The Summer That Never Was

June, July, and August 2009: 'The summer that never was'. At least that is what they are calling it over on Cape Cod. Today marks the last day of the Meteorological Summer. Officially there a few weeks left, but after a couple of evenings with temps in the 50's the final day of August certainly is feeling Autumn-like.

I went out to the garden this morning to find evidence of chores left unfinished....

This what happens when your weekends are over scheduled and you get behind on the lawn mowing and weeding thanks to all the rain (and the perfect beach day), and suddenly you realize you are already an hour late for a birthday party.

The Late Blight is really taking it's toll now, I expect this will be my last week of tomatoes. The fruit and stems are beginning to show evidence of the powdery spores. While picking the ripe fruit this morning I actually was OK with knowing these plants will be going soon, many people I know didn't get a single tomato out of their gardens, even the farmer's markets are scarce in some towns. I am thankful for the three months of home grown tomatoes I have enjoyed this summer. Below is picture of today's infected trimmings, another of the tomato harvest.

Here are my surviving winter squash plants, fighting to hold on despite the borer damage. If the buggers are done for the season then they may make it, but another attack would do them in. Two of them have formed new fruit, I am doing my best to not count my chickens before they hatch. I slit open the plastic mulch and covered a stem portion with soil, followed by a fish fertilizer cocktail to encourage new root growth. C'mon squash babies, GROW, GROW, GROW!

Speaking of growing, look at all these muskmelon vines growing madly in the compost pile and up the dog kennel....

And here is my single melon. Can I even call it that, lol? Should it instead be called "The Blossom That Never Died"?

A Little Garden Housekeeping

Today has been a great day out in the garden. After the many inches of rain we received yesterday courtesy of Danny, it was a perfect time to rip out the weeds and the less than stellar performers. But most importantly I was a SVB serial killer, and proud of it! I squished at least twelve of these suckers. They had finally taken up residence in my zucchini. The plants are now destroyed, but I was happy to sacrifice a few developing squash for the pleasure of hunting those borers down. YUCK!


Today's sowings:

1. Sugar Ann Peas - 55 days; I sowed these in the cucurbit bed where I had ripped out cukes and marigolds, mostly for their nitrogen fixing services. If I get peas out of it even better!
2. Bright Lights Swiss Chard - Chard can be harvested at 'baby' size about 5 weeks after germination and is somewhat cold tolerant.
3. Napoli Carrot - 58 days; A cold tolerant, early carrot variety. These will hopefully overwinter under a thick layer of hay and plastic or row cover.
4. Red Russian Kale - Overwinters easily, hardy to 14 degrees F; These should have ideally been sown in early August but I just didn't have the room. I will cover the seedlings with row cover before any frost is predicted, and keep them that way through the winter. May be harvested as early as 60 days after sowing; frosts improve flavor.
5. Rouge D'Hiver Lettuce - 28-58 days; Cold tolerant red romaine type lettuce, should germinate in soil temps as low as 40 degrees F.
6. Renegade Spinach - I have had no luck with direct sowing spinach all season, but since spinach seeds should used the same year they were purchased I figured I would give it another go!

(edit: Almost forgot, I took seeds from the nasturtiums and marigolds for next year. It was a rediculously easy thing to do (and free), so I hope they will germinate!)

Defeated

You know when you have those days that you feel you are failing as a parent, when the children are being so awful, and you wonder why, knowing darn well anything they do 'wrong' is ultimately a result of something you did or didn't do ( at least according to all experts).....and it just makes you want to throw your hands up and quit caring? Or cry?

Well today I have failed the garden, or at least feel that I have. Do they have Garden Protective Services?? They should, LOL!

THE DREADED SQUASH VINE BORER! I had stopped checking for eggs thinking it was too late in the season. Wrong. Stopped spraying Dead Bug at the base of the plants. Big mistake. This morning I went out to give the plants a drink of fish emulsion and discovered the destruction. Now here's the thing: I planted Hubbards as a lure, I planted the squash a few weeks late in an attempt to avoid the buggers, AND I planted Butternut as a back-up. Well don't you know I have no fruit formation on either the Hubbard or Butternut and the damn borers have left them alone, so much for the sacrificial Hubbard and back-up Butternut. Below are my poor squash babies, their demise likely just days away. One Delicata, one Acorn.

I did have foil under a couple of the plants, and from what I can tell they have not been bored yet, but I will not get my hopes up as the larva are clearly just getting started. I stuck pins through the bases of the plants with the tell tale "saw dust" at the openings. The plastic mulch over the bed doesn't allow for any mid-vine root formation. Double edged-sword as it seems to be the thing that has allowed these plants to mature in a timely manner.

So, to sum it all up I have a garden suffering from Late Blight and Squash Vine Borers, and it has mainly gone undiscovered and untreated due to neglect. My days have been filled with too much running around, beach going, and hiding from the heat of the sun, and not enough time spent peering closely at every plant watching for any sign of pest and disease that has settled in. And of course the morning was spent dealing with the borers instead of spraying the tomatoes, so now they will go another day with out protection from flying blight spores. If I don't spray them tonight someone please come through cyberspace and slap me OK?