I'm not giving up...

Just giving in a little...

Not only do I have squash bugs, but I have Early Blight on my Amish Paste tomatoes.

I did it.  I bought sprays.

I'm not happy about it, but it figures that when I decide to make the big pressure canner purchase to better preserve all my expected harvest, this happens.  Well, this year I'm not having any of this cr@p, this is WAR!

I hustled the kids this morning to get to the nursery early and get my war waging supplies, but alas it was already too hot to treat the blight situation by the time we got back home at 9:30.  I did brave the heat to go out and at least try and trim the squash bug egg situation and rid the squash bed of the garlic that was nearing harvest time to make treating easier.

Behind the sprays and the cute kid above are some "hedging my bed" (get it? LOL) plants.  I went ahead and purchased a hybrid grape tomato and hybrid big tomatoes resistant to blight.  I had to do it, I'm afraid of no tomatoes!  I also have read repeatedly that squash bugs favor zucchini over all other squashes, so I bought some.  Can you believe I don't ever plant zucchini?  LOL and it still shows up on my counter somehow.  What I thought was funny was that I couldn't just buy one, noooooo, it had to be a cell 3-pak.  Upon arriving home I noticed there were two plants in each cell, equaling SIX zucchini seedlings.  This is like the nursery/greenhouse planter's sick joke.  I admit I'd do it too if I was a commercial planter, heehee!  Anyway, I'm planning on these becoming the trap crop so ideally I can throw napalm at them and not my heirloom veggies!

Here's Loch reading out of his bug book while I harvest garlic.  I still can't get this kid to handpick the bugs for me and throw into the soapy bucket, but he's good at pointing them out to me LOL.

Finding beauty in the war zone... "peek a boo Pansy!"

Finn is turning into my cameraman, now I actually have another photo with me in it!

By noon it was too hot to be outside any more so I retreated inside to hang the garlic and make bread for the kids' lunches this week, can you believe they are still in school here?  Craziness, I say, or as Ribbit would say - it's un-American!  Indeed.

My favorite harvest to look at, the garlic is now curing!

Saved the worst for last...

the Amish Paste bed... now has Early Blight.

I wanted to treat tonight with the organic fungicide I bought, but "they" are calling for thunderstorms, so I'll get at it first thing in the a.m.

Below is the Brandywine bed, looking good (knocking on a lot of wood these days).  After last year and the bacterial wilt on the tomatoes I separated the tomatoes into 2 different areas, although this one is the most congested.  I'm thinking I might treat preventatively anyway, I sure don't want anything to happen to these.

Speaking of thunderstorms, this is what is moving in as I just went to go look out the window...

It looked like this the other night too, but we got zip.  

 I'm exhausted. Even though I didn't really spend more than 90 minutes outside today, the heat did me in.  

 Next up, one of these!  Blackberry Lemonade made with last years frozen blackberry juice with a splash of big girl vodka mixed in!  Only a splash though, since I really want to finish a book tonight!

Just as I was getting ready to hit "publish" I noticed it's pouring outside, yay!

Today!

I am hot, tired, and cranky. That's the best post title I could come up with!

We really need to get on a better schedule again. I have been letting the kids stay up late, not even letting them out to ride bikes and such until after 7 pm, gardening up until it gets too dark to see at about 8:30 or 9 pm, and then watching tv, reading, etc until well after midnight! I am an early riser usually so being tired in the morning or the alternative, sleeping later and then feeling lazy for it, well, it's just not working! Today was the hottest so far, actual temp of 103 at 5 pm, heat index of 117. I knew it was going to be bad when I woke up and could barely see through the haze in the backyard, so I forced myself to do inside chores, but ended up really happy that I used the time wisely instead of just laying around all day!

Today's chore: Onion Day!

Because of the humidity, I have had my onions hanging and curing in the house for several weeks. I was able to ignore them for quite awhile since they were so pretty, but lately every time I walk by them or look at them sideways, the browned skins and tops would crumble and fall all over the floor! I took today as an opportunity to clean it all up finally. The few that were perfect were hung in mesh bags, but many were already bolting with wide necks when I harvested them, so all of those got chopped for the freezer.

I'm only cooking for myself and 2 little kids, so this will do nicely for stir fry and salsas into fall.

On to my pathetic garlic harvest. I "forgot" to order my garlic last year and on my way out the door headed to Minnesota for Thanksgiving I hurriedly planted a few of the previous year's harvest, thinking I would do more when I got back, but never did!

That's all I've got for this year, yikes! Good thing hubby the pizza chef isn't here, because I can hear him now, "oh, this won't do at all"!

The shallots, however, completely rocked out this year and I have no shortage of!

On the right is the remaining 1/2 garlic bulb and 3 shallots leftover from last year, I planted exactly enough!

Tonight, it's supposed to thunderstorm again so I didn't do anything in the garden except walk around with the camera wondering how the heck that stuff is living out there...

(sorry for hazy photos, humidity got inside my camera!)

The 1st Brandywine of the year

Sorry, I am obsessed with these Polish UFO's... they are getting so big!

"We're gonna need a bigger boat"

What am I going to do with all these peppers?

I just love the variegated leaves, even if the peppers look like yucky Okra, LOL

I didn't even know these were out there!

All those peppers are in this one bed!

Yuk, the Japanese Beetles are here... luckily they prefer my grapes and I noticed them over there tonight. These are my first apples, ever, so I really want them to live!

heehee, anyone have a bed that looks like this? pretty bad....! I kind of forgot about it back behind a shed and now it's full of weeds and Sassafras tree seedlings. I just dug it a month ago, but it's already been taken back by the yard.

Bells of Ireland - won't grow again, they fall over and look horrible!

My favorite right now!

I heard a rumor about the weather breaking tomorrow - I hope so because from the looks of things, I have some harvesting and spraying to do!

Twilight, Anyone?

Wow, I am really bad about blogging lately! You all have been on my mind, and I have been reading your blogs religiously, but I am ashamed to admit... I have been consumed with reading the 'Twilight' Saga! (you can let out a big collective groan now!) Up until 2 weeks ago, I was one of the people that made fun of adults reading teen literature! I was discussing with my neighbor and friend how much I miss getting lost in a good book and the subject of the 'Twilight Series' came up and the fact that she just finished them. Well, she's my age so I made fun of her but at the same time told her that I just couldn't find time lately to get to the library and stock up on some good fall reading. She then told me that I should give the saga a try, to which I responded that I didn't think I would like them, and I really prefer long reads that will take me more than an hour. "Hang on" she replied, and ran into her house and came back with a beautiful set of 4 thick hardcovers! Needless to say, I didn't realize teen literature had expanded to include more than a hundred pages, lol, and eagerly dove in! I have been reading since then whenever I get more than 5 minutes of a chance, and am now into the 4th and last book. I must admit, vampires are pretty cool guilty pleasure reads, and a little more gripping than my Master Gardener manual, although that's pretty gripping stuff too sometimes! So go ahead, let the comments roll on that one!

My Celosia is looking quite "Vampire-ish" and I hope it lasts until my party Saturday evening!

Other than reading and shuttling kids around, I have been busy doing general cleanup and the occasional bean picking. The bell peppers are now finished, and the beans are on their 3rd "pick" and looking good. We had our 1st light frost last night, it got down to 39 degrees, but up to 70 for the high and supposed to be 80 tomorrow! I am just so glad to see the sun after the last 5 days of gray, cold and rain. I know many of you were dealing with the same nor'easters that moved through my area so I won't complain too much.

I planted some garlic last week that was from last year's box of sets and it sprouted yesterday! I was pretty worried since they have been sitting in a cardboard box for the past year on my desk, but they popped their heads up during the cold rainy spell. They were the only residents of my garden that appreciated the dreary weather.

This is the last of the Bell Peppers, 3.5 lbs

Today's harvest of pole beans, 3.15 lbs was added to last week's pick of 2.14 lbs.

This should say something about my children's eating habits - I have a family of 4 yet these are my "serving size" bags! Pretty much just my husband & I and a few extras just in case the kids decide to surprise me one day. I have exhausted every possible means of bribing them, taking things away, point systems with rewards, even force feeding at one particularly awful "bad Mommy" moment! Any other ideas?

How very cool is THIS GUY?!! This photo was from my Master Gardener class last week on Entomology. Yes, he is as big as he looks compared to the other insects! Not a very focused picture though, took it with the iphone. I need to start bringing a real camera to school I think!

I never imagined I would have a second flush of toddlers in the Black Swallowtail Daycare! I was looking at my fennel the other day and there were at least 20 on there ranging in age from the 1st instar stage all the way to full-on caterpillar action! I have recently found a bunch more on the dill in my raised bed garden, but since that is the last of their food reserves out there I am leaving them to it, there is gobs of dill so they should leave all my other stuff alone.

The next few days will be spent doing fun stuff in anticipation of our Harvest Party Saturday. You know, the usual... flinging blood on tablecloths, stabbing scarecrows with knives, calculating how much booze needs to go into the bloody punch bowl... good times! I hope to get some pics when when we do our "trial run" Friday night, just in case The Ghostess with the Mostess has a little too much punch and forgets to take pics during the party, lol!

Good Morning, Garlic!

Happy Memorial Day, all!  I plan on writing an update this evening (it's been awhile!), but I thought I would share this morning's excitement with you to tide you over until then :)

Grill Fired Pizzas, here we come!