Everyone is out in the sun..including the critters and a turtle

The lost turtle

It's summer here and I am loving it. The squash, onions, garlic, lettuce, cabbage and fenugreek are all growing well. Yesterday, out of nowhere, I had this little visitor on my property. Came from nowhere. I thought it would go away on itself but I discovered this morning it was still wandering like a lost kid. So I picked it up from the driveway and put it near a little stream which flows by my property. Hopefully, it will find it's way.

With summer, the plants, grass and weeds are getting a chance to soak the sunlight. Since my land was a grass lawn earlier, the grass on bare areas like paths between beds and fence edges, grows fast. Yesterday evening, I picked up my grass trimmer and cut the grass near my corn plants. Today, I covered the area I cleared yesterday with cardboard. The corn is growing tall and I removed the row cover over it today. Clearing the grass and covering that area with cardboard will prevent more grass seeds from filling the corn bed. While in earlier weeks of last month, I spent a lot of time doing hand-weeding, I figured it wasn't feasible for me during the heat of the summer. The grass takes over fast, especially on land where cover crops have never been grown. So, the grass trimmer. A portion of my garden is covered with cardboard mulch and the rest will be covered with plastic mulch in next few days. The grass is too big to lay the mulch directly without trimming it.

Critters are something that were unexpected and invaded my spinach plants.

Ugly aphids

Green aphids underneath leaves

A little powdery mildew on squash leaves

  I prepared my own insecticidal soap mixture and sprayed on the young spinach leaves to kill the ugly black and green aphids. I only did it once last week. This week, I just used a strong mist of water to clean the leaves of spinach.  While it did control the aphid population, some damage to leaves is already done. I am not expecting much spinach growth because the aphids have made many leaves curly and yellowish which is beyond repair. I also purchased Neem oil from Home Depot to use as spray in case my home-made insecticidal spray does not work. I haven't used the oil for insects but will use it on squash leaves to get rid of powdery mildew. The spinach was direct seeded on the bed. The aphids and other pests lie dormant inside the soil and emerge when food is available. Buggers ! I will try growing spinach again in fall this year. I planted some mint and basil near the spinach beds yesterday. Mint is supposed to repel insects as they don't like it's smell.

I have planted a lot of wildflowers all along the edges of the fence. The wildflowers attract beneficial pests and butterflies that pray on the harmful pests. The wildflowers have not yet bloomed in my garden. For now, the damage control had to be done manually. I noticed in my garden that aphids have also taken over many of the Lambsquarters weed plants (that are everywhere in the garden). The issue with removing them by hands is that the ants, which are aphid lovers, crawl on your hands quickly while you remove the Lambsquarters weed. Eww !!

Inside the hoophouse, tomatoes, eggplants, cabbages, onions and strawberries are growing in trays. They are far from being transplanted yet, especially, the slow growing Alexandria Strawberries.

More to come in coming weeks. Let me know your feedback in comments below.

Happy Gardening.