In the Garden (the good, the bad, and the interesting)

The coneflowers are going to seed and hosting lots of pretty little goldfinches.  Of course I don’t have a picture of the goldfinches!

The kids planted a late crop of sunflowers and we are hoping they have time to bloom before our first frost and provide the birds with some fall food.  We are cutting it close.  (but do you think they spread enough seed?)

Our first Charentais melons were picked today.

A couple were a bit rotten so we shared with the chickens.

Baby limas are blooming.

I am wondering if I will find the time to make and freeze lots of pesto.  I don’t want to waste all this basil!

The okra is producing, but wishing I hadn’t crowded it so with zinnias and cosmos.  I need to pull them out, but hate to.

This is our ‘big bad’ this year.  Squash bugs and powdery mildew.  The squash bugs being by far the worst pest of the two.  They are soooo nasty!

These pictures do not at all give an accurate portrayal of the infestation.  These guys were so thick, eggs, nymphs, and adults, on our pie pumpkin vines, that we pulled the vines and burned them.  The positive side of things is that the pumpkins acted as a trap crop, luring the bugs away from our other cucurbits:  melons and cucumbers.

So this is the extent of my pumpkin harvest this year.

I didn’t add a reference to the photo for scale, but these are small pie pumpkins and actually most of them are half rotted.  Oh well!  We will try again next year, and hopefully have some guinea fowl helping us.

The squash bugs are relatively thick on our gourds as well, but they seem to be doing fine thus far.  We have small spoon gourds,

Tennessee dancing gourds, and large dippers as well.

Oh, yeah, one more yucky pest.  Blister beetles are trying to defoliate our tomato plants.  Their larvae are beneficial, because it feeds on grasshopper eggs, but these beetles are very thick here this year so I am plopping them into a bucket of soapy water when I get the chance.

We will soon be eating (and therefore shelling) lots of blackeyed peas.  I really planted a lot of them this year.  The first bunch will be ready in a few days, with a second crop ready in about a month.

I noticed something interesting on a few of the pods today.

A couple of ladybird beetles hanging close to one of their favorite foods:

aphids!

The aphids of course being herded like cows and protected by ants who feed on the honeydew they secrete.  A lovely little symbiotic relationship between the two, lovely because so far the aphids aren’t causing my plants much damage and I think it’s interesting to see these things happen.  I can spare a few pods of blackeyed peas.