Compost temperature

The outdoor temperature on this grey rainy day is 70. (ahhhhhh...) But the compost is heated up to at least 90! Those little microbes have quite a metabolism.

Elizabeth Crisfield
814 777 3395
www.elizabethcrisfield.com

Hail!

Taking a page out of my sister's book... We just had a hail storm. Slightly bigger than pea-sized I'd say. Haven't been out to harden yet - crossing fingers!

Compost

I unloaded the tumbler this morning, just 2 weeks after I filled it. Hot summer days work wonders. I reloaded with whatever had built up in the wooden bin on the side, but it wasn't much. I chopped up some weeds, and pulled the shell pea vines, and here's what the fresh load looks like. I wonder how long this one will take?

Squash update

I have a MAJOR cucumber beetle problem. They are on every squash I have (canteloupe, green and lemon cucumbers, zucchini, kabocha, spaghetti, and red kuri.) I have a couple plants' stems wrapped in nylons. I have a couple plants protected underneath by a sheet of aluminum foil. I suspect these protection devices are a complete joke, but we'll see. I pick and kill them in the morning and at night, but there's just no way I've got them all.

Despite the dry heat we've been having (temperatures breaking 100 degrees) they all look good except the red kuri. It gets a blast of late day sun, so maybe that's why it's doing worse than the others. Fruit is setting on the red kuri, kabocha, zucchini, and spaghetti squashes so far.

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OK - Correction - cucumber beetles do not lay the eggs that turn into the squash vine borer. That's a different bug - a red moth. My friend Karl did a ton of exhaustive research on squash pests and as soon as he posts it I'll add a link. I have so many squash vine borers at this point it'll be a miracle if I get any. I've found them in all the varieties I've planted.

I'm going to try another round of zucchini plantings. Who ever struggles to get zucchini out of a garden?

Red Norland potato harvest

The "All Blue" and "Yukon Gold" are still green and vibrant, but the "Red Norland" were yellowing and browning. I dug the row this morning, and I can't promise this is all of them, but if it is we got 4 big ones, 10 fist sized, and 8 little ones. This is a RoI of 7 ( I planted 3 and ended up with 24.)

Here's the post back when I planted these: http://henfieldhomestead.blogspot.com/2011/04/potato-planting-time.html

I had intended to plant beans in between the rows, but the potato beetles were already here (June 11) when I planted the beans (June 18th), so if they repelled them I'd be surprised. Fortunately, I really didn't have any problem with the potato beetles (unlike friends across town that got inundated). And, the potato stalks fell over in a strong rainstorm and suppressed the newly emerged bean stalks. So I wouldn't say that approach was worth much.

First zucchini!

The onion crop

4 sq feet each, planted from sets.