What Did You Do In The Garden?

[ducks4you]

wowzer never seen hornworms before

They are ginormous and it's hard to spot them. If you see one that looks like this,
http://www.agardenforthehouse.com/2011/08/when-not-to-kill-a-tomato-hornworm/
leave it on the tomatoes. That means that they are eggs from a parasitic wasp feeding on the hornworm and you WANT the eggs to hatch out.

 

[journey11]

I feed my birds things like cooked hamburgers that have been in the fridge for a week and it doesn't change the taste of the eggs.

Lol, yeah, it's all protein I guess!

 

[PennyJo]

never have seen anything like that maybe we do not have them here
I am not sure

 

[Nyboy]

Was a thread years ago on BYC about feeding fish will give eggs fishy taste. I dont remember how much fish they have to eat

 

[ducks4you]

Starting harvesting my potatoes, which I TOTALLY ignored until the tops died down. STILL have a good harvest. It is no WONDER that the 19th century Irish grew them. You still get a harvest, even under poor conditions. It would take a virus to a monoculture to kill them off.

 

[Beekissed]

Tied up a few volunteer tomatoes to whatever was nearest...one to a huge sunflower that already has a bean vine on it and the other two to fenceposts. Scuffled a few weeds...mostly grasses right now.

Went up to the coop and got a cartload of compost from underneath the roosts, with plenty of fresh poo in it too and covered that with water. The rains will add more water and I'll be using out of that cart to side dress these plants that are showing some nitrogen leaching and also some slow growing plants. Put some around the rhubarb this evening but will let that compost tea cook a few more days before applying it to other things. The rhubarb is really showing the leaching, with yellowed leaves and slow growth.

Took a few caterpillars off the maters....black with a yellow stripe? Army worms? First time I've ever seen such a thing in my garden...let me tell ya, every pest bug in the world has answered the call to chew my garden. I've got things I've never seen before going on.

Pruned some zinnias and cleaned up my garden bench.

 

[ducks4you]

Harvested some sweet peppers, Giant Marconi, and they are huge. I cautiously sliced a sliver to try bc I have been fooled before by hot peppers, but they are, indeed, a long, curly sweet pepper. I gave two away, taste tested at DD's one tonight, and I have about 1/2 a dozen ready to harvest right now. We're thinking about putting them into spaghetti sauce later this week. DD is anxious for some more sweet bell peppers, but they aren't quite big enough yet. I also have quite a few jalepano's ready, too.

 

[so lucky]

My Marconi peppers are finally starting to ripen. I think the BER is gone.

Yesterday I was just thinking "Hmm, I haven't seen any hornworms this year" so today I found 3 on the tomatoes. Not the ginormous ones yet, but they would have been, given a few more days.

My zucchini has slowed down production, and I have been battling squash bugs on them. This evening I finally used a little sevin dust on them. Last resort. I have been making zucchini muffins that are really good.

 

[ducks4you]

Sunday I hired help to put up 190 bales hay + 50 bales straw into my barn's loft for next winter (2nd year in a row). They (under 30yo, one new Veteran) were done in one hour. It would have taken me one week, so I saved myself gardening time.
In September I will get the last 200 bales of hay with the same help.
Fyi...

 

[Gardening with Rabbits]

I dug all the potatoes. Nice big red potatoes and blue potatoes.