July 21st Update

Okra

Even though almost all of my garden is now taken up by squash/pumpkin vines, I am starting some new plants from seed for the second half of the summer.  I decided to try growing some Okra.  Its been about 8 years since I last grew okra.  Since it likes heat a lot, its a good choice summer time here in N. Texas.   Here are my first seedlings to sprout. I shouldn't need more than 5 or 6 plants to feed us all the okra we want.   Hopefully these guys will do well.  

In a couple weeks, when these guys are bigger, I will have to find an open spot to transplant these.  They are usually pretty tall plants, so they should be able to grow above the vines.    

SVB Battle

The pumpkin. hubbard squash, and acorn squash vines have been a huge jumbled mess.  Once again, I probably planted way more than I should have in my small space I have.  With such a tangled mess, I had not been able to inspect for Squash Vine Borer eggs, or spray anything for them, or even try and cover them with Tulle.  So I just let things go and run their course.  I have buried vines whenever possible, but many of the vines I just could not, especially ones that grew up onto the fence.  I can now see much of the damage the SVB have done so far.   I think the first generation completed  without me noticing much, and are now we're into the second generation of them.  I see many sections of the vines that have big holes in them, as shown in the pics below (Sugar Pie Pumpkin vines)

Most of the damaged vines have big gaping holes, and when I have inspected them, no more grub inside, so I think they exited the vines and dug into the ground to form cocoons.  I have also found empty cocoon shells on the ground too, indicating the second generation is out flying.  I have seen many eggs laid the last few days, and have killed at least 6 moths this weekend.  They are usually see flying around at mid-day.   It seems the hotter it is, the faster they fly.  

The interesting thing is that despite the damage, the plants are still able to produce.  Now the two vines I took a picture of above actually have 2 pumpkins on them that are just about mature:

I think these vines have probably put down a few more roots further down, (but I actually didn't bury these vines) or maybe there was just enough connection left in the chewed up vine to keep providing for the plant.  Either way, it seem often the Sugar Pie pumpkin plants can either outgrow or deal with some of the damage of these SVBs.

Unfortunately I think I have raised an army of SVBs.  I saw a bunch today flying, and killed as many as I could.    My plan is to pull out the remaining Sugar Pie pumpkin vines, and clear out the space when the last 4 pumpkins are ready to pick. So that will probably be in 2 more weeks.  Then I will start a  fall planting.  I will for sure have to cover them with Tulle if they are to stand a chance, to protect them from the hoards of SVBs and cucumber beetles out there.  We'll see what happens!

But up to now, the harvest has been pretty good so far.  I have already picked 1 large Rouge Vif, 1 large Hubbard, 1 small Hubbard, 14 Sugar Pie Pumpkins, 12 Acorn squashes, and at least 20 ball zucchinis.  

Sunflowers

The volunteer sunflowers are still doing great. Here is another Mammoth Sunflower that popped up right next to the edge of the garden bed.  A couple of Hubbard squash vines are growing up it.  The flower head is huge, and full of seeds,and it seems like it going to topple the plant over.  I ended up picking the other big head I had, since the squirrels had eaten about 1/3 of it.  We've been snacking on the seeds the past few days. I hope they don't mess with this one.