Mid-July Garden Update

Been around 3 weeks since I last posted.  July is here, and its been pretty hot! Actually, we had a hot end of June, then we have a nice week in the low 90s during the 4th of July week, but then last week it was back to being "stinkin' hot" with highs in the upper 90s and up to 102.  The forecast calls for a relief from the heat again this week with highs in the upper 80s and low 90s again. Very nice for being mid July here in Texas!

Chickens

The chicks are looking a lot more like chickens now.  They still make the baby peep sounds, but occasionally I hear a chicken cluck too, so they are in the late  teenage stage now.  Here they are sitting atop their chicken tractor.  I tie up the dog and let them free roam some mornings before I go to work, then I put them back in their coop.  

Squash/Pumpkins

I finally decided to pick my big Hubbard squash.  It was not growing any, and the skin had gotten pretty hard, so I brought out the pruning shears and cut it off the vine.  It wasn't quite as heavy as it looks, its probably about 15lbs.  Haven't decided what I am going to do with it yet, maybe some pie, some bread.  Looking forward to see how it tastes. But in the meantime, its sitting in the pantry.  I also picked the smaller one, because some earwigs were starting to damage it on the underside.  The skin was hard too, so I think it was ready. When I pulled it up, I noticed the vine was pretty damaged from what I think was SVBs.  So that's probably why that one didnt grow too much.  

Unfortunately have not had any more Hubbard squash set... all of them get aborted. Now that its been so hot, I am not to hopeful. I am hoping if we have a cooler week we might get some more to set.  I've read that in temps above 90, they have a real hard time setting, and the plants tend to abort the female flowers.  

I am definitely seeing some effects from SVBs now.  My vines are so big and rambunctious that I have had a hard time checking all the vines for the eggs. I have also not been good at spraying the neem oil.  I guess I've gotten lazy, plus that stuff is expensive. and since I didn't see much activity, I didn't bother spraying it much.  I've seen damage on some of my Hubbard vines, Rouge Vif D'etampes,  ball zucchini, and on my sugar pie pumpkins.  The sugar pie pumpkins are mostly done now.  I've picked about 12 of them now, and there are about 5 other ones still maturing on the vines.  But I think they will be done in a few weeks, and then I might pull up all those vines.   Some of the sections of the Rouge Vif vines have died off, but there are some big sections of the vine that are still growing well.  But no more pumpkins have set. They have all withered and died :(

The ball zucchini has done pretty well, despite some SVB damage, which I treated by extracting some grubs, and injecting with BT to kill any other ones. We've gotten at least 15 nice ones from 4 plants.   Today we grilled some on the barbecue grill. They were great that way. 

I am trying to decide when its time to pull up all the vines and start my fall planting. I might evaluate within a month, and in the meantime start some in pots.  I think I will focus on Rouge Vif, more acorn squash, and some patty pan, yellow squash, and ball zucchini for the fall.   I'll keep the existing Hubbard vines, and hopefully see if they can produce more later on.  

Sunflowers, Etc.

The only other things that are growing now are pole beans and sunflowers. The pole beans are huge, with lots of flowers, but no beans!  I think it might be the heat.  Again, am hoping that the forecasted cooler weather fixes this problem. 

Here is yet another volunteer sunflower.  I think its another one of the mammoth varieties.  

In this picture you can see it, and some of the other varieties behind it.  They all have been doing great, and thankfully, the squirrels have left them alone!

The bees are really liking my garden, between all the squash/pumpkin blossoms in the morning, and all the sunflowers.  Here is another kind, with a good shot of a bee on it.  

This is the first mammoth sunflower, as of today. The seeds are pretty much ready to eat. We've been snacking on some of them while still on the stalk.

 Another bee magnet.. morning glories.  These are also volunteers from many years back. They come back year after year, reseeding themselves.  They are almost weeds now but every year I let a few grow.