GA: Sowed buckwheat in a couple of spots

Sowed buckwheat at (a) the NW former potato bed (which was emptied out a week or so ago), and (b) the SW onion bed (which was also emptied out recently).

We'll see how much it grows before frost comes.

GA: APHIDS ON THE KALE/CHARD! AND BLACK FLIES IN THE BROCCOLI!!!!

Oh no!!!  I haven't looked at the kale in ages, and went I went to harvest some today, I saw that it's full of green aphids!!! There are some on the chard too, but the kale especially.  So, I'll pull and discard all of the kale and chard next time I go.

I didn't see any aphids on the broccoli, so I brought that home.  But at home I found that there were many little black flies within!!  It took many rinses/soaks to get them all out, but otherwise the broccoli is gorgeous, so I used it.

I have no idea how these aphids/flies got in under the netting (which is a sheer sheet thing, not tulle, so no holes to get in).... My best guess is that they may have overwintered in the soil and therefore popped up under the cover.

GA: First sweet corn harvested! Deeeeeeeelicious!

Harvested the first two ears of sweet corn from the NW bed's first round.  The cobs were on the skinnier side, but they were DELICIOUS!!!  So crunchy and sweet!  YUM.  As delicious as they were, I wish I could have shared them with Scooter.

GA: White onions -- some are already going mushy in the ground!!

Yikes!  Some, but not all, of the white onions are already going mushy in the ground!  A few of those were lost completely; the others were partly salvageable as the insides were still good.

GA: Watermelon (x1) harvested FOY

It was nice and big (as far as Blacktails go), so I decided today was the day.  The little tendril at the vine joint was still green, but it lacked vibrancy, so it looked like it would be turning brown soon.

The inside was -- mostly green, some pink tinge, so I was disappointed at first.  But, it was sweet and juicy, very nice!  The seeds were fully edible / inoffensive.

There's another nice big one getting ready too -- that one I'll wait until the tendril turns brown, will see if that makes any difference in pinkness.

And a few others that are growing too.

GA: Harvested a few potatoes -- they're all small so far

Decided to hand-dig under a potato plant in the NW bed that had yellowed/died.  There were a few potatoes, but all small, like combined maybe one larger potato. 

We'll see what the others look like, but for now it's too early to dig up more.

GA: Tons of aphids at top of the youngest sweet corn!!

Noticed it the other day but had a closer look today and sure enough, lady bugs around to eat them.  SO many aphids all clustered up at the base of the tassel things at the top.  

The older sweet corn immediately to their west don't seem to have them, or at least not many.

GA: Fall carrots sown

I put these into the space recently vacated by the second downed zucchini -- i.e. along the west edge, northern part.

All I did is I removed obvious weeds, then hand-trowelled to loosen, then sprinkled kelp, mrp, and az, then mixed it in, then set aside some soil to cover them up, then flattened the area, sprinkled the seeds, sprinkled to cover with the set-aside soil, placed the burlap, then watered over the burlap.

Let's see how it goes!

GA: Cut down the crimson clover; the bees loved the flowers

Decided it was time to cut down the crimson clover, which was in the SE-most part.  Flowers had appeared in the last week or two and were starting to turn white, not sure if it's too late to prevent self-sowing, we shall see.  The plants were about 2 feet tall or so and had started to flop all over and be messy.  Used the yellow shears to chop it down, rather than pulling it out by the roots.  For now the material is just plopped on the bed it came from.  I'm thinking I may use it to mulch the corn once the clover dies/dries a bit.

GA: First onions harvested -- the only "big" (relatively) ones so far?

The first onions I've harvested are from the SW bed's east section, which per my notes should be the New York Early onions that I started from seed (not sets), so that's exciting!  There are some decent sized ones (on the smaller side, but I'm happy with it) -- but the ones left in the bed look much smaller, sadly.  Not sure why I have trouble growing onions, whether from sets or seeds!  (Peppers too!)

The blog says I started the NYE onion seeds January 23rd (round one) and February 2nd (round 2).  Presumably these relatively larger ones that I harvested today are from round one.  So, that's 191 days, yikes!!  Seed stores say 98 days for this variety!!!

Uncovered the two scallopinis (yard)

Not because too big (though they are huge), but because they put out so many male flowers that stay open for multiple days, that I just can't be bothered to check every day to see if any females are there yet.

GA: Bush bean harvest in full swing!

^^^

Nooooo --- the neighbourhood apple tree is GONE!!!

What a sad realization!  The neighbourhood apple tree, which gave THE most delicious, perfect apples I have ever tasted in my whole entire life, is no longer there!  No sign of it.  Come to think of it, I don't remember getting any apples from it last fall, though with Scooter's illness I never realized it at the time.  So, I think the apple tree has been gone for at least a year or so.  Sigh.

GA: FOY bush beans!

 That's about 65 days counting back to the first ones started May 24th, though there have been a few rounds since then, so who knows which these are from.

GA: FOY carrots!!! They look great!

Woo hoo!  So exciting!  Nice and long, they look very good.  That's 68 days to maturity -- in line with the 75 days google says.

GA: Belstar broccoli is delicious -- so SWEET! and doing great!

Wow!  My first year trying Belstar broccoli and so far I sure do love it!  Several plants have given their first head and are now into side shoots.  The flavour is spectacular -- it's delicious raw and is actually so sweet when eaten raw!  Some of the heads have had "brown bead" (per google) -- where some of the little unopened florets are dried out / brown and tend to fall off -- but I just throw it all into the recipes and it's great, no issues.

The piracicabas on the other hand haven't been doing great.  Their flowers are long and spindly/measly.  Thank goodness for Belstar to the rescue!

Next year I'll definitely grow more Belstar and fewer piracicaba.

GA: More beets sowed where pulled wilted zuke

I mixed in a bucket of condo soil, then placed beet seeds here and there (not pre-soaked / not pre-germinated), then covered with condo soil, then put burlap.  [A few days later I realized I forgot to add amendments, so lifted the burlap and sprinkled kelp, mrp, and az, then put the burlap back on.]

[I'm writing this on July 28th as back-fill -- not sure exactly which day I sowed them, but it was less than a week ago.]

GA: Oh no!!! A 2nd zuke lost! (presumably borer, but not pulling it quite yet) --> NOT the borer

Egads!!! The most productive plant has wilted!  This makes a second plant lost!  I'll leave it for a few days to finish ripening what it has.  I didn't check the stem closely because whatever (but will check it out when I pull it to see if it's SVB).

--> Update on August 1st 2025:  Pulled it today after harvesting its last two zucchinis.  There were some squash bugs on it, and found at least one or two borers in leaves/stems, but the main stem seemed clear of borers.  So, I'm guessing it died of some type of disease transmitted by the squash bugs and/or cucumber beetles, rather than SVB.

MAJOR FLOP: garlic :(

Oh man -- $50 of seed garlic.  $50!!!!!  is getting me about $5 worth of garlic.  Womp womp.

So far I've pulled the west half.   All elephants are single-cloves -- they never turned into bulbs.  Almost all regulars are itty bitty.  I mean, usable, but like $0.10 worth of garlic each.

I'm sure the other half will be similar but I'll wait a week or two to pull those.

I have no idea what went wrong.  I've grown garlic in the yard before with good, or at least decent, results.  In past years they scaped nicely, etc.  Oh well!

GA: No longer removing squash bugs / cucumber beetles, will see what happens

Yes, I've decided the plants are big enough and que sera sera.  Let's see what happens!