Be Afraid...Be Very Afraid

In one day, the zucchini plant I took pictures of last night has decided to blossom. The blossom in the foreground will open tomorrow, and quite possibly the one in the background as well. The beginning of the Day of the Zucchini (a la Day of the Triffids) is here! Beware! If you see zucchini plants wandering the streets...cover your eyes and run!

On the bug front, I still see no sign of the Japanese Beetles in my garden--they have decided that they prefer copulating in my decorative trees. I mentioned yesterday how they eat holes in the leaves, creating a kind of lace-like effect. The picture here shows an example of the damage they have wrought in just one day. We have not yet had the opportunity to douse their fiery passions with a soapy water mixture, and today, I'm wondering whether that's a good idea. If we make the tree an unwelcome marriage bed for them, they may decide to take up residence in my garden. But they are also too far up and out on the tree for me to be able to reach most of them in order to scoop them into a bowl of soapy water. Does anyone have advice for me that includes neither chemicals nor the admonition to join them in their insect frenzy? Please?

First Harvest of the Season

After hubby and I returned home from seeing Topol in Fiddler on the Roof in Chicago, I toured the garden to see how my plants were doing. I was ecstatic to see that six Sun Sugar tomatoes were ripe and ready to pick! After taking a picture, David and I promptly ate them. Tomatoes don't last long around here, especially the Sun Sugar ones. They are naturally sweet and also great salad tomatoes.

I staked the rest of the heirloom tomato plants now that they were all standing tall and straight (and yes, Michelle, even the tiny ones are doing well)! I'm happy to say I haven't lost a single tomato plant so far.

I am also happy to see that the Beefsteak tomato plants are preparing to fruit--they have blossoms galore! For example, on this one plant, in just this one cluster, I have seven blossoms open and four more preparing to open! All of the original hort sale tomato plants have blossoms, so it won't be long before I will be able to report many more tomatoes.

The zucchini are doing very well also. The plants are huge and green with very large leaves (the stakes you see between the rows are bean plants. Maybe not the best planting idea, but we'll see how it goes). I didn't lose any of these plants, either, and I'm beginning to feel the first tremors of fear that I may be overrun with more zucchini than I can cook, freeze, and give away. I decided to take a peek inside one of the plants to see what the blossom status is. OMG. The core of the plant is nothing BUT blossoms! And this is only the beginning, and only one plant. So prepare yourselves, dear readers, to receive zucchini in the near future.



I also got down on hands and knees--not an easy task, mind you--and weeded the beans and onions. With all the rain we've had, I had a lot of weeds encroaching that needed to be pulled. Luckily many of them came up easily by the roots. Tomorrow I will dig newspaper out of our recycle bin and shred it and mulch between the rows to keep the weeds down. So far, the grass clippings around each plant are doing a really good job of keeping the weeds away from the plant itself, so with the newspaper trick and grass clippings on top of that, I should be in good shape.

I Have Peas!

I have peas! The Amish Snap Pea blossoms are now home to pods! This set of plants actually had four very small pods that I could find. I can't wait for them to grow and plump up so I can taste the first pea I have ever grown!

Meanwhile, it is taking the Green Arrow peas a lot more time. They don't have blossoms yet, but I am expecting them to bloom sometime soon.

Peas and Quiet before the Storm

Can we get some regular weather here? Sheesh! We're supposed to have severe thunderstorms today, and the leaves on the trees have turned themselves inside out, waiting for water-manna to fall from heaven.

I have a little heaven in the garden to report today--my first pea blossoms! The plant is sporting four--count 'em, four!--and they weren't there this morning! I did a garden check, ran to Menard's and our local farmer's market with a girlfriend for mulch and flowers, and when I came back, these delicate little beauties were waiting for me! However, if we get the storm the weather people say we will be getting, I doubt the blossoms will last very long. But there will be more, of that I'm certain.

Meanwhile, I crushed several Mexican bean beetles today with my fingers and a nearby stick. I am ashamed to say that I greatly enjoyed it (even though it was a bit gross). I tried putting out chopped garlic around the beans since I didn't have any garlic powder at hand, but with little-to -no effect. However, I am happy to report that the green beans are beginning to bud, despite the beetles.