So Far, So Good!

We've finally had some really hot, sunny weather and the garden loves it. (Just to be rude and rub it in for my loved ones to the south, we finally have had the A/C on this last week!) A couple of months really makes a difference. The plants are up and mostly doing fine. The watermelon and lettuce never did make it past the planting stage. The cantaloupe came up, but that's as far as they went. The peppers have been pretty slow going, but it looks like they'll at least have leaves by the end of the summer. We'll see about actual pepper production. We had a few berries from the strawberry plants and now they're beginning to send out runners. Yea! Let's hear it for the ground cover! The tallest corn plants are almost up to my waist, which, once again, is a corn record for us. We've got a fabulous crop of weeds going on amongst the tomatoes, which will need support soon, and the snails have had a grand time with the pumpkins and zucchini. Sunday we had our first zucchini blossom and today there were 7. Hopefully we get zucchini soon. The pumpkins are beginning to produce vines, but no blossoms as yet. To be honest, right now I'm thrilled they seem to be overcoming the snails.

A neighbor originally told me the zucchini and pumpkins were being eaten by squash bugs which, according to her, are immune to all insecticides. All you can do is throw away the leaves that you find them on. That pretty much wiped out one plant. Thankfully my sister suggested a little homemade insect repellent. We've used it for a week or so now and it seems to help, but I'm not sure. As I said, we have a bumper crop of snails right now and I KNOW they were eating the plants. (Spencer picked a bucketful for me one day and threw them across the street. They are SO gross!) So, I don't know which pests were doing the most damage. If it wasn't insects, the plants at least seem to really like the spray. They're nice and green at the moment. The snail bait we put out last week seems to be cutting down on those pests and hopefully a little round-up will help me get back in control of the weed population. I've also found several black widow spiders, but we're out of spray and I don't really feel like going after them with my hands. They don't seem to be too interested in the plants, but I'm not sure they'd feel the same way about my fingers. One more thing to add to the list for tomorrow.

So, for my enjoyment and remembrance, here are a few pictures from this morning.