

Pea tops looking wilty/rotty again -- were fine yesterday

Must have to do with watering too much or too little.  I bet they'll be fine again in a day or two.

Paper wasps greatly enjoying water bowl

Wow, there is quite the steady stream of paper wasps to my water bowls in the garden!

At first I noticed them frequently in the stainless steel bowl set by the air conditioner.

Today I noticed them mostly in the small old ceramic half-bowl which is set in among the beets.  Maybe that one doesn't get as hot.

Pretty sure they're paper wasps, based on this article:  https://www.rescue.com/latest-buzz/outdoor-pests/how-to-tell-a-wasp-from-a-yellowjacket/.  The ones I'm seeing have the give-away orange antenna, and are quite long and skinny.

My garden insects book says paper wasps are great to have around, as they eat insects.  Mostly these ones seem to be coming and going only for the water, though I did see one spend several minutes flying around / landing on the beets.


This article lists a wide variety of wasps, with identifying photos:  http://www.scorpionfly.ca/plants/wildlifegarden/Beneficial%20wasps.html

Fireflies

Saw a firefly yesterday evening.  They're so nice to see.

Ack! Two types of insects -- one on chard, one on tomatoes!

Chard have tiny orange beetles.

Tomatos have what I assume are flea beetles.  Small and black and they jump way.

Still not finding any more cucumber beetles

The Edible Gardens group is full of reports of hordes of cucumber beetles... not here yet, just that one from yesterday...

Three lined potato beetle found (first in a while)

Found on the container ground cherry.

Checked all ground cherries for eggs, didn't see any.

Container ground cherry and tomato not looking so great anymore -- not terrible, but not great

The container ground cherry just looks palish, whereas all of a sudden the central ground cherries are starting to look happy.

The container tomato is having foldy leaves at the new growth, and also has turned palish compared to the central tomatoes.

Nothing too drastic in either case, but something to watch.