A Loss, Recovery, and Beans, Baby!

A couple of weeks ago, my DH and I discovered this little white caterpillar/worm on one of our puny tomato plants. Had no idea what it was and chalked it up to being a baby tomato hornworm.


Now, I think it was a squash vine borer larva. The SVB moth lays eggs on the stems and leaves of squash, and other members of the squash family like pumpkins. The eggs hatch and the little worm bores its way into the stem where it tunnels out the inside of the squash stem. The only evidence you see of damage on the outside is a little sawdust looking pile of stuff (excrement and gunk from the inside of the bug), followed by a dead plant. In most cases, it's fatal to the plant.

A few days ago, I noticed that one of our yellow squash plants had quit producing anything, had turned a very, very dark green, and had developed damaged leaves. I also noticed the tell-tale sawdust looking pile of stuff at the base and hanging off the stem itself.



We yanked the plant out this morning since it was too far gone. DH cut open the stem and found the little squash vine borer inside carrying out his destruction. We killed the worm and put the plant in the paper yard waste bag to go to the curb with the trash next week. We are watching the other squash plants carefully.

In better news, the sick pole beans are on the mend. I did end up yanking quite a few of the struggling plants, but several have made a great recovery and have started climbing the trellis.


I cut off the affected/diseased leaves and the rest of the plant has really greened up. It's fun to see them catch onto the trellis and start climbing it.


Different plant, but you can see it climbing the string trellis. Everytime I see the beans climbing the trellises, I think of the kid's song, "We are Climbing Jacob's Ladder". LOL

The pole beans in the small bed have taken off like crazy! Still not setting pods, but growing up the trellis, adding lots of leaves, and just looking good in general.


They've gone over the top and made a little arch for themselves! Too cute!


Meanwhile, the Blue Lake bush beans in the small bed continue to bloom and set pods. I love seeing the little bitty pods, just about 1/4" in length still fuzzy from birth. On most of the plants, there are flowers and pods in various stages of development.


Here are the biggest pods we have. They're about 3" long. Sorry for the not so great pic. The pea vines in front were moving in the breeze and I couldn't get a good shot without the tendrils from the pea vines.

Some Views from the Garden

First Female Zucchini Flower
Bean pod on Blue Lake Bush Beans
Moon and Stars Watermelon Starting to Take Off
Cantaloupe Vining out of the Bed
Sugar Baby Watermelon Flower
Sugar Baby Watermelon after the Rain
Alaska Peas
Tomato Patch
Bunch of Tomatoes
Raindrop on a Yellow Pepper
Cluster of Red Peppers
First Cigar Plant Blooms
Clump on NOID Daylilies
Daylily 'Torrid Tango' FFO
Daylily 'Silver Ripples'

Trouble and Triumph in Bean Town

No, not Boston, but the mass of bean plants in my backyard! The trouble is from a common mistake newbie gardeners make: over watering and watering at the wrong times. I was watering my veggies too often and, as a result, the ground wasn't drying out enough. I was also watering in the heat of the day or before the day heated up, but not enough that any water that splashes onto the leaves would dry before the heat of the sun got to them. As a result, the plants got burned and also developed rust.


To combat the rust, I sprayed a product called Plant Wash on the leaves, then I put down horticultural cornmeal and dry powdered garlic (from the kitchen) on the ground under the plants. Both the cornmeal and the garlic help curtail fungal infections. Garlic also helps deter pests, too. The following evening, I sprayed the leaves with a concoction of Garrett Juice (compost tea, apple cider vinegar, liquid molasses, and liquid seaweed). While doing this, I found a cabbage looper (ick!) and quickly sent it to worm heaven. I also quit watering them, but tested the soil daily with my water meter to check moisture level. I went for about a week before God sent some rain my way to take care of my watering needs. I really didn't need to water, but apparently God thought it was time, so He watered everything for me. Despite the rain, they seem to be doing well.


During the week with no watering, I checked the plants daily for more infection. I finally made the difficult decision to cut off affected leaves on plants that I felt would make it and yank the ones that were way past gone. The ones with new leaves made the cut. The ones with no new leaves got pulled. In the picture above, the plant at the bottom got yanked, the plant in the middle became a "maybe" and was watched, and the plant at the top got to stay. Because I didn't really know what the problem was with the beans, the ones that were pulled got put in the yard waste bag that goes to the curb rather than thrown in my compost pile. I lost almost all of my pole beans in the big bean bed!


A survivor of the great bean tragedy. Fortunately, I was able to save some of the pole beans from total ruin.

The Front Flower Bed

This in "no man's land" in our front yard. It's on the other side of our driveway, receives the harsh western sun and is a pain to water since it's a sorta lopsided pie-shaped area. When my husband and I moved in, we immediately decided to gut it of all the grass and make it a flower bed. I plant many low-maintenance perennials and self-sowing annuals in there. This is also where most of my daylilies are planted. I know they're not necessarily low maintenance, but they do well over there. I thoroughly enjoy roaming through the plants and seeing what's growing besides the weeds. My goal is to eventually to have plants mature enough that the mulch can't be seen. That might happen in about 5 years! Here are some of my favorites that are blooming now.


Sweet Alyssum~Came in a mix of low-growing wildflower seeds. The white really stands out in the garden and the smell is lovely.


Mealy Blue Sage~This was a tagalong plant in a container of Frogfruit. This is a Texas native and I'm so excited that I got a "two-fer".


Blue Sage~Different than the Mealy Blue Sage above, but similarly colored flowers. This one is shorter and spreads more prolifically.


Part of the front bed. The butterfly bush (bright purple bloom on the left.) was a rescue from the nearly dead table at Wal-Mart several years ago. The blooms smell wonderfully! There's Silver Ripples daylily, yellow Four Nerve Daisy, and another purple salvia, May Night in this pic.


Balloon Flower~This is a self-sowing annual. It dies back in the winter, but it's come back every year I've had it. Just mulch it well in the fall and wait patiently for it's first leaves to poke through in the spring. I have a problem with that waiting thing, though!


Pink Skullcap~Another native that I'm excited about. This came to me last fall as a trade. I couldn't get it in the ground before it got cold, but it had set seeds, so I harvested the seeds and put the plant in my sunroom to overwinter. The plant survived and when I winter sowed the seeds, almost every single one germinated! I have these spread along the borders of this bed.



Daylily 'Hawaiian Nights'~first flower opening on this one and it's a beaut! Well worth the wait!


Pinks, purples, and blues. They will nicely accentuate the yellows and goldens I'm waiting to bloom.


Lastly, I leave you with a view of the bed from this morning's shade looking toward the street.

Today's Garden Stroll

It was a bit overcast this morning when I first went out to the gardens, so it was quite pleasant. The recent steady warm temps have really helped everything take off.


Red California Wonder pepper (sweet)


Baby yellow peppers (sweet). These plants are smaller than the red peppers. Interesting!


Yellow squash


Watermelon flower (male)


Cantaloupe flower (male)


Burpless cucumber (again...male flower)


Pole beans going crazy.


New trellis system for the pole beans, designed by the Handy Man himself!


Buds on my bush beans. Exciting!


Almost ripe Christa Merced tomato


The Sugar Baby watermelon baby is still about the size of a softball, but it's turned a deeper shade of green this week.


Another yellow straight neck squash


More strawberries!!

In the next post, we'll stroll through the flower beds. Lots of pretties showing off! :)