In The Garden

Edit! After reading some comments I guess I did not make something clear in this post. I do not use synthetic pesticides or herbicides or fertilizers of any sort. I only use organic, natural pesticides and then, only when I have a bug problem. Generally I prefer Pyola, which is an organic product containing mostly canola oil and pyrethrins. It does not persist in the soil and does not harm beneficial insects such as bees etc. It is the only organic product I have found that is effective against Japanese beetles also which are a major problem here. Also, if you look closely in the shot of the tomato plants you will see marigolds planted in amongst the vegetables. I like marigolds but I use these as a pest deterrent also. You can tell I don't spray my weeds because of the humongous jungle over to the right!

My garden is doing pretty well despite my neglect of it. I have tried to weed and spray after I come home from work but that doesn't always give me a lot of time. There is grocery shopping and supper to fix etc. Plus, some days I am just too tired. The heat is fairly difficult right now and there is talk of our crew going on 4/10's to save driving into town one day a week. We are all spending quite a bit on gas right now. In a way, that would be nice to have a three day weekend but we have also considered the possibility of not being able to make 10 hours in this heat. We are in some of the hardest part of construction work; the foundations and 8 hours is pushing it sometimes.
I'm not sure what you can make out in the pics but I have planted okra (half from karl) , corn (silver queen), purple hull peas, blue lake green beans, several varieties of tomatoes, eggplant, just a couple of squash plants and cantaloupe. Oh, and 3 types of peppers.
Hey karl, these are my wonderful Pantero Romanesca (sp?) tomatoes you sent! I have several of the Cherokee Purples too. They are all doing wonderfully and I am sooo happy with them. These are waist high and starting to get little green tomatoes! I also found an old heirloom tomato from Russia (Black Prince) at our local co-op. I was quite surprised they would have such a thing but bought 2 and they seem to be doing well. Has anyone out there ever raised any of these before?
My 2 fig trees finally seem to be flourishing. They have just sat in the ground and tried to die the past two years but look much better now. I think hoping for actual figs may be asking for too much though. I don't know, they may have 2 or 3 this year.

I have done some work on the house and will try to show that maybe this weekend. I am now able to move my scaffolding up to the next level for the siding and should be able to top out the north wall soon. I hope none of you are experiencing really bad weather where you are. Seems like there is all kinds of stuff going on everywhere. We had a fairly strong thunderstorm here yesterday but I was glad for the rain.

Oh, the grasshoppers are horrible here right now! There are just hordes of them. They don't seem to be eating much of my stuff but they probably will start. I have read that ducks make good grasshopper control. Do any of you notice that ducks or chickens help with this? I know chickens will eat them but didn't know if they are actually that aggressive in their pursuit of hoppers. I thought I might get some Muscovies as I read they are especially fond of grasshoppers.

*Van Morrison