Enter the Squash Bug

I have been noticing that the pumpkin and cucumber plants have been wilting and definitely not thriving the way they should be.  This time I finally noticed why:

Squash Bugs!!!!!

These are all nymphs.  I turned over this pumpkin leaf and these guys were all there, hiding out.

This is what the adult looks like.  They are quite large, about 3/4 inch long.

There are so many covering the underside of leaves and stems, that there is no hope of picking them off and making any dent in their population.

I am sad to say it, but I think that we can officially write off any pumpkins from the community garden plot.  I think pickle making is out of the question as well.  I picked four cucumbers today, after not picking for three days.  That is very sad for the number of plants we have. They do not look good, either.

There is really nothing to be done about these bugs.  We are not allowed to use pesticides in the community garden, not that it would be worth it if we were.  By the time the plants recovered it would be too late.  It is September already, after all.

The tomato harvest is slowing down.  There are lots of smaller green tomatoes, though, so we should have another large harvest before the frost.  I will have to keep an eye on the weather forecast though, so that I can go down and harvest everything if they predict a frost.  The green tomatoes will ripen up slowly over the next month or so, or we can use them green.  At that point we will probably dig up whatever potatoes there are, and pull everything else out as well.  None of our plants in the garden are cold hardy at all.  I am considering planting some peas, radishes, and lettuce, but given our history of bird predation and theft, I don't know if it will be worth it.  I suppose that if I find some seeds laying around, I will go ahead and plant them, but I think I will not go and buy any.

Weekly Update: Tomatoes are starting to set but the pumpkin never sprouted

First, lets talk about this community garden.  We are having a number of pest problems, including aphids and spinach leaf miners (which are maggots, actually). 

Here is a picture of a fresh spinach leaf miner mine. When they age they turn yellow and white. 

I pulled the little culprit right out of its little mine to take a picture of him.  my little salamander nymphs love to eat these guys.  They are kind of gross to rear, though.  The spinach leaves get slimy very quickly.

Here is a picture of the rearing jar I have set up.  Some of them have already pupariated (you can see the brown things with rounded ends)  These are iPhone pictures, again.  I will try to get better pictures once the flies emerge.  They are not very special looking flies, though.

Here you can see the bird peck damage that has continued through this week.  We still have not been able to harvest any lettuce due to bird competition, but the lettuce seams to be growing healthily. I have noticed that some of the birds have gotten wise about the presence of leaf miners and have started selectively pecking where they maggots are in the spinach.  I will not begrudge them these protein rich meals.  Please little birdies, take every single one.  I noticed that several other gardeners have planted spinach and they are all having similar problems, if not much worse, with these leaf miners.

Here is a wonderful picture of an old mine where a bird has removed the maggot.  Thank you, bird.  I have also harvested the spinach once, just removing the outside large leaves and leaving the inside ones to grow some more.  I selectively harvested and disposed of any leaves that showed signs of having leaf miners inside.  This is a very labor intensive way to cut down on infestations, but it would only work if everyone with spinach planted nearby did it as well.  I don't see that happening, so I will just have to cull about half my yield of spinach as I go.  We still got plenty to cook in two meals with other veggies.

These little blackish green guys are aphids on the underside of the spinach leaves.  They are causing the newer leaves to curl up severely and they are very hard to wash off when you pick these leaves.

Here, you can see light green aphids on a young carrot.  This one has not curled noticeably, but see below:

This carrot has curled severely due to aphid feeding.  I hope the carrot roots are not affected.  I have seen some lovely ladybugs around. Unfortunately, I did not get a picture of any of them.  They were not to be found when I brought my aunt's camera down today.  They must be camera shy.  I hope they have laid eggs, and now we will have loads of lady bug larva running around cleaning up the aphid infestation.

Enough about the insect problems, here is the latest picture of the garden:

It is starting to fill in.  Once the cucumbers really get going and the scarlet runner beans climb the fence it will look better.

Here is the right side onion rainbow and the carrot chicken foot print (that is what we call the shape we planted the carrot seeds in).  You can see the marigolds starting to bloom strongly.  They are a little stunted.  They appeared to have some kind of fungus when we planted them and they died back a lot.

This is what the spinach and lettuce look like.  The lettuce would be as big as or bigger than the spinach if not for the birds.

Here is the onion rainbow and carrots on the other side.  These are the rainbow carrots.  You can hardly tell the washout happened earlier this spring.  The radishes have all been harvested now, and eaten.  My uncle got most of them because they are his favorite, and I just like growing them because they are so fast.

Here are the early girl and the super fantastic tomatoes in the back and the cheyene and jalapeno peppers in the front.  They are looking pretty good.

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This is an areal shot of the cucumber patch.  The red arrows indicate the cucumbers we planted form starts.  They are not doing well at all, the ones in the lower right hand corner are thoroughly dead and dried up.  The yellow arrows indicate the hills where we planted seeds.  At least one of each hill is growing and very green.

As you can see above, they are smaller, but they look much healthier. 

This is an areal photo of the bush been patch.  They are going pretty well.  You can really tell the difference between the colors.

A closer picture, notice that some are much darker, almost purplish.

These are the cherry and roma tomatoes along with the Anaheim and another jalapeno pepper.  The roma tomato started out the smallest, but it will catch up.  It is growing fast. 

The scarlet runner beans are beginning to climb up the fence.  I have grown these before.  Once the start climbing they will be up to the top of the fence in no time.

The peas are suffering in the heat.  I have half a mind to just rip them out and plant some more pole beans.  I will first have to see what my Auntie Linda thinks.  She is too nice to pull plants out.  It is always my job to thin and pull things out.  You have to be a ruthless killer, like me, to be a successful gardener.  If you don't thin things they don't thrive.

Here is a picture of a cherry tomato that has set.  It won't be long before we can pick this little guy.

This is a close up picture of the Anaheim chili pepper.  This is one that was chewed on by my cat, Cooper.  It is still very small, but has sent out lots of branches. I hope it recovers quickly.  I love peppers.

Here are the first early girl tomatoes that have set (above and below).  I am so excited.  None of the other non-cherry tomatoes have set fruit yet. The others bloom and then the flowers fall off.  Well, I guess that is why these are called early girl. 

The pumpkins have not sprouted, and now I fear they never will.  I am sad about this.  Perhaps we will buy some different seeds and try again.  They will be awfully late, but it has been so cold that they would still be very small even if they had been planted on time.

That is all there is about the community garden.  Except that we have been weeding regularly and the weeds just keep coming up everywhere as if we can't make a dent.  So far, though we have been at least keeping up with them.  The worst are these little reddish succulents that break apart when you try to pull them.

The balcony pots are growing even faster than the community garden.  I think they get more warmth and of course, I fertilize them with chemical fertilizer.  Here are a few pictures of these pots:

This is the jalapeno pepper with the nasturtiums.  Believe it or not, I trimmed back the nasturtiums last week.  they are getting bigger and bigger.

Close up Jalapeno pepper.

The eggplant has grown quite a bit this week and has two blossoms that are ready to open soon.

This cherry tomato has grown taller than its 4 foot bamboo pole.  It has several fruit set and is blooming like crazy.

This is one of the twin romas with some pole beans growing behind.  The beans are growing like weeds and the tomatoes are starting to bloom already.

The lavender is starting to bloom.  See the long stems.

I found out that my daughter has been picking sprigs of rosemary all along, so I will not make any more comments about how slow it is growing.  It is actually looking very nice.

Here is a pole been growing right up its twine.  I will have to train it to wrap around the balcony railing.

The other twin roma tomato with some more beans.

The basil is flowering already.  I quickly picked all the blossoms off, but I have experience with this which tells me it will just keep making more blossoms from here out and not more leaves.  I hope the Cinnamon basil seeds I planted last week sprout soon.  I am getting nervous about weather I will have basil to go with my tomatoes when they are ripe. 

Here is our heirloom tomato.  It continues to flower but has set no fruit that I can find.  The flowers are hidden in the dense foliage.  I wonder if it is just too cold and early for it to set or if it is not getting pollinated.  I will give it a while, then I will prune out lots of the leafy branches.

Here is the tiny bonus roma plant found between the twins, kind of a conjoined twin that I surgically separated and planted in the radish/onion tub to see if it would survive.  It is obviously doing very well.  I will buy it a pot for it this week.  The onions are doing well.  They hardly reacted at all to being dug up and replanted last week.

For some reason I only have a picture of the shabby hanging pot, even though the other is growing much larger. 

The hops have not broke through yet.  I hope they are still alive under there.

That is all for now.  I am working on a plot map for the garden at my in-laws house, but it is complicated and I have been busy.  It may be next week before I am ready to post that.