Cool break

Sunday 10th August.

Rising at 8-30am
It's cooler at last, around 70F this morning.
We have had a couple of days of heavy rain falling on and off so the badly overdue mowing chore is once more put on hold.

I also had to work all day Saturday so my time in the garden has been limited.


First job this morning is to go check on the Blister Beetle damage. The Flour and Lime mixture seems to frighten them off but they are soon back chomping merrily away.......

.............as you can see by this shot taken this morning of the Yolo Bell Pepper plants in Plot 3.


Foliage damage is severe and this in turn means the peppers themselves lose the protection from the sun. The shot below shows sunscald........................

So I have resorted to the tried and tested way of getting rid of these little walking disasters.............


The rubber gloves and bucket of soapy water!
Hand pick the beetles from the plant, toss into bucket of soapy water, end of story.
Three evenings this week I've stood out there in boiling temperatures picking the little buggers off my plants and it's not fun, believe me.
Each day the population is reducing but it's slow progress. But, progress it is!
They have just about finished off Plot 5, look at this.........................

Here's all that remains of my once healthy looking potato plants after the weather and the bugs had done. Oh well (deep breath). I weeded the plot, pulled and threw out most of the damaged plants then dug up under one of them to see what was left.
Hmmmm, not bad. Certainly not Wal Mart standard in shape and size..................

........but chemical free.

The volunteer tomato plant I put into Plot 4 a couple of weeks ago is still looking good. As the temperatures are down today I decided to transplant three others which I'd had in post at the front of the house.....................

.........and then mulched the whole row.

I'm still pulling tomatoes almost daily.

Big Red

Old Virginia
Good feedback from workmates who received the plants from me. Most are pulling good crops from their plants and are delighted with the fruit produced.

Seedlings are coming along nicely.................

Kohlrabi.


Cabbage.

No sign of the Catnip so I've started some more along with some Cauliflower seed and put the on top of the fridge. This time I've put the clear plastic lid over them to see if it helps germination.