First Day of Summer Garden Update!

Zuchinni beginning to ripen on the vine.

We've had good luck and bad luck in the garden this spring. The apple trees continue to show blighted leaves despite (in spite of?) several applications of various non-chemical solutions. The trees can drop all their leaves and still be essentially healthy, but my goodness, it still causes feelings of discouragement.

The blueberry bushes also seem to be limping along. Jennifer Hudspeth has determined, with a consult from Extension, that they may have an iron deficiency. So: we have applied both an iron supplement and plenty of blood meal (which has a high iron content). The blood meal attracted the attention of a few wandering dogs, but they have since wandered off...with a little help from Mr. Boot.

The zucchini--pictured above--is doing so-so. A few are fruiting but a couple of the plants have been attacked by borers and are showing the usual dripping, disgusting, and slimy characteristics left behind by these pests. Basically, we're taking the zucchini day by day. The okra also appears marginal but that seems to be the nature of okra: one day it's lousy and the next day it is four feet tall and thriving.

We have harvested potatoes and onions and have planted tomatoes where the potatoes were and will probably put in some fall weather crops where the onions were. The squash appears to be doing well, the flowers are spectacular, and the evil Japanese Beetle has been temporarily defeated.

One remarkable thing has been observed: yesterday morning we glanced around us and noticed nice big fat bumble bees hovering around the squash blossoms. Further observation caused us to see that the garden was filled with literally hundreds of bees; there were everywhere; in the squash, the cucumbers, and hovering around each zinia blossom. It was really wonderful to see them.

A view of the zinias supervised by a sunflower sentry.

Lush and Lovely: we have had an abundance of rain and sunshine this year. Praise God!