Here’s the yellow squash growing in the zucchini section. It’s quite round for a yellow crookneck squash – I wonder what it will turn out to be!

Three flowering black eggplants in pots in the back yard.

It was pretty hot (above 90) yesterday, and the temperatures are predicted to rise for the next two days. I’ve been watering both the front and back garden every day for three days now, and Chris and I are just about to go water it again today. Things are really going to take off I think!

We have a yellow summer squash growing in the zucchini plants – the seeds must have been mixed up when they were packaged! The tomatoes are finally just starting to turn red – there is one Amana Orange that’s just about ripe with Blossom End Rot (boo-hiss), but here’s a rather large tomato that looks like it’s going to avoid the rot:

It’s one of the heirlooms – Amana Orange, Oxacan Pink, or Marvel Striped – but we won’t know which one until it ripens! Next year I plan to keep the tomatoes labeled better, and maybe even plant the varieties together so we can judge the plants for seed-saving purposes (what an idea!).

There’s also a large slicing-cucumber, and a few pickling ones. I hope the pickling cukes take off soon, because we haven’t really had enough to make a batch of pickles yet. Sure, I pull two or three every couple of days but it isn’t enough to fill up a pint jar!

The chile peppers are loaded this year – last year we didn’t have much luck with chiles, getting only one or two peppers from each plant. I’ve been using the czechoslovokian black peppers pretty regularly – each plant has at least 15 chiles on it! The cayennes are loaded with long green peppers – I can’t wait for them to ripen! We should be able to dry a bunch of peppers and also make some chile sauce.

Two days after our squash surgery to remove the vine borers, this little zucchini decided to make an entrance. I’m wondering if the surgery worked, and if the zucchini will make new roots and continue to produce throughout the summer. I’m still not optimistic, but a bit more hopeful!

Here’s what an eggplant flower looks like. Our eggplants are loaded with flowers and buds; right now, they look like one of the most promising plants we put in! The potted eggplants grew much more quickly, but the ones in the front yard were quicker to flower – I’ll have to keep track and see which ones produce more.

Our summer squash and pumpkins have all been invaded by squash vine borers. I remember seeing the moths earlier this year around the pumpkins, and asking Chris what they were. We should have looked them up rather than assuming that they were some kind of harmless bug. Anyway, it’s pretty serious and every vine is infested. This morning we performed “surgery” on the plants by slitting open the stems and taking out the worms. We piled dirt over a lot of the stems, hoping that they will send off more roots.

I’m not too optimistic, and I’m sure most of them will die. Since it’s such a small garden, I don’t see any “survival of the fittest” pulling through. We’ll see.

Tip for next year: Apparently, buttercup squash are somewhat resistant to the borer. It takes many years of close watching, crop rotation, deep tilling, and removal of larvae before you can get rid of the problem – and that’s only if your neighbors aren’t growing squash as well. We could try a solid-stemmed zucchini (zucchetta rampicante) to see if that has better results. Otherwise… starting the summer squash really, really early inside and hoping they produce a lot before the larve hatch would guarantee at least some squash next year.

Part of the problem was that we trellised everything. I thought that trellising would mean greater yields, since we only have a city yard to work with. If the plants could have vined along the ground, they probably would have put down more roots!

Above: the first ripe roma tomato of the season. Unfortunately, it was afflicted with Blossom End Rot and so it ripened too quickly and wasn’t very good-tasting. This hot weather with no rain is likely what has caused the BER – we need to water more frequently to keep the soil evenly moist.

In other bad news, we had to pull up all of the buttercup squash plants today. They had worms boring up the stems from the roots – all of them. Very, very sad and upsetting. I hope the cucumbers don’t get attacked, and I am concerned about the rest of the vine plants. We definitely need to have our soil tested next year – something just isn’t right. It takes a few years, though, for land that’s never been gardened on to become really fertile.

At least we’ll have two okras from our one surviving plant this year. Maybe these would haved worked better in pots, like the eggplant? If we want to save any, we’ll need a lot more plants next year. I planted the Star of David variety – I think maybe I just chose the wrong variety to plant in Minnesota.

Tip for next year: Start in mid-April, and keep the soil very, very warm. Don’t transplant the seedlings until they are ready to go outside – wait at least until the first week in June to put them out. Try a variety that grows well in northern areas – Clemson Spineless and Burgundy are supposed to be better for cooler climates.

Pretty little thing, isn’t she?

Sure, think that now. But here’s what she did to our cabbage before she got wings:

Originally, I was only going to post the cabbage picture and title it something like, “What has gone wrong!?” But after reading about cabbage-eating insects, seeing pictures of the cabbage white butterfly, and realizing that I had taken a picture of a very similar butterfly on our pumpkins this morning, I decided to compare pictures and, sure enough, this is a cabbage white butterfly. (Here are some pictures from other people: Link 1, Link 2, Link 3, and the larve who ate our cabbages: Link 4.

Chris pulled off tons of green worms from the cabbages every day. They were also infested with aphids. We did get some neem oil to spray on them, but it looks like the cabbages may be doomed anyway.

Tip for next year: Plan for a fall harvest of cabbages. This may not prevent the aphids, but most of the caterpillars will have turned to butterflies by mid-summer. Also, putting up a barrier around the base of the cabbage (like a tin can) may help keep new caterpillars from finding the delicious cabbage. Also, I’ve read that red cabbages don’t have as strong as a smell as green cabbages – this may incline the moths to lay their eggs elsewhere. Interplanting dill and other strong-smelling herbs may also help.

I’m a bit concerned because our squash, pumpkins, and zucchini don’t seem to be developing any female flowers. I saw a few small zucchinis a couple of weeks ago, but they’re mysteriously gone now. Maybe we have a garden visitor?

I know that female flowers come later than males, but the squash and pumpkins have all been flowering for over a month now. There is one small pumpkin that’s been growing. It’s possible that the heat has been keeping the females away – it’s been pretty warm and dry lately, and we’ve been needing to water quite a bit. Hopefully they will come soon – I’m expecting a lot of pumpkins and winter squash this fall.

These went in a curry with lentils, beet leaves, and kale. They have some heat to them, but aren’t as spicy as jalapenos.

I pulled five beets from the garden (in the front yard) this morning. They are fairly large, and the rest still have some growing to do. It took about 64 days for beets. We grilled these along with some other vegetables (pretty good, actually), and I’m planning to use the leaves in a curry tomorrow.