How Does Your Garden Grow?

The cucumber and cantaloupe keep getting infested with aphids. I tried pyrmitherin, even though the sprayer was too hard for such tiny plants. But the aphids came back again the very next day, and I can only spray that harsh a chemical about every 30 days. I was scraping them off every day, until finally I decided to try the soapy water again. Like last year, it seemed to fry the leaves and many of the plants died (even though I used a much more diluted solution). So I sowed some new ones…. In the meantime, a few of them survived and only one plant needs vigilant high-pressure spraying with water to get the aphids off.

The brussel sprouts look great, except some little green worms/caterpillars keep eating two of the plants and I keep plucking them off. BT has not deterred them. Now I've also encountered little white spiders on them....

The corn looks healthy, except for one stalk that got chewed up by some corn-type-termite. I tried BT too late, and then sprayed them off with water, but by then, the plant was too far gone so we pulled it up. But I have tons of other stalks left. I'm on my third staggered planting. The tallest corn stalks are only 3 feet high and are already producing ears! I hope their short height doesn't negatively affect the corn production.

Without much warning, our zucchini flopped over and wilted. The stem where it comes out of the ground was all sawdust-y like the pumpkins were last year. After some research, I discovered it had gotten a squash vine borer. The plants were too far gone so we had to pull them up after only getting 2 zucchinis from them.

Below are pictures of the garden as of today. I built the raised beds, Rex and I trucked in the garden soil, and Dad (Roberts) built the trellises.

Cucumbers and Cantaloupe

(the ones that survived the aphid-killing attempts)

Beets

Brussel Sprouts

Green Beans

Peas

Corn

Not Pictured: broccoli (tiny), onion (tiny), carrots (tiny), peppers and jalepenos (tiny), and the newer seedlings (corn, cucumber, cantaloupe, watermelon, and zucchini).