@ducks4you : Quite the staggered plantings from corn 2 months ago to Brussels sprouts not yet started for transplant.
I have a harvest from summer squash if I transplant 2-3 week old seedlings during the first week of July,
@flowerbug . I
may do that this year but the reason for starting to do that was because the older plants are mildew-prone, late in the season. What I have learned is that they may be just fine 3 years outta 4 and then I have twice as many zucchini than I can shake a stick at! Also, one year, the
young plants had mildew and didn't produce ..
. what?! Well ... it may have had to do with too much late season shade.
Today, I built a horizontal, string trellis for the snapdragons. Put some Spinosad on the first planting of spuds ... I was so pleased with how picking adult potato beetles at a rate of 1/foot had protected the plants. I found 1 immature about a week ago. Guess what? That 30' row is now covered with larva!!!
There might be an average of 30 bugs on each plant! My suspicion 3 or 4 weeks ago was that it would be a bad potato bug year ... And, the late planting is just now starting to emerge. Although it's over 50' away, those bugs are likely coming at me from all points of the compass!
Oh, and, in the 30' row, there were 2 nightshade plants severely eaten and only about as big as my hand. Weeds ... but they almost for sure played a role in that potato beetle population explosion. That is the problem - nightshade weeds. There is only one garden veggie those bugs like more than those weeds - eggplant. Good Heavens, my poor sad eggplant don't deserve a bug attack! They have had a difficult enuf time with the weather.
Steve