Ripe Tomatoes

I've harvested 3 tomatoes as of today, and so many more are blushing.  My large plant is super producing, and the other 3 smaller plants are about a quarter of the size, but still have fruit.  

I have 3 butternut squashes, one big squash and 2 on the vine, I've lost three small ones that have rotted off the bud. 

My cucumber plant has rallied and is coming back with authority, taking over the entire trellis for one plant. 

My beans are sprouting and setting their third sets of leaves, so I'm hopeful they will produce before the fall freeze. 

A mole (vole?)  pulled a celery plant into it's hole,  and there are many other holes popping up in the garden as well.  Not my favorite rodent right now.  I can't find my camera, so no pictures today :(

Right On Cue....

The Japanese Beetles are here!  I found 3 in the garden today, and one in my hair after I came inside.  I looked back to last year, and my post about the beetles invasion was July 31st.  Must be the time!  I have found some stuck to the fence, trying to get in, so maybe the fence is also keeping some of them out?  So far no more hornworms, but some sort of goose or large bird ate our blueberries and promptly pooped all around the bush.  That was a nice surprise. 

The beans I planted last week in the potato plot are sprouting and growing nicely.  There is much more room after the zucchini plant was pulled out, and I have FOUR butternut squashes starting on the two plants.  I hope they continue.  My cucumber bush which got chowed down is coming back, and sprawling out to take over the trellis. 

I have one tomato blushing and 3 mystery squashes growing in the lettuce plot where I added the dirt from the worm garden. 

 

I love the borage flowers and Oldest enjoys eating them and the leaves.  I also am happy with the butterfly flowers, I wish the annuals grew from seed, maybe next year!   Overall, this garden  has been so much harder, yet it still seems fun!

Pictures from this weekend.  

Squash Vine Borer

I should stop asking if anything else could go wrong.  Of course it can!   This garden is getting the best of me this year, but I'm a fighter.  I pulled a wilted stem off my zucchini plant tonight, and guess what?  A big white grub was inside the base stem.  I have noticed some orange powdery stuff around the base, but didn't think it was important.  Apparently it is.  It's a squash vine borer!!!  YAY!  Now that it's identified, it will be destroyed.  Maybe I should go back to the ground soaking sprinklers.  That seemed to work better last year. 

Tomato Hornworms

I've had my fair share of pests this year.  I still haven't caught any raccoons, although I haven't had any more problems with them either. 
My newest pest is the Tomato Hornworm.  I found one chewing a bald stalk of a pepper plant, and then 3 more on the actual tomato plants.  Fortunately, I have one big tomato plant and that's where they were.  I picked the buggers off and haven't seen any more. 

My tomatoes are funny this year.  I have one HUGE plant that is being supported by a broom stick, in the far corner of my east garden, and then 4 little plants that are producing, but not a lot.  My Big Boy is growing a beautiful tomato.  Emphasis on a.  There's just one.  And the plant is small, I don't know how it's going to support itself!  Many tomatoes are starting, and the waiting for them to blush is hard as the whole garden is a bummer this year.

I also harvested all my yukon gold potatoes, and some reds.  They were small so I left the rest of the reds to grow a little.  We had a mixed potato meal last night and it was SOOOO good. 

Early Berries

This week was peak Blueberry picking.  Early for Michigan, but we've had such weird weather I'm thankful we got any at all.  We ended up picking 9 pounds, and bought 20.  Many pounds have been eaten, and I want to make that cake again.  The Blue Gold we got from Palmers were very sweet and the Gold Barn we picked were also good, but very stemmy.  I don't remember the pre-picked berries having so many stems, but they are still good. 

Snake in the Grass

Tuesday night when I went to the garden to get lettuce for dinner, there was a snake caught in the fence.  It was struggling and had woven it's head in and out of the mesh on the fence.  It wasn't pretty and the fence was also stuck in it's jaw.  After I panicked and called Steve, we decided to let the snake try to get free himself.  My Dad was coming the next day, and he said he could remove it, but it'd probably be dead by then.  That made me sad. 

I was talking to my M-I-L, and mentioned the snake, and she said the neighbor boy loves snakes.  She called him over and he got the snake free!  He stuck his hand right in it's mouth and cut it free.  It slithered away and probably died, but at least not in my fence!  We determined it was a Hognose Snake, which eats frogs, and it was a big one. 

In other news, the fence is really working.  The chipmunks are still frolicking, and they're not all dead.  My beans, however, are not there.  I have one soybean plant.  Everything else is not worth it.  All the lettuce and spinach was harvested and delicious.  Cucumbers were eaten before they grew, but we ate a zucchini for lunch.  After 3+ days in this heat wave, the garden is growing fast and needing lots of water!   No pictures lately, but I'm pleased with how the fence is working.  I feel like I've put a lot of work into the garden this year, and for the last 10 days I haven't touched it, beside harvesting and watering.  I think I'm burned out a little.  It's all good though.

I am smarter than a Chipmunk. I hope.

One week ago, on Wednesday, we put up a fence.  It's the deer guard fence I posted about before, and it's really nice because it's practically invisible from afar.  It also has really small holes to prevent rabbits and chipmunks to squeeze through into the garden.  I thought I had won.  I replanted beans, peas, and more peppers Sunday.  It was so hot!  They were growing so good! 
Monday I went out at lunch.  One Box in the garden was gone.  The beans, the peas, the peppers, the broccoli, all completely destroyed. I walked around the exterior and interior of the fence.  I couldn't find where they burrowed in.  They couldn't have fit through the holes!  Did they fly?   What could have done this?  I cried. Then I decided to fight back. 

A co-worker suggested slugs ate my garden.  They can destroy plants over night, he said.  I googled slugs.  Their biggest predator?  Chickens.  Guess what, I don't have any chickens.  And all the pictures online of slug damage looked nothing like my poor plants munched right to the dirt.  When I came home that night there were two little chippies perched on the garden bed.  I ran toward them, shoe in hand, determined to bash in their nutty brains.  They ran into the woods, out of the garden, through a hole they had chewed in the corner of the fence. I saw they had dug up my freshly planted seeds, they had taken bites out of all of them.  Like Ramona, they decided the first bite was always best and threw the rest away.  I cried some more. 

Today I went to the hardware store.  I don't even try to find anything in our local hardware store.  The men stand around and if a worker can't help you, a patron will.  I asked about Chipmunks and how to get rid of them.  They suggested rat traps, buckets filled with sunflower seeds floating on water, a 22 with a scope, traps to release them somewhere else, and all of these don't appeal to me.  I don't want to see or touch these chipmunks that have run rampant over my entire homestead.  I just want them gone.  Some poor boy took pity on me.  He gave me pellets for killing moles and gophers, you shake them down the hole and they eat them.  It might take days before you notice they're gone he said.  I grabbed that and a package of mice killer that looked like corn.  Tonight I walked around the house, sprinkling pellets in all the holes I could find.  Under the steps, next to the flowers, under the back porch, and finally around the hole in the fence.  I left the mice poison for next week if this doesn't work.  I'm really hoping it does.  It's not just the garden it's affecting, it's the foundation of the house they're burrowing under and my sanity with the constant chirping and stealing of bird food. 

In other news, I've harvested spinach and broccoli, and most beds are growing great.  I'm having much better luck with the lettuce and spinach than last year, and even sunflowers and squashes are growing great.  We just won't be having beans or peppers this year.  BUMMER.