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...