Winter

Winter

Sunday, July 27, 2014

A Busy Week

After my week of playing, it is nice to be back. I wish I had a whole list of things that I did. I don't.
Our kids were all at camp as leaders. Ron and I tried to do different things. Though we did work in the garden. Just a bit though. He worked in his trees and if you look closely in the picture of the garden, he is there trimming his trees.


 I canned some and I baked zucchini bread. I ended up with nine loaves and still mountains of zucchini.
We didn't go out there as much as normal so on Saturday morning when I walked out I couldn't believe my eyes. The zucchini, green and yellow squash, okra, green beans and cucumbers were covered in white flies and the plants were gasping for air. It was just heart breaking. So we decided that to save the rest of the garden we would pull out all of those plants and spray pesticide on the pumpkins to try and save them at least until mid August. 


I found some Harlequin beetles and squash bugs and stink bugs. Not a lot but one is too many. The best way is to get rid of the trash and dispose of it so we did. The White Flies are the worst though. I couldn't believe how they had multiplied.


I think next week I will bring soapy water out here and see if I can wash some of the sap from white flies off the plants so they can keep producing. In a perfect world, I would like to wait until mid September to harvest pumpkins, but I don't think I will be able to wait that long. I hope I  can make it through August. 


 I wanted to show you my black/purple tomatoes. They are a new variety for 2014 and they are very firm and nice. For a cherry tomato they are pretty large. 


 Now with a good portion of the garden gone and I won't be out there so much, I hope to get my weedy, poor neglected flowerbeds cleaned. There is always so much work to get done. Next week, Meg is coming over to help me go through the doom closet. We will go through all of the boxes and boxes of curriculum that I have packed in there. Her boys are excited because of the treasures they think is in there. 
It is so nice to be able to give all of these books away and still it doesn't even begin to touch a fraction of what I have. 

I hope you have a lovely new week, this last week of July. It sure went by fast didn't it? 

~Kim~


" A prudent person avoids unpleasant things; but a wise man overcomes them."
---The Chatterlings, Michael Lipman, 1928

18 comments:

TexWisGirl said...

doom closet. haha! well, glad you scrapped the garden if it helps save the other plants.

Julia said...

I can sympathze with you about those pesky white flies ruining your garden. They seem to love the dry heat for some reason.

I had some healthy plants in my sunroom until I bought some soil to repot a plant. The pots were big so I don't need to water often. When I realize that my plants were covered with sticky dew from the white flies, I got rid of a lot of plants and my sunroom looks nothing like it was before. I got rid of the white flies with some Sevin powder pesticide. Very disappointing....

I like how you call the school supply closet. I hope the kids enjoy learning from those books.

Sometimes it's good to rest and let mother nature claim what she wants. Have a restful Sunday and don't worry about a thing.
Hugs,
JB

Debbie said...

ummmm, your weeks are always busy, how was this different???

another set of awesome images!!!!

Elizabeth Ann said...

I have read about a spray that takes care of those pesky bugs, sorry I can't remember the name but if I do I will pass it along. I'm so sorry about your garden, thats a huge loss after all the work you put into it. Hopefully this week will go better!

Empty Nester said...

That's too bad about the garden! I wish I could get zucchini and yellow squash to grow but I can't. I have in the past but, when we had that topsoil brought in to fill the raised beds, hardly anything will grow. Except my flowers. They're doing great!

Pom Pom said...

I'm glad you won't have as much gardening to do, but I know that you have PLENTY of work in front of you still.
Oh my goodness! That is a perfectly beautiful tomato!

Jacque. said...

Playing? Sounds like a lot of work to me! Bugs...ugh. I feel like I haven't done much this week, though I did actually piece a quilt top. Been on the phone for hours every day. Not always what I want to be doing. That tomato...wow...it's very cool. What is is supposed to taste like? xo

Thistle Cove Farm said...

my life is flying by...hard to believe we're less than five months from Christmas. the beetles are eating everything green to the nubs around here.

annie said...

seems no way to win with the insects some times, those white flies destroyed my apple tree a few years ago, it had just gotten to the point to produce, just a mess really. so sorry!

love color of that tomato! hugs!

Lynn said...

Oh I'm sorry to hear about your flies and bugs, but it sounds like you are on top of things. And I love the "doom closet"! Good on you for going through things, and with any luck Meg and her kids will go home with all kinds of treasures :)

Three Sheep Studio said...

That black tomato looks fabulous !
The white flies are bad here also. Seems nature always takes over. I would have cleaned out and discarded all the infected plants also.
Rose

Buttons Thoughts said...

Oh I am so sorry about your garden that must have been a horrible sight. I am so sorry all that work. Hug B

Kathy ... aka Nana said...

So sorry to hear about your garden. Hopefully the rest of it will do well now.

The last week of July flew by ... but then so did the entire month!! I hope August slows down (even though I'm really looking forward to September).

Diana Ferguson said...

First time I have ever seen that tomato!

Debbie said...

How annoying about those pesky flies and bugs! But your garden gave you soo much this year! I have never seen a tomato like that before! Interesting...We haven't had but a couple of days in the triple digits, but LOTS in the upper 90's. And soo humid. Just not nice these last few days. But time marches on. It is already almost August. How can that be? Enjoy your week Kim!

Kerin said...

So happy for you that you had a great week puttering, and spending time with your hubby!!
I too had a list of things I wanted to get done, when my hubby was off for a few days.
There were only a couple of items we crossed off....we were too busy being summer bums :)

Durn garden pests!!! Sad to hear about all the damage that they did. I hope you can save your pumpkins and get them through Aug.
It's been a weird year all around, for gardening anyways.
And the water.... half us haven't any, and the rest have too much....

Yes.. summer has sped by quickly.
It's ok by me. As much as I love summer, Fall is really my most favorite season of all, and I could use a break from this heat.

Hope this week is a great one for you..

K.

Meg said...

Ugh, I typed whole big long post and I think google ate it. Well, I'm glad you had a good week and I can't wait to hear all about on Wednesday! :D

Anonymous said...

My father always said he could never grow green beans because of the white fly. I'm glad you got some harvest before the insects took over.