July 25

Everyone except the goats are sick of picking peas. I mostly plant as many as I do for the goats. Peas are very labor intensive.

I planted 5 more rows of corn on the 24th of July. I call this last planting the pioneer corn due to the fact that the Mormon pioneers planted corn and potatoes on the 24th of July in 1847 when they arrived in Salt Lake Valley. It is true that the variety of sweet corn (Ambrosia) that I plant has a much shorter growing time than the field variety they had, but I have been doing this for the last 20 years or so.

With the last planting of corn the garden is completely planted for this year. I forgot to mention in last weeks post that I replanted zucchini in all of the hills of squash and melons that did not germinate or had died back. Zucchini is about the only thing that will produce this late in the growing season and the goats love it.

The squash bugs are giving me a good run for my money. I am finding eggs on the underside of the leaves. The best way to control them is to pick them off and , well, squash them, adult and eggs. The adults can fly so it is a never ending battle. These are what some people call stink bugs and you will know why they have that name if you squash them, The pointer finger and thumb work well for dispatching them. They don't do much damage on their own, but they transmit a virus that will kill the squash vine when they suck the fluid out of the plant.

New potatoes.

July 18

I am a week late posting these pictures.

We started picking peas this week. The zucchini have small squash on them and are loaded. It looks as if the squash bugs are going to be a problem this year. It is almost a full time job looking for and disposing of them.

We have lost a few tomato plants to wilt.

I have staked out some goats on the edges of the garden to eat down the field vine weed. They love it. It may not eradicate it, but it will help prevent the weed from producing seed. It also makes it easier to feed the goats the waste such as spent pea vines, beat tops, and corn stocks.

July 11

Things are staring to take off now. We picked the sugar peas for the first time and I was able to plant the third planting of corn yesterday.

The potatoes look to be the best that we have ever grown. We had some new potatoes today for supper. I also cooked up some beet greens and was able to get the family to at least taste them. No one seemed to like them except me.

July 4

I finished setting up the last of the drip system on the potatoes. Everything is now under drip and working well. I replanted one hill of yellow zucchini. For some reason it never sprouted. The only thing that I can think of is that I forgot to plant that hill because the other zucchini is doing great.

I compared this years garden to last year at this same time and it looks as if I am about a week behind on most things. The potatoes are doing great and look to be the best I have ever grown. I have a picture at the bottom of this post that shows the size of the new potatoes.

I have a few watermelon that have not sprouted yet. I will give them another week and I might replant them.

No sign of grasshoppers in the garden yet.

The peas have small pods and will be ready to start picking in about 5 days to a week.

I thinned the beets and carrots. I only thinned one of the two rows of beets. You can tell that the thinned row is the one on the left.