Attack of the Japanese Beetles

Wow - no posts for a while! Sorry about that. Between going to Vegas for The Amazing Meeting 7 (which was AWESOME!), working 12 hour days, and then getting sick on top of it all, I haven't been able to get in the garden much. I went out yesterday and noticed I have lost one green bean plant to Japanese beetles. The buggers have totally skeletonized all the leaves on one plant and are working on the others. They are all over the place! I've never had a problem with Japanese beetles before, so this is disappointing. Today I sent Dave out to pick off what he could and drop them in soapy water. This is the best organic approach but definitely not the most efficient. I'm not sure if any pesticide exists to destroy them and, even if there is something, I'd have to spray constantly. So, it's a battle of me against the bugs.

On the plus side, we're getting TONS of tomatoes and green peppers. I have at least 2 green peppers large enough to make stuffed peppers. Need to look up a recipe and give that a whirl. The corn and sunflowers appear to be doing well. It looks like I may have some success with cucumbers this year, too (but I'm not entirely convinced yet). I did see a bumblebee on my cucumber plant yesterday so that was exciting. Means I have some natural pollination occurring!

Well, I need to get myself outside. It's a beautiful day but nothing has been watered since the last thunderstorm came through. The plants in pots are looking pretty sad and, despite how I feel, I still need to get out there and at least get stuff watered.

Toodles!

Triumph and Tragedy Gardening Style

I harvested the first tomato of the season the other day (did I already tell you this?). This is a first for me - first tomato BEFORE 4th of July. I got my tomato plants in the ground earlier this year and it seems to have paid off. In my excitement I forgot to take a photo commemorating this feat of gardening. Dave and I ate it in a salad the other night. It was quite tasty! Now there are lots of little red grape tomatoes on the vine. I'll have to point those out to Dave as he loves grape tomatoes (I have issues with biting into them...that discussion is for another blog).

So, what's the tragedy amongst this triumph? Dave pointed out to me that I forgot to put the nozzle back up on one of the rain barrels. Of course, it was the nozzle that leaks. The entire rain barrel drained overnight. :( So, I'm torn about the 4th of July weather forecast. The forecasters are predicting storms. Yay for filling the rain barrels but it will ruin the 4th of July fireworks and I do like a good fireworks display. Even if Mother Nature were to provide a nice one in terms of lightening and thunder, I'd still miss the man-made variety.