Even with little sun, the winter squash won’t be kept down. What it likes to do is spread far and wide: huge leaves and vigorous vines snaking out all over the place. The big sprawl is just kicking in, flowering is underway, and tiny green baby (butternut) squash can already be found tucked away in there.
Not a buddy
Yeah, these aren’t my buddies. This season, the first time for me, rabbits hopped out of the cute woodland creature category and into Pests & Disease. At least one or two are definitely creeping around the garden, so far not damaging much, but making their presence clear with sightings and droppings. The way it seems to go, regular appearance leads to exploratory munching, then full-on devouring. Where the low-slung electric fence seems to be working for the groundhogs, I suppose bunnies might just…hop over?! Stay tuned!
Season of the snail
This year, small snails everywhere! My best effort at identifying them (posting pics to the iNaturalist app on my phone) suggests they’re in the amber snail family (Succineidae). Wherever the ground is sheltered and moist, like under rocks or piles of uprooted weeds, and on some veggie leaves and stems, you’ll find a bunch. Here, they’re on the garlic. Voracious leaf munching doesn’t seem to be what they’re up to, so that’s good (and I read that they aren’t likely to be a veggie problem). For better or for worse, no damage, no problem is my motto, and that usually works out!
Another cloudy day…
Why complain about the weather when…it could be worse?! And yet, ugh, yet another cloudy one. So far this season, there’s definitely been a shortage of days. You can see it in the paler green of the leaves and the slower growth of the veggies (not so noticeable with the weeds). Still, week to week we’ve had a decent amount of rain, and mostly reasonable temperatures, warm but not too warm. Pretty good. So I guess it’s just another cloudy day, and we’ll see what happens next!
Melons!
You will be cantaloupe! A ways to go and just getting started. You might not think it, but there’s nothing like slicing into a sun-warmed melon in the middle of the field on a scorching hot day. That’s the thought at the moment!
Zucchini…
Always reliable, and still a pleasure, with a sense of wonder and a little relief, to see the first zucchini of the year appear. Weird? Maybe. You’d think after growing veggies season after season, at some point, one would get used to it all. For me, at least, that hasn’t been the case! For whatever reason: cool!
Wheel hoe vs weeds
A tool in its element! Wheel hoes are great, and this particular one* is fantastic. Unchecked, you can see what weeds get up to given a week or two. This stretch of dirt was protected under the edge of the row cover that’s been protecting the zucchini to the right from cucumber beetles. Now there’s a dense mat of dandelion (weed or excellent salad green?: right now, weed), thistle, mallow, and lambs quarter. And there’s the steel blade that will run through them, gliding just under the soil, slicing them down. Brutal sounding, and all part of the garden balance. (The zucchini have powdery mildew, those white splotches on the leaves, which usually happens when there’s not that much sun. It can get really bad and ruin things, but usually, zucchini will outgrow it. It’s about sunny days…the weather. Another “we shall see…”)
*I got this wheel hoe well over a decade ago from Valley Oak Tool Company, one of the few companies that are a pleasure to recommend, purely out of appreciation for quality product that does its job!