Washed out and neglected...and survivors!

Overall, Louisville has had about 5 inches of rain in the past few days, but our specific area has had more than 8 inches in very heavy spurts...and sadly it has washed away some of our hard work in the garden! What a mess! But it is fixable, at least maybe by next season.

We really should have gotten some good edging in before a big rain like this...but time was lacking! We had some 4x4's around to try to keep it all in but it just didn't work! Live and learn! We'll do better next time! That's what we get planting the garden right where the water runs from the front yard to the back, but it is the sunniest location! We just need to get it all ironed out! And who knew we would have such a cool rainy season!

This is a pile of tomatoes, serrano peppers and marigolds practically all smashed to the ground together!

The smallest and an unlikely survivor out of the tomatoes practically flattened.

The bugs are taking their toll on the cucumbers.

Catface is still hanging on, getting huge and not a hint of red yet!

I am looking forward to all these tomatoes turning red...but they sure are taking their sweet time!

Babies! The new pumpkins the kids planted. I guess the rain was good for them!


Even though the bottom of the cucumber plants look a little rough, overall, the whole cucumber and watermelon trellis is looking pretty full!

Sugar pumpkin still hanging on, need to shoot it up with some BT again cause it looks like more SVB frass is coming out of it. But it is looking much longer after the rain and growing like crazy...just needs some pumpkins on it!!!!

These two tomato cages are about to fall over they are so heavy and rain drenched.

We have a lot of clean up to do if it gets dry enough this weekend to work out there. Right now it is SO water logged!

Pg anemia has hit and I am glad to know, so maybe after some iron I will have some energy to get out in the garden again...assuming we don't keep getting rained out! How nice it will be to give my garden the attention it needs!

Pregnancy and gardening!

Short one again today.

I figured this would happen starting out my garden this year, but gardening while pregnant is getting tougher and tougher, especially while chasing after two 3 year olds! And it stinks that it is right when the squash bugs, striped cucumber beetles and SVB's are in full force...I just don't have the energy to go out there twice a day or even sometimes once a day to do battle! But I am happy to be getting a small return so far! These are probably the last 3 zucchini from my svb damaged plants. I think I am going to pull them when I get around to getting out there to do it! I have some succession ones growing so I hope they will be OK and get some fruits!

I probably got about 10 zucchini from 3 plants before they were destroyed!

The tomatoes were devoured right away by both twins. I really love having them watch me get things from the garden or help because they seem to want to eat them more! It is very satisfying. Especially since I have been trying since they began to eat to give them a healthy diet and learn to like veggies. And dd likes a lot of veggies! She'll try almost anything. Ds on the other hand is a little trickier. Tonight I told him his sweet potato was "sweet potato pudding"! He ate two servings! Too bad it wasn't home grown...I haven't ventured that far yet!

So, when I start my garden in the late winter early spring, I will by then have a 4 mo old. I wonder how well I will keep up with the garden then...hopefully he is sleeping through the night by then! Here's hoping!

Happy Gardening!

More SVB damage and a few pickins!

Uh, they have really made their rounds these nasty SVB's. I injected the rest of the plants with BT today! I hope it works.

See the frass (borer poo).

At least there are a couple more zucchini's on this vine before it dies!

The stem....

This is a nice sight...just wish the bigger ones would start turning red too!

One cuke but there are more on the way...in the middle of fighting off those striped cucumber beetles!

But this one is being devoured at this moment!

Not too much going on in the garden other than fighting off pests and hoping for more harvests!

Squash vine borers got us!

I forgot to take the camera out for this one, but it was pretty nasty. I cut all three of the giant pumpkin plants open and sure enough, there was MORE than one! I pulled two of the plants, and I left one in hopes of saving it! Though I hear there isn't much hope. UHGGG!

My kids lost all of there pumpkins, they already look dead. I left one (out of 6 that were planted), and we'll see what happens. Poor things, this is their first year planting seeds too! Ds kept saying, "the plants are down, the bugs killed them!" Kinda cute while still disappointing!

I sure hope they don't make their way to any of our other squash plants. So far all they seem to have hit is the pumpkins...must be their favorites.

Btw, we did plant more pumpkin seeds, maybe it is too late but it is worth a try! I want my kids to have their OWN pumpkins!

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Just had to add, that after one whole month these are the first and only hosta seeds to make an appearance! And I planted A LOT!

The invited and the UNinvited!

In one flower I found a visitor I had hoped for and one I DID NOT! The dreaded striped cucumber beetle...oh and this was not the only one. I have killed LOTs of them the past couple of days...hiding in the flowers and in the intertwined watermelon and cucumber leaves. They are not easy to find! If anyone knows a better way to get rid of them please share! I am trying to be as organic as possible...I WANT those bees!

Oh he is so welcomed!

Here is that little bugger by himself.

And here is one Ikilled being eaten by itty bitty ants not even 5 minutes after I killed him! I guess those ants could be good for something!

There appears to be many more bees this morning after putting the Monarda 'Pink Lace' and the Liatris Spicata out there. Just what I was hoping for!

Attracting bees....

We seriously need some pollination going on in the garden!! So I picked out 2 flowering plants at the grocery that looked like they were attracting the most bees! The pink one is Monarda 'Pink Lace' Bergamot. The tall one is Liatris spicata 'Blazing Star'. Hopefully these will help attract some more bees to my garden so I can have more harvest!!!

I do have 3 watermelon. The vines are so intertwined I can't tell which are icebox and which are Farmers Wonderful!

My cat faced Prudens purple is getting very big, but not red!

My first bells! Kaleidoscope.

This Beef Steak tomato plant is just so huge, almost all of that is one tomato plant! I have never had a tomato plant that big. I don't know if this is normal for beef steak, since I think this is the first time I have grown this variety. And you can't see it but it does have a cage!!! The visible cage is to a much smaller and compact tomato plant.

First baby serrano!!!! And there are more blooms too!

First Honey Bear Acorn Squash!

Broccoli doing OK despite the stinkin loopers! Can't say the same for the cabbage. Cauli is ok, but no head yet. I did try a home remedy from a poster on GW, the flour and Cayenne pepper, it does seem to be helping, even after rain. I did put out some more thought! We'll see how it does!

****Sad face****

Powdery mildew seems to be hitting many of my squash plants. Need to try a remedy on them too!

My first orange cosmo beginning to bloom! These were a freebie in the mail and a year old seeds! But I have a bunch and they sure are healthy looking!

Magic Beans And things I have learned...

It is wonderful when you find creative ways to get your children to eat their veggies! I let my 3yo twins watch/help cook the Royal Burgundy Beans so they could see them change from purple to green and told them it was magic! They got so excited they ate them right up...though I would have to say that dd appears to like them more raw than cooked! That is her hand sneaking into the picture, she likes to eat them as soon as I wash them!

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So far this year I have learned a few more new things (this is only my second year with a garden).

1. Plant more beans!!! I just have not had enough for all 4 of us to eat at one meal! Let alone any to freeze!

2. Your little squash will rot if they are not pollinated (or pollinated enough!) I have lost several little 8 balls! I thought once they started growing then they had already been pollinated! Who knew! (everyone but me I guess)

3. start earlier!!! And plant MORE! In case of unexpected little monster kitties eating all your seedlings!

4. Spread out the squash...even the bush kind! They are huge!

5. Put all my brassicas in one box so I can keep them covered to keep the loopers out! Darn loopers!

6. I need a separate tomato box! They just take over!

7. And get a scale so I can keep up with all of you and your beautiful harvests!

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I am sure there is more and will be more! And I bet most you gardeners know all this already! I am absolutely thrilled with how much better my garden has turned out this year already. With all my new knowledge it can only improve!

Got any great gardening tips! Share them! You'd be surprised how even the simplest of tips can help out new and experimenting new gardeners!

New Addition: Limerock Ruby Hybrid Coreopsis

I just love this color. This is my second set of coreopsis plants. I have two Moonbeam Coreopsis near the patio. Now I have to find room for these two somewhere. I think that coreopsis is becoming one of my favorites.

I think they would look great on the other side with the Paprika and Laura Red Achillea. But this bed is really starting to fill in. Those are the surprise Nasturtium. Lots of cosmos. Salvias that are not blooming yet. There are a variety of reds and oranges on this side.

In the veggie garden today, I picked another 8 Ball Zucchini. Killed a few squash bugs, that only seem to be hanging around the Dill's Atlantic Giant plants...hmm. And killed some loopers...ewww! I swear my garden is swarming with bugs, but I don't know what all is bad and what all is good. The ants are terrible, and I think they are trying to farm some aphids....grrr. Most things seem to be doing ok, but my bean plants are going down hill fast. The ones that were producing are turning yellow and getting holes. The other ones that should be producing by now look very sickly and yellow. I don't know what is wrong with them. I planted more though, so hopefully between these and the next we will get some more!

I also found a shedded skin on the bottom of one of the serrano pepper leaves. I don't know what shed there...but I hope it doesn't do any damage, cause I can't find it!

I know it is getting late, but I planted a few more things to try to get an extra harvest...cucumbers, zucchini, beans, cilantro. If everything grows all right I should have enough growing days left before first frost!

Returning home to harvest

Well this 8 ball zucchini got a little larger than it was suppose to while we were gone! It grew fast! About 6 inches tall and 5 inches wide.

This is my total harvest today. I don't know if I cut the American Genuine cucumber to early or not but it looked good enough to eat! So I cut it!

A couple of pictures from Denver! The kids really enjoyed seeing the elk in the river!

Some Veggie Closeups

I will be away from my garden for several days! I hope it does ok having someone else take care of it!

I found a few aphids and squished em, hope they don't multiply while I am away.

Happy Gardening!

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Juliet "Grape" Tomato in hanging pots. There are 4 of them, these are the biggest ones, but they are all blooming and producing.

American Genuine Cucumber

Watermelons and Cucumbers on the trellis

Chard

Spicy Basil...needs to be trimmed up!

Lettuce, amazingly still here.

8 Ball Zucchini, there are a few, but the first ones I had didn't have enough room between the stems and went bad.

Sebring Zucchini

My monster tomato plant. I just now got a cage around it! I know, it should have been done weeks ago. But this thing is so monstrous it is just squished in there. I need to try to keep trimming it up a bit I guess.

Dills Atlantic giants. I wish these things would take off already! They got big blooms, but they sure aren't vining out very quickly!

Something is wrong with my first Prudens Purple. It isn't looking good!

Royal Burgundy Beans, not producing like the providers at all! I have had very few out of this big pile of plants.

Can't believe I still have a strawberry. Haven't got many of these either. Maybe the second year will be better.