Lindsaylew's 2014 Garden - Upstate, SC

[Lindsaylew82]

We downsized this year... After saying we were for 6 years, we finally did it! We went from 50'x100' to 45(ish)'x 60'. It's mildly more manageable. Raised rows and mulching have been huge aids in maintenance. No tilling in the spring....WOW! That's the best part. I do till a 10' row for bush beans and okra. I tried for 3 years and just can't make it work on raised rows.


Temps have been strange this year. 2 weeks of 40's followed by blazing upper 80's and 90's for the past 3 weeks. Looooooooooots of blossom drop this year. Sungold and green sausage being the only ones that didn't mind.

Herbicide runoff from the neighbor has taken out 70-ish percent of my okra. I have about 7' left. We'll see. Beans are TRYING to pull through and were slightly higher ground than okra. I'm fairly sure I'm going to have to pull 2 Rutger and 2 marglobe (my favorite) due to herbicide induced leaf curl. 1 definitely, 2 most likely, and the last is trying to pull through.




Slugs, slugs, slugs... I really hate slugs...and eggshells. We got a nasty storm tonight during supper! I ran out with hemostats to start my hunt. Nada!! Not a single slug! Weird...I'm skeptical. I DID find my first army worm today. He met his demise under my clog. I found him on the most damaged tomato plant pictures above. I'll probably pull it tomorrow... First plant I've ever lost.
Also found my brand new hydrangea weed-eatered to the ground... Permanent Roomate heard about that. More than once, and has promised a replacement.


Running out of stake height on the tomatoes. We are going horizontal! They are finally setting fruit! Temps have normalized in the 80's and no one is stressing about it anymore. I want to try some heat tolerants for next year.


https://s895.photobucket.com/user/Lindsa ... 5.jpg.html

Some wider shots:




And some of my annual/bulb/tuber/flower beds!

Double bloom gardenia

Rose bud in the upper canopy of gardenia. Also an oak volunteer.

Daylily and some pinks that are no longer in season, but keep on tossing out blooms! ( and seeds)

Snapdragons came back for the 4th year in a row. White and purple iris (my grandmother's), and coleus. Also a purple basil volunteer!


4th or 5th year comeback yellow lantana and mixed color petunias.

Hope you enjoy my pictures and garden as much as I do!

[valley]

Hi Lindsay, Your place looks very nice and everything is growing well. Thanks for putting up the pictures.

Richard

[grwrn]

Looking good! Do you have any problems with deer or rabbits? Thanks for the pics.

[Lindsaylew82]

Nope, I don't. I DO have neighbors that aren't responsible pet owners though. This is a blessing and a curse. The first year I put a garden in here, I had resident bunnies. They didn't do enough damage to hurt anything. The ALL the neighbors got dogs. Without fences. Even the neighbors with fences don't pen their pups. For a while every day I'd come home from work and find a dead and mutilated bunny in the driveway.
I haven't seen any since. Probably the same reason I haven't seen deer. We also have a feral cat program where I live. They trap, neuter and release. I had a grand colony at one point. But the ones that haven't been hit by a car, have met the same demise as the bunnies. I have 2 oldies left. The dogs don't bother them. One likes to watch me garden, and comes within a few feet...never too close...and "talks" to me.

While it annoys the junk out of me to have to watch my step and fling dog poop ( and they ALL come Poop here) BACK into the neighbors' yards, I am very happy that they do their duty. And they do it well.

[hendi_alex]

While I wouldn't like to live in one of those red clay locations, I always envy those with red clay gardening soil. It seems to grow most anything better than my poor midlands sand. Also, probably is plagued less with nematodes. In general tomatoes seem to grow much stronger as well. I'm assuming most of the positives relate to the water retention of the tightly spaced clay particles. Guess that is also a two edged sword, causing water logging problems in prolonged wet periods. Anyway, as long as clay has decent drainage, it seems to grow really strong vegetable plants.

I don't have a problem with dogs or cats, except for our own, which really don't do anything much in the garden. Deer are a problem pretty often. This year I decided to exile the chickens from one of their approx. 30 foot by 35 foot runs. I've planted corn, tomatoes, watermelon, sweet peas, climbing green beans, cucumber, squash, zucchini, and okra inside the six foot fence. It is quite nice to not have to worry about anything getting in that area and doing damage. The okra doesn't seem to be doing well, probably because of the nematodes, but everything else has done very well. And the six foot fence along the perimeter gives great support for cucumbers, climbing beans, and tomato cages. One nice thing about gardening in this area is the fact that during the fall and winter, the chickens almost totally clean the space of any living plant. The grass and weeds are now finally getting re-established, but the garden plants are so much larger, that the grass and weeds should not be a problem and we have done zero weeding thus far. This is working so well, that next year I'll fence off another chicken run for their summer use, and will plant garden crops inside two of their sunny runs. Only problem is with the fresh manure. We plant nothing that could present a contamination problem, so only things with waxy skins or with fruit held well above the ground, no greens, no root crops. We have planted a few cantaloupes, but will clean the outside thoroughly with dilute bleach before cutting.

[Lindsaylew82]

This house belonged to my grandparents. I spent time here daily as a child. They always had a garden in this spot. When I purchased the house, it was only logical for me to put my garden there. The very first garden was planted here in 1958. It was an old peach orchard before that.
The ground was well worked. Many years of gypsum and one very large load of sand were worked in the soil when I was a child. Along with countless yearly additions of cottonseed meal. It's quite loamy.

Our biggest problems on a year to year basis are squash bugs, SVB, cucumber beetles, army worms, tomato hornworms and tobacco worms, and of course this year we had a large slug invasion. We get SOME Japanese beetles, but they don't do too much damage because they eat my 4 o'oclocks, which poisons them.
I control them mostly with hand picking. I use neem as a weekly preventative for fungal and mildew, but it secondary benefits with insect infestations. The heat is sometimes destructive, especially when we get into the 110 F, and when paired with our ridiculously high humidity.

This year I'm growing:
Basil
Dill
Bee balm
Mexican tarragon
Pineapple sage
Variegated thyme
Marjoram and oregano
Marigolds
Nasturtium

Yellow Brandywine, Amana orange, old German, parks whopper, Rutger, marglobe, chocolate stripe, black Krim, black from Tula, black prince, sungold, brown berry and a mystery tomato that the tag fell off. I think I may be forgetting one or two.

Big Bertha, and jalapeño peppers.

Black beauty, striped zucchini, butter stick yellow squash, black acorn, Cinderella pumpkin, straight 8's, English burpless, Ashley pickling.

Derby, contender, and blue lake bush beans.

Clemson spineless okra

Sunflowers, 4 cultivars.

Asparagus
White peach
White nectarine
Green and purple plums
Japanese plums

[Lindsaylew82]

Lush and booming! Lots of growth over that last 2 weeks! Some pests here and there, but I'm catching them very early. My husband says that I pick over the garden with a fine tooth comb! It's the only way for me to stay ahead of the bugs. Tonight, I'm seeing lots of immature vegetables tomatoes, peppers, every type of squash! One thing that I've notice a big boom in are the bush beans! In the past week, they've put out lots of blooms and baby beans.

Also my marigolds are recovering VERY NICELY now that they're not being devoured (as much) by slugs! They are really quite stunning this year!


In an attempt to train one of the pumpkins to the fence, I nearly broke it in half. It's healed nicely though. I was worried about SVB, but it has a resident wolf spider living in the hollow. He's shy though, and would let me get too close, but you can see his legs poking out!



Also the birds have been really active! They "fuss" when I go into the garden early in the mornings. The make frequent beetle and insect carcass filled "deposits" all over the place!

Found 1 more slug tonight on my second post water pass through.

[Lindsaylew82]

Garden is filling in!



We will be eating squash starting tomorrow! Several big yellows will be ready. Still no new signs of squash bugs!


Still just getting cherry tomatoes. Sun gold and brown berry. My plants are getting HUGE! Yellow brandywine and Amana Orange are having a race! Also found my first tomato horn worm of the season.

Weather has not been nice for tomato growing. Loads of rain causing existing fruit to crack and then scorching heat in the high 90's and humid muggy nights. Lots of blossom drop this year. Fortunately, there lots of blossoms! 18 plants and unless this weather decides to play nice, I won't have a great crop. Early blight is showing it's face.




Garden patrol is very active! Tons of flies, wasps, dragon flies, and lady beetles. A lot of them seem to be concentrating around the cucurbits. I've seen a whole lot of Great Black Wasps. Several toads have taken up residence as well as a garter snake. The birds have been very active and I don't know which ones are doing it, but they've been leaving giant bug/ beetle filled turds all over the place! I saw the wings and an abdomen left over from a SVB moth. I haven't seen signs of infestation yet, though. I noticed a flock of dragon flies following me around while I was on the lawn mower cutting grass a few days ago. They hung out on my trellis for a while after. Now I'm seeing them pretty often. Especially when I flood the reservoirs between the rows.

[applestar]

What great series of photos!
Thanks for sharing. I particularly loved the Garden Patrol photos.

You garden is at the stage when I would start thinking -- hmm did I leave enough room for everything to grow? But you seem to have given them lots of room. I applaud your restraint.

[lakngulf]

Very nice. Beautiful pictures

[Lindsaylew82]

Thanks! I'm a recovering "cram as much as I can in there" addict. I put 18 tomato plants this year where I normally 35-40. I'm glad I scaled back a bit. I can go through every plant, hand picking and tying in less than an hour. I AM running out of vertical space for tomatoes. I tied string horizontally between stakes and bending vines along those horizontal stings. It's working ok, but it's encouraging sucker growth.
The Cinderella pumpkins are volunteers that I decided to keep. We kept 3 out of HUNDREDS! (I let the rest get kind of big and then pull them for compost.) They refuse to grow along the base of the trellis. My initial idea was to use them as living mulch to shade the ground where my cucumber plants are growing. But they prefer to grow in the lawn where my husband WILL cut them. They're growing new roots at every stem joint.

I forgot to mention a part of my garden patrol. I have a VERY healthy clan of wolf spiders and they are reproducing nicely. They are very shy and scurry away from me. I've had to stop wearing flip flops out in the garden because of them though. Mainly because the wig me out a little.

I also got stung my a bee on the side of my foot this week while hand pollinating some female squash blossoms that had no males around. Mildly ironic. Apple cider vinegar really does work for the pain!

[Lindsaylew82]

I love Saturdays and Sundays because I get to do MORNING garden patrol! Day time patrol is so different than late afternoon patrol!
I couldn't get their pictures, but I saw 3 different types of dragonflies (or maybe damsel flies? Idk the difference...). One was metallic blue/black, HUGE, with black wings. The next was bronzey brown, smaller bronze wings. The last was very light grayish lavender on top and dark underneath body, larger, with black wings.

I AM running a little tight for room between rows. From row peak to row peak is about 6-7 feet. Here are the largest plants. Nearly touching!

These plants are 4' tall and LOADED!


Zucchini are behind. I usually get them first, but yellow squash won the first harvest this year. Probably due to slugs eating the seedlings. I had to replant more than once. Here are the first of the squash!
(My kid said they'll be "yummy to my tummy!")

Every year I plant WAY too much squash... There are probably fifty squash that will be ready this week. Neighbors are already giving me the eye... They'll have more than they care to have!

[Lindsaylew82]

Beans are ON!

Last night kid and I picked a small bowl of beans. I picked all that were big enough.

Tonight I picked 3 times as many as I did last night!


Many more on the bushes.

Speaking of bush beans... I don't wanna do them anymore. Not that I don't get a great harvest, it's just that picking them really gives me a back ache! I've never been really happy with pole beans, but maybe it's because I'm not planting the right ones. Idk.. I need to research plans for an overhead bean trellis. Something I can move around to different spots. Maybe something out of PVC and some old chain link fence....

Squash are ALSO on! Harvested about 15 pounds so far. Started harvesting this week. Zucchini coming on now, too! I have STILL only seen the one squash bug and her eggs. I've not seen any evidence of more. That is REALLY strange. I'm seeing some evidence of SVB. It's just a matter of time.

Ate our first Brown Berry ( black plum) and it was VERY tasty! I'm ready for the rest! Tomatoes are really loaded with blooms and are growing lots of tomatoes. I'm getting some nice sized varieties too. The weather has been cooperating a little better and it's more conducive to fruit setting. Not seeing any more blossom drop. 4 tomato hornworms so far.

I saw a poop trail tonight, but it was raining hard and I couldn't find the worm.. I told it I would be back though. Even I'm the rain, braconid wasps were sitting on the plants leaves, probably waiting on me to leave.

Cucumbers are putting out lots of male flowers and some have females. It won't be long! They are climbing up and out!

Everything looks so good right now!

[Sprigsntwigs]

Hello! Certainly enjoyed your posts and pictures. Though, I am in the edge of the NC mountains, I, too, am beginning to pick a few squash. The critters are eating my cucumber sprouts (which I have planted 3x) and my tomato plants are beautiful and as tall as me! (5' 1") Hubby wants to know what I put in the compost. We had hail last week that beat my broccoli to a pulp. Thank goodness the tomatoes we well tied and did not suffer terribly. We have had SO much rain. We've only missed 3 or 4 days in the last 3 week. Makes me want to run outside and set up umbrellas in my garden! Regardless of it all, I love the garden and playing in the dirt.

[Lindsaylew82]

Hello! Certainly enjoyed your posts and pictures.

Thanks! I'm happy to be back at it full force!

The critters are eating my cucumber sprouts (which I have planted 3x) and my tomato plants are beautiful and as tall as me!

I'm blaming everything on slugs!!! I've always direct seeded most of the plants in my garden, but like you...3rd time was enough! What the slugs didn't get, the birds ate! First time I ever had to plant in cups and then transplant!

[grwrn]

Garden looks great! Sounds like you are getting all the rain. No horn worms here yet but I did squash a black/red stink bug this morning on my tomato plant.

[Lindsaylew82]

I dislike stink bugs!

Found horn worm #5!



They sure do like this plant a whole lot! I keep finding them here! This is Amana Orange. It's a great looking plant! Very healthy and mildly disease resistant.

More squash, bush beans, and my first zucchini! Also some cherry tomatoes. I would have really liked to have had a big juicy slicer tonight! Soon enough.

I found THIS tonight!!! (Edit from here...(fat fingers!))

I thought, " OH! Man is gonna be so happy!!!"
Then I saw THIS on the other side.


And these...

What a pisser! I looked everywhere for the doer,but didn't see it.

Some pics of the whole garden from my back porch!



I think I'm gonna turn that useless clothes line into something useful next year. Maybe kiwi, or beans, or berries, or all three. Or maybe grapes!

Anyone growing organic seedless grapes?

[Lindsaylew82]

Still no squash bugs. This is wildly bizarre!!!
I have a little chlorosis going on with my squash. I need to make some compost tea for them. Coffee (liquid) has worked well for me as a quick green up tonic, too. I brew it from used grounds in a 5 gallon bucket sat out in the sun.


Nothing wrong with the zucchini, cukes or pumpkins! They are growing and growing! Loaded with lots of flowers and immature veggies. Found a cucumber beetle tonight. He got the spa treatment.





Tomatoes are going a little crazy too. I've never had such large plants... With such small amounts of fruit! (They are really starting to set now though.) I'm gonna have to get some longer rebar. There are some large bamboo growing on my running trail. I may ask the neighbor if I could have some. At this point, I'll need 10' stakes!


Yellow brandywine.




Here are some of the garden patrol! These are on the new squash plantings, and on the damaged weed n feed tomato, which is growing some normal leaves!! I may cut away the entire plant down to this shoot and make it the primary. It's VERY HEALTHY LOOKING new growth.

[Lindsaylew82]

This morning's garden patrol was very productive!

I bagged several tomato fruitworms. Hopefully the ones that are chewing tunnels in all my green tomatoes. Tiny things. And such devils!! Taking small bites out of several fruits and ruining a whole truss of tomatoes... They're not doing fabulously this year anyway.

I also divided out compost tea to the most chlorosed squash plants. One has a SVB in the stem, and I'm pretty sure I'll lose it. If it's still wilted tomorrow, I'll pull it and go digging the little jerkface out. Also saw a mamma SVB today, but couldn't catch it.

I saw a 3rd instar squash bug this morning. Got him and 3 of his cucumber beetle buddies. I also got a full sized leaf footed bug and a miniature leaf footed bug. I ACTUALLY got a grasshopper in the suds, but he promptly jumped out of the soap, ONTO MY FACE, and just refused to die from then on, so I gave up. Here are some pics of my catch!

[lakngulf]

Great pictures and hope you can stay on top of the "critters" who like your garden too. I always consider squash to be an "expendable". That is, get a quick harvest and then the bugs or the heat take over. That is why I keep squash plants coming along at different intervals, putting the later ones in a little more shade so they can tolerate the hot days. I am sure you have some of those in South Carolina, as I have spent many a hot summer weeks at Garden City, SC.

[kayjay]

Amazing photos! What a great garden.

[hendi_alex]

Great garden. I envy that rich upstate soil.

[Lindsaylew82]

Thanks!

I have spent many a hot summer weeks at Garden City, SC.

We will be there in two weeks, for a whole week! I'm READY!

I just planted some 2 week old seedlings in the tomato area. They're taking off. Squash bugs used to be SOOOO bad, that I couldn't even plant seedlings later than June. They would take them over before they could reach producing size. These days, I'm such an aggressive hand picker that I can plant winter squash and later plantings of melon, squash, and cucumber without MUCH of a fight. IMO, neem oil has helped also. Later in the season, fungi will take over anyway.

Do you do plantings of summer squash in the fall?

All I can think about are bugs... They even take over the watermelons in the fall...

[Lindsaylew82]

Great garden. I envy that rich upstate soil.

Thanks! I envy all those tomatoes you're getting! It's not gonna be a great tomato year for us.

[applestar]

Good job! Are you finding the "bugs" to be appearing later this year? I found two black juvie BM stinkbugs and two J. Beetles today -- seems awfully late for the first of these to be showing up.
...Cucumber beetles have been in all my cucurbits already though.

No rain here, but watered last night so the slugs were still out this morning and I caught some really big ones moseying on the fence.

[Lindsaylew82]

Just one or two slugs here and there, now. Nothing massive like at first! Thank goodness.

[Lindsaylew82]

By now, we usually are battling squash bugs pretty hard...

I have been seen a few different kinds of stink bugs. Nothing like what I normally see this time of year. I guess I am seeing it later. About a month ago I found 2 sets of squash bug eggs but no mamma. Then, the next day, I found 2 more sets of squash bug eggs AND MAMMA!!! Last Saturday was the first time since then.

I've seen several SVB. Both mammas and plant injury. My plants are so thick and thorny that I can't get to them. Demise is eminent. Not as bad as the usual years.

I think the harshness and extended freezing has harmed their populations. The newspaper said that the abnormal hard freeze and snows we got this past winter (they were very harsh) killed of 90% of the stink bug population. I'm starting to believe there was a substantial impact on both stink bugs AND squash bugs.

I'd take a harsh winter for reduced bugs any day.

I've not seen as many cucumber beetles this year. Normally they are swarming! I'm still not convinced these pink lady beetles aren't doing harm....

I don't think I'm doing anything different. I've always been good at keeping on top of garden chores. It's seriously my serenity.

[Lindsaylew82]

Bagged 2 freshly hatched horn worms, several freshly hatched tomato fruit worms, a large climbing cutworm, a large TFW, and a medium HW. Lots of black eggs. It's the year of the caterpillar in my garden. The plants are really doing well now.














Marigolds are STUNNING this year! They prevailed over the slugs!



Peppers are really putting on now, but we will get our largest crops from the last of the fall harvests!






Fungal disease is starting to show pretty much all over. Squash has started to decline a bit, with a few spots of Powdery mildew.

Starting to yellow some too, even with compost tea. You can see the difference in the squash (front) and zucchini.


Cucumbers are BOOMING right now. Pumpkins, too!
No idea, what kind of pumpkin this is. Different than the rest!





Cukes







Still only a few cucumber beetles and squash bugs. Still lots of pink spotted lady beetles! Still not convinced they aren't a pest.

4 lined plant bugs are EVERWHERE! And they are sneaky!

Pretty pleased so far! Still just want a fatty tomato.

[applestar]

Your garden is looking AMAZING -- diligence is paying off.

You already looked up pink spotted lady beetles, right?

Food
Adults and larvae are important aphid predators but also prey on mites, insect eggs, and small larvae. Reported prey include pea, green peach, melon (cotton), cabbage, and potato aphids and greenbug; eggs of European corn borer, imported cabbageworm, fall webworm, and corn earworm; asparagus beetle, Mexican bean beetle, and Colorado potato beetle eggs and larvae.

Unlike most lady beetles, plant pollen may constitute up to 50% of the diet. This is the only North American lady beetle that can complete its life cycle on plant pollen. Common pollen food sources are dandelion, squash, corn, and lily.

https://bugguide.net/node/view/8376

[Lindsaylew82]

I did read that! Only I missed the pollen part! Makes perfect sense!

I had a "duh" moment a few days ago. I keep seeing white cabbage moths all over my cukes and squash, but couldn't figure out why. I realized yesterday that they're after the nasturtiums! Maybe that is what the pink ladies are after!

I swear I saw a cucumber beetle putting the moves on one of the pink ladies though.

[lakngulf]

Fruit and produce in all shapes and sizes. And healthy plants. Job well done.....well, job being done well.

[Lindsaylew82]

Thanks y'all!

[Lindsaylew82]

SOOO. Many. Caterpillars. 1 newly hatched hornworm can eat a whole late tomato leaf in 1 day! Found about 6 small hornworms today! I actually mashed 2 real small ones quickly with my fingers. Still grossed out....

Found a HUGE grasshopper! I caught him, stomped him, the put him in the suds.


Thought that these were clusters of eggs, but when I tried to scrape them off, I realized that they were roots! Btw, this plant has ZERO tomatoes on it. Old German Pink.


The weather here must be ideal for cucumber plants! These are on a 2"x4" trellis. The leaves are HUGE! I've never grown cukes with such large leaves!


Last night, I noticed there were several bees just kind of hanging out in both the cuke blossoms and on the tomato brossoms. It got really hot yesterday. I wonder if they were just resting and waiting for the temps to cool off.



I lost my cat of 15 years on Thursday from a 2 year battle with lung cancer. She was very special to me. We planted a little memorial bed over her grave.

[hendi_alex]

Get chickens! No more squishing bad garden critters. The chickens just love them. Three to four chickens don't take much space or much care, plus give lots of eggs and a bonus of manure for the compost pile.

[Lindsaylew82]

I want chickens! Soooooo bad! I live in the county, too. But the man says no. I'm slowly chipping away at his reserve. We eat at least 5-6 eggs everyday, and I could definitely use 6-10 chickens. I have done extensive research on them! I know what breeds I want, and I even have a local organic hatchery that can provide the breeds I'm interested in.

There several other issues...

Lack of fencing or runs, and neighbor's free roaming dogs that like to jump fences. Right now we don't have a connected fence surrounding the back yard. ( It's in the budget for next spring!!! Privacy fence! Woohooo!)

We have a very healthy hawk and falcon population as well. I was on a run one afternoon and saw a hawk dive bomb a chicken 1 mile from my house! It was like a white powder bomb went off! I've seen them catch catbirds in our yard with the same results.

I worry about them scratching up my mulch, too. I have a no till system and I rely heavily on my mulch.

Wait..........am I talking myself out of this...?

I do have a pretty large cricket factory. Plus fleas and ticks from the dogs that my neighbors carelessly and irresponsibly own.

Caterpillars!
Do they get the wee little ones in the top of the canopy?

Do they mess with your plants?

I'm actually considering BT, but I doubt I will go through with it. It was definitely a passing thought as I pulled even more caterpillars off my plants this evening, along with 14 rotten and partially consumed green tomatoes. They go through and ruin a whole truss of tomatoes...

IDK... I told my husband (after this week) I didn't want anymore pets... I could never eat them if I got them, and I tend to get really attached to animals and charming children.

I probably WILL continue to chip away at that reserve. Mine and his.

[applestar]

So sorry for your loss.

When my last cat died he was 18-1/2 and I had him since he was 10 weeks old. I had planned to attend a workshop that week but canceled because he was declining (thyroid), and he did pass... and completely changed our lives.

It does take a while. The memorial bed looks lovely.
Here is a flower

[Lindsaylew82]

It's very hard. Someone had put her in a taped up box in the trash at the hospital I worked at. She was 4 weeks old and had to be bottle fed for a couple of weeks. I miss her. My other cat is a year older and bonded tightly with her. She's very depressed now.

Thank you for my flower. I relish in the fact that she didn't suffer. I'm glad I had the strength to follow through.

[Lindsaylew82]

Pretty Sungolds!

[Lindsaylew82]

I thought my squash were done, but they've put out new growth. They have pretty extensive SVB damage. Got a nice mess of squash and zucchini this morning.


The plants are so big this year!



Still no squash bugs. I saw one fly in, then fly right back out. ( I've never seen them fly before!!?! )
I'll be interested to see what the situation is on pumpkins and later planted cucurbits! We shall see... They're comin.

Still boomin everywhere else!











I've taken up sweet talking these bottom two yellow brandywines. They still refuse to blush! I need you to BLUSH!!!



Beneficial populations are growing as well!
(Brown chicken, brown cooooooooooooow!!!)

[suegardener]

Have you ever used milk spray for fungal disease on cucurbits? From what I have read, there is good evidence of effectiveness using 10% milk spray. This will be my first year doing it so I cannot speak from experience.