Devin leaves for a 12 day trip later this week. I hate for any of my family to be away, but especially for such a lengthy time. Devin will be undergoing some intensive teacher training for violin during that will enable her to be an even better violin teacher. We will miss her, but she will be staying with my youngest sister in a far away city. I know Devin will enjoy visiting with her aunt and Northern cousins while she is away.
Here is a view of some of the garden this morning. You can really see how things are growing if you scroll down a few posts to last week's gardening update.
The blueberries are hanging like grapes from our mature bushes, but I think we will go pick a few gallons from a local blueberry farm later this week. We can never have enough blueberries!! Blueberry muffins, cobblers and jam are favorites around here. I think we need to break out Blueberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey to read with the little guys this week as well. It's also been a favorite around here for a long time!
Squash bugs may be our science lesson for today! I found these eggs on a couple of squash plants yesterday. How do we get rid of them? Any suggestions?
I do think we will be having fresh squash on the menu later this week. We also have some winter squashes that are growing well. This morning Jordan built a trellis for them as they were creeping into all the other squash.
More squash blossoms
The trellis cucumbers have grown tremendously in the last week. There are lots of blossoms on these plants. The bed to the left also has cucumbers in them, but THIS bed had lots more compost. The compost has really done wonders. Jordan added more compost to some beds last week and we can already see lots of growth.
We need to pick garden peas this morning. Kaelan has been eager to harvest these tasty treats, so I think she can take on that task in a little while. I think they will be a great addition to a fresh salad.
The garden pea bed
I don't know how much longer we will be getting lettuce. The lettuce on the right is starting to bolt, so I gathered up a big bunch of both types to share with a friend last night. We'll be eating salads every day this week.
Jordan has taken a wild muscadine vine and is trying to train it to a trellis. We would love to make muscadine jelly this fall!!
The chives need to be put into a bed very soon and I also have successfully stared some stevia from seed. I want to make a bed for the stevia as well.
I am so excited to see some lavender plants started. I direct sowed some seed that weren't successful.
I'm not sure that the plant in the lower right corner is a lavender plant, but I will leave it for a while to see.
Devin sanded and painted this old swing that belonged to Jeff's grandfather many, many years ago. The older boys sanded and spray painted the frame. I think it looks so nice now!
This old glider and coffee table have seen many years of use. They originally belonged to Jeff's mom, but she gave them to us years ago. They were originally white and I had painted them black years ago. I really like the bright orange now!
These antiques that my mom gave us have also seen many colors but I decided to go bright and really like this look! Now if I could only find a way to remove the red porch paint! A few years ago Jeff had a long trip to India and one of the many things I did to fill in the time was to paint the porch with a sanded paint. Oh, how I have regretted that! Our porch has a dip...right in front of that glider and water settles there after a rain. The paint soon buckled there and in many other places. We have tried using the pressure washer to blow it off, but it takes such a long time and uses so much water. I may try to get some type of long-handled scraper and take a stab at scraping it off!
But, before anything else can be done today, I must tackle this hallway cluttered with overflowing laundry baskets. Eight baskets of sorted laundry (I haven't done laundry since Friday) and some of these baskets are so full I will have to divide them into 2 loads. I am trying to keep the electric bill down by hanging the laundry out to dry. It's great for my tan as well!!
 |
| linked over at homesteadblessings.blogspot.com |
Hope you all have a great week!! Get out and grow something!
 |
| smockityfrocks.com |
7 comments:
Your garden looks beautiful! I was not successful trying to grow from seeds this year, so I just have two tomato plants. My basil from last year that went to seed did sprout back this year!
We get squash bugs really bad! I had success last year by spraying the eggs with sevin but I'm going to use kirks Castile soap that has been dissolved in water and put in a spray bottle. I've heard that it will kill even adults on contact. They ard so hard to kill and will destroy your squash plants so fast. My kids even made a game out of catching them last summer. Good luck!
I'm not sure those ARE squash bugs. In my experience, the bug burrows into the stem of the plant near ground level and kills it from the inside out. Those eggs MIGHT be a parasitic wasp that actually kills the squash bug. I think if you had squash bugs, your plants would be dying by now.
I've been trying some companion planting this year, and read planting dill and/or nasturtium with your squash will repel squash bugs. So far, so good!?!
I love that old swing! So glad to see it being put to good use :) Swings are wonderful tools for making memories.
I have those eggs on my squash and zucchini, too. The REAL squash bug is a bug that bores into the vine and kills it within a day or two. Those eggs are most likely for another bug (that still eats plants), they are gray/brown and I think they are stink bugs? For the eggs, I just carefully tear out the leaf where they are, and bring all the eggs into the trash. I don't put them in the compost or anything outside so they won't be tempted to hatch and stick around. As far as preventing, probably an insecticide or soap spray will do the trick.
The bugs have been pretty bad this year in the Philly area, but so far no squash bugs. I only have 2 squash vines this year so far.
Love the colors on the metal furniture - so bright and fun!
I am so impressed with your garden. It looks great, with or without the bugs on them! :-)
Post a Comment