Garden Update

The squash bugs are back and they brought their relatives. Before they laid siege, I covered one raised bed with my mesh tent. The one I bought isn't available right now, but here's a similar one.

It was easy to set up and easy to move. I like it a lot. But I had mixed results.

As an experiment. I planted one bed with squash under the tent, and another next to it without any netting. 

The squash without netting was infested immediately.

The squash with the mesh tent lasted three weeks before the adult squash bugs found a gap at the bottom of the tent. They really had to look for it too. It's just a tiny gap at the corners where the fabric ties to the frame.

The mesh tent still has some merit though. I have a lot of trouble with cabbage worms in the fall and early spring. They attack every leafy green in the garden, especially cabbages, kale, and broccoli. Cabbage worms are deposited via eggs from the white cabbage moth. I think the tent will do a better job keeping flying pests at bay.

The war continues with squash bugs.

Speaking of winged pests. I have had a time of it fighting wasps for my plums, blueberries and strawberries. Next year I'll net my blueberry bushes and put mesh bags over my plums. They can have whatever I can't reach. I did get quite a few blueberries from relatively young bushes so that was a nice bonus.

My biggest problem by far has been weeds. Greg didn't have time to keep weeds at bay while I was recuperating. By the time I was able to get into the garden the weeds had taken over most everything. You cannot ignore them even for a day, especially when you have two gardens. 

My tomato plants gave me a lot of fruit and they're particularly large this year. I made my first salsa of the year. Greg said it was the best I ever made--but he says that every year. 😄

Salsa recipe

My pepper plants are still small, but they're growing. I suspect they were waiting for the hot weather. Luckily, I overwintered several pepper plants so I'm getting early fruit.

If gardening were easy, no one would ever go hungry. Kudos to early pioneers and all farmers.

In other parts of the homestead, the deer are everywhere, and really close to the house. Apparently, we must not seem like much of a threat. I don't grow hostas anymore since all deer think it's candy.

My neighbors love seeing the deer, but I'm a little more circumspect. Deer are lovely, but they carry ticks. The tick population is horrible this year. I have the dogs and cat on two different medications to make sure they don't fall prey.

We haven't seen our crow overlords lately. I'm wondering if our lone red tailed hawk is keeping them at bay. I don't worry about the dogs, but the cat is meal sized. He's not allowed to go into the dog run. The hawk likes perching on the fence there.

Greg bought himself a new riding mower. To be honest, it was long overdue. Our old mower was 15 years old and needing constant repair. Hopefully, this will be the last mower we'll need.

I use an electric mower for the dog run and other tight places. It's a Greenworks. I love it so much. I always had a heck of a time getting the gas mower started. Since going to Greenworks, I've not had a minute's trouble in over two years.

It's very hot now. Usually we pack it in by 10am, but I rarely last more than an hour of outdoor activity. Traipsing through uneven terrain tires me out quickly.

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