Pests

Hello Everyone. This month has been an actual blur. I feel like sewing has not been the focus. Looking at my notes and photos, however, I must have done some sewing because I did make a mask drop-off. I can’t recall it at all. The mask grand total is 361. My last mask sewing machine needle broke this past week so I did switch to a little garment sewing with a specially reserved needle. The machine was actually singing for a recent change. Multiple layers of fabrics, incorrect needles, and edge work have given it an interesting repertoire of sounds. This coming week I am looking forward to shopping for some machine supplies.

For today, I was going to focus on a garden update.

There have been successes and failures. Luckily, I think the successes edge out the failures. The latest challenge has been pests. I mentioned to you last month that I had to protect the sweet corn very soon. This is what I came up with.


It worked fairly well. I did lose about three primary ears to foraging animals. Here is a harvest treasure.

The corn had a more subtle taste than store bought, and within a week it had to be all harvested before being annihilated. The main predators to the corn were the geese, which was a revelation. They absolutely destroyed the smaller popcorn which was unprotected since it escaped last year. The geese have been feasting every morning at the community garden, I think this is a change with the season as I did not see any of their leftover evidence before late July. Not the type of bird watching I enjoy! Not my plot but my neighbor’s below.

The other crops in the garden: beans, cucumbers, kale, and cabbage were not attractive to them. Some tomatoes and peppers were chomped on but I could live with that since I had so many of my own.

The other pest nemesis is the cucumber beetle which devastated the cucumbers. They infest other crops but melons and cucumbers are the most susceptible. Here is a flower with at least 2 striped beetles, the most harmful, encrusted in the petals. The bugs are very attracted to yellow.

I have used a lite bug spray on the cucumber plants, but there is not much you can do. I lost 50% of my plants. I did throw a couple seeds in this week as replacements but with it being so late in the season and cucumbers very sensitive to frost, I am not planning to harvest more. Not only do these beetles eat the leaves, flowers, and stems weakening the plant but they also transmit bacterial disease and viruses. Once the plant has the disease in a weakened state, there is no chance for recovery. There are cucumber varieties that claim to be more resilient but I did not see evidence of that in my garden, maybe the other 50% which survived so far. Here is the spotted cucumber beetle which causes less havoc and is not as numerous.

I do kill these bugs manually. I must defend the plants under my care! It does make me wonder if then my vegetables are technically for vegetarians because of all the dead insects/animals. It also makes one think of what chemicals are necessary for commercial farming. Much to ponder.

I take pictures of good bugs and those I am not familiar with too.

Does anyone know what type of bug this is?

Enough talk about pests, there are more highlights to cover. A few weeks ago, I planted some pea seeds for an autumn crop. They had a couple more days of intense heat to get through, but so far so good (ignore the weeds!).

Another highlight is the tomatillo plant that was in the free pile at the garden. It has gone a bit wild and has plenty of tomatillos for a single plant (I read they have better pollination with two plants). I need to investigate soon when these will be ready to harvest. You can also see the obliterated popcorn.

The peppers, especially the variety Ausilio Thin-Skinned Italian, have outperformed all expectations. They are a bit too spicy for me, so most of them go to the food pantry. I still enjoy growing them. I love the first picture taken early in the morning and from an interesting perspective.


Much time has been spent processing this harvest bounty. Even for the food pantry, the vegetables are sorted, washed, and packaged. I donate to them every other week.

The other weeks I keep the harvest. Several years ago, Rachael Ray had a wonderful tomato roasting recipe in her magazine. It is my go-to, because after roasting, I place all of the tomatoes in the freezer to be used in all sorts of dishes (soups, baked pasta, etc). This week I utilized a Martha Stewart recipe from her magazine and dried the tomatoes overnight in the oven. Here is a before photo:

And here is a next morning photo:

I also made some easy, refrigerator pickles this week since I am not sure of the cucumber future. Here is a photo of them ready to be brined.

And that is the monthly update. I haven’t done much dedicated bird watching. From the little that I have done, I think the local bird population has changed. I am seeing more sparrows, but I also saw a juvenile cardinal with a dark gray beak unlike his red beak parents. There was an article recently in the Washington Post about the pandemic popularity rise of birdwatching (https://www.washingtonpost.com/magazine/2020/08/26/forget-neflix-tune-feathered-soap-opera-outside-your-window/?arc404=true – you do get 1 free Washington Post article per month). I really like the headlining illustration.

That’s it from Planet Nice Crafts. Let us know if we could assist at this difficult time. Stay Safe and Wear Your Mask!

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