There have been lots of things happening in the garden the last couple weeks! We have been having really hot weather, and the plants are all thriving and growing like crazy with the extra sunshine. But...so are the pesky bugs. We have an invasion of something on our broccoli, cauliflower and romanesco plants. Its either cabbage lopers or white cabbage butterfly caterpillars. Either way, they are wreaking havoc on our plants, eating huge holes in the leaves. I have been doing a lot of handpicking, but on some plants there have been more than 5 caterpillars, so today I sprayed with an all natural totally organic solution called BT. BT is made from a bacteria, and wont harm other insects, pets or humans, but it gives the caterpillars a horrible stomach ache that will eventually kill them (2-3 days). Hopefully we can just spray the once time and manage the rest by handpicking, but you can use this stuff up until a day before harvest its so safe. Anyways, here is what they look like:
They are pretty hard to spot on the plants, blending in perfectly with the veins of the leaves. The one in this picture is towards the stem end of the leaf, on the left side.
Some were getting pretty big before they met their fate under my shoe! We also had a problem with a bug called a leafminer laying eggs in our spinach plants, so for now we have pulled the ones we had planted (the leafminers bore into the veins of the spinach...not something I want to eat)!
The rest of the garden is going along great, here is the whole place at nearly 4 weeks:
At the end of the garden, our pears and cherries are doing great and getting good sized fruits on them!
Okay, on to the veggies. Here is bed #1, the lettuces. We have waaaaay over planted them, and they aren't getting eaten nearly as fast as they should. I need to add more salads to the menu I guess!
Bed # 2, the broccoli, cauliflower and romanesco. When we planted these, they were seedlings from the nursery, and we thought we planted just one plant per spot. But I have noticed that in some spots, there are two or even three plants in one hole. Ooops. So, I think I will try to take out the smaller plants, and transplant them somewhere else. There are some carrots at the end of this bed.
Bed #3, more broccoli, cauliflower and romanesco here, along with some cilantro that is about to bolt, and a jalapeno pepper plant.
Bed #4, still only onions, probably about 38 now, we lost a couple.
Bed #5, All bell peppers here, along with some carrots. They look a little wilty in the mid day sun, but they are doing just great, some even have little buds beginning to form!
Bed #6, Radishes, a watermelon plant and a honeydew plant.
Big radishes!
Bed #7, Tomatoes....they are starting to flower!
Bed #8 is our cherry tomatoes, they are starting to flower also. Hopefully potatoes will be going in soon, I am still waiting for our seed potatoes to sprout, but its not looking so good. Behind them you can see bed #9, the trellis bed. It has sugar snap peas and cucumbers in it - both are growing like crazy and some of the peas are almost up to the second string!
Lastly, bed #10, the corn.
This weekend I hope to get the place weeded, get the second round of corn planted and some more radishes and carrots. I feel like we have a lot of empty unused space, but its really just the area reserved for the potatoes and the end of one bed. I keep racking my brain thinking of something else to plant, and I cant come up with anything that we would actually eat. So, for now we will just nurture what we have, I cant wait until harvest time :)
They are pretty hard to spot on the plants, blending in perfectly with the veins of the leaves. The one in this picture is towards the stem end of the leaf, on the left side.
Some were getting pretty big before they met their fate under my shoe! We also had a problem with a bug called a leafminer laying eggs in our spinach plants, so for now we have pulled the ones we had planted (the leafminers bore into the veins of the spinach...not something I want to eat)!
The rest of the garden is going along great, here is the whole place at nearly 4 weeks:
At the end of the garden, our pears and cherries are doing great and getting good sized fruits on them!
Okay, on to the veggies. Here is bed #1, the lettuces. We have waaaaay over planted them, and they aren't getting eaten nearly as fast as they should. I need to add more salads to the menu I guess!
Bed # 2, the broccoli, cauliflower and romanesco. When we planted these, they were seedlings from the nursery, and we thought we planted just one plant per spot. But I have noticed that in some spots, there are two or even three plants in one hole. Ooops. So, I think I will try to take out the smaller plants, and transplant them somewhere else. There are some carrots at the end of this bed.
Bed #3, more broccoli, cauliflower and romanesco here, along with some cilantro that is about to bolt, and a jalapeno pepper plant.
Bed #4, still only onions, probably about 38 now, we lost a couple.
Bed #5, All bell peppers here, along with some carrots. They look a little wilty in the mid day sun, but they are doing just great, some even have little buds beginning to form!
Bed #6, Radishes, a watermelon plant and a honeydew plant.
Big radishes!
Bed #7, Tomatoes....they are starting to flower!
Bed #8 is our cherry tomatoes, they are starting to flower also. Hopefully potatoes will be going in soon, I am still waiting for our seed potatoes to sprout, but its not looking so good. Behind them you can see bed #9, the trellis bed. It has sugar snap peas and cucumbers in it - both are growing like crazy and some of the peas are almost up to the second string!
Lastly, bed #10, the corn.
This weekend I hope to get the place weeded, get the second round of corn planted and some more radishes and carrots. I feel like we have a lot of empty unused space, but its really just the area reserved for the potatoes and the end of one bed. I keep racking my brain thinking of something else to plant, and I cant come up with anything that we would actually eat. So, for now we will just nurture what we have, I cant wait until harvest time :)