This was the last grape harvest of the season. These were the prettiest of the clusters.
The zucchini bed on left and watermelon bed #1 on right are starting to fill out.
The black popcorn bed is mature. It's much shorter growing than the earth tones ornamental below.
You can see the different colors now on the mature kernels.
Squash bees were busy pollinating some of the pumpkins below.
And honeybees were busy up top collecting pollen from the tassels.
A few more corn needed staking in the popcorn bed.
The purple stems on the Malabar spinach (above) match the nearby amaranth.
Still a favorite of the grasshoppers.
Nearby pests on the kale were moth cabbage loopers (on left) and butterfly cabbage worms (on right).
The flowering chives were attracting lots of the bees.
The butterfly bush had lots of new blossoms.
And the senna bush started to open its bright yellow flowers. This carpenter bee enjoyed them.
We left several milkweed that self-seeded last season. Some of these are quite bushy now.
The ladybugs are everywhere, especially on the milkweed, corn, and fennel.
The fig tree's fruit started to ripen.
We've become accustomed to hearing the figeater beetles fly around the garden, but finding a mating pair was a surprise.
This is the first cucumber beetle we've seen in a while.
This fuzzy bumble bee was drinking from the Arabian lilac flowers.
There were many of these western yellowjackets hovering in a spot in the grass near the garden. They like to build their
hives below-ground. Hopefully that wasn't the reason for them there!
We transferred a trash can full of finished compost to replenish the store in the newest compost bin.
Week of August 1 - August 5, 2016
A bit smaller harvest this week. There are less grapes to be found.
But there are still clusters high up in the tree that are still ripening.
And there are plenty of bird-pecked ones for the bees to sip from.
The cucumbers on the other side from the Japanese cucumbers are finally taking off.
Amaranth has turned into the quickest growing thing in the garden. Can you believe these thick, tall stalks belong to
plant seeded just a few weeks ago?
The grasshoppers really love them.
This mating pair was found on the dinosaur kale plant nearest the amaranth patch.
The cucumber seeds and zucchini have come up.
Some of the black popcorn stalks fell over and needed staking. We suspect some underground critters are nibbling their
roots.
You can see the black popcorn ears clearly now.
We left many of the seeded sunflower stalks to shade the sugar cane. And surprise, surprise, it's blooming again!
The tropical guava tree is full of developing fruit.
Lots of bugs have been attracted to the corn. This little beetle is called a seed bug.
We've seen hardly any ladybugs in the garden over the summer. Now, they're commonplace on the corn. There are
plenty of black aphids for them to feed on.
Figeater beetles are enjoying the pollen on the corn tassels.
This is a mealybug destroyer.
This spider was found in the kale bed.
Still lots of bee and wasp activity on the blooming fennel.
The marigolds continue to attract a variety of bugs. This is a skipper butterfly.
Our first sad news on the bird house. The western bluebirds stopped feeding the babies earlier than we expected. We
took down the house and found a baby inside that didn't make it. The picture shows the nest and the carrot wood seeds
the parents had collected.
This large caterpillar was crawling on the birdhouse.
The garlic chives are blooming and one of the tropical milkweeds that sprouted from seed along the strawberry bed has
only orange flowers.
Week of July 25 - July 29, 2016
A big kale harvest -- four bags -- and a big grape harvest this week.
This time is was the green grape's turn to shine.
Lots of plump ones...
...and beautiful clusters.
And some of the widest dinosaur kale leaves we've seen.
Things are growing well in the produce beds...
,,,and along the fence.
The sugar pie pumpkins are ripening...
...and so are the mini ones.
There are more Japanese cucumbers now.
The raspberry plants aren't looking that great (spider mites/sunburn?), but there are still some pretty clusters of berries.
The cilantro growing in the bell pepper bed was thinned out.
It was also time to thin out the amaranth.
The leaves are such a pretty purple color.
Ahhh, room to grow.
The first watermelon bed was also weeded and thinned out.
Our last summer bed was planted -- cucumbers went into the former kohlrabi bed,
We see silk in the black popcorn bed -- and it's red!
Pretty spider in the Russian kale.
The marigolds are growing so well in the produce beds.
And they are continuing to attract so many bugs! A flower caterpillar, baby grasshopper, and beetle.
Our first milkweed bug of the summer.
The flowering fennel is attracting a variety of bees and wasps.
Week of July 18 - July 22, 2016
A two day harvest this week. This was Wednesday's donation.
And this was Thursday's. Hiding in those leafy bags are the remaining garden kohlrabi.
Each overgrown stalk multiplied into dozens or more kohlrabi swollen stems.
Many of these secondary growths got pretty big. And contrary to what you hear about veggies that have shot into flower,
these guys are still just as sweet and tender inside.
We also pulled out all the remaining carrots.
Found the colorful tomatoes.
And picked lots of kale leaves.
The bagrada bug damage was more visible on a few of the leaves.
Lots of pretty clusters of grapes were found.
The bees sipped from the damaged ones.
The watermelon seeds and amaranth that we planted last week popped up.
Amaranth grows fast! Just a few days later and it looked like this.
Cilantro seedlings are popping up all around the bell pepper plants. We'll thin them out when they get a little bigger.
Goodbye cabbage/kohlrabi bed.
This will become another watermelon bed.
A long earthworm was found while turning over that bed.
We spot-amended the lettuce patch next to it and planted new seedlings around the stevia.
Goodbye overgrown kohlrabi bed.
Check out the size of the stalks.
The 3 beds that we refurbished this week were amended with garden compost and chicken manure.
We seeded zucchini in the former carrot bed.
The Malabar spinach is continuing to climb and reach.
The corn is tall and the ears are plump. We would have guessed the corn to be 16 feet or more, but a measuring tape
says its only 11.5 feet from the ground to the tip of the tassel.
Oh no, corn bed #2 is beginning to tassel! It's too short to need to do so -- there aren't any ears for it to pollinate -- and
wedon't want it to cross-pollinate with the variety growing in bed #1.
The strawberry plants are starting to make baby plants on runners.
The large purslane that we moved out of the cilantro bed is blooming.
The blooming fennel is attracting the bees.
The last blooming lettuce was attracting the smallest of the bees and the seedbugs.
There are puff-ball flowers all over the melaleuca trees.
Lots of pests were snacking in the cabbage bed. These are cabbageworms and slugs.
The cabbage white butterfly caterpillars are easy to spot when they eat something purple.
We believe this is a baby (or nymph) of last year's mystery bug, simply named a plant bug.
So many grasshoppers this week! This flower looks like it has caterpillar damage.
That would be from sunflower moths like this one.
Lots of interesting bugs have been visiting the marigold flowers. This is a fruit fly.
If you heard a loud buzzing sound in the garden this week, that would be from these figeater beetles, who are trying to
find soil with a lot of decaying matter in it (like our compost bins) to lay their eggs in.
This little guy (that's skin he's sitting on) is aptly named a big-eyed bug.
This colorful Western yelllowjacket was crawling over the kohlrabi leaves.
There are only a few monarch caterpillars in the garden.
But there are lots of milkweed seeds!
Week of July 11 - July 15, 2016
Our big weekly harvest included a new item this week.
Grapes!
Our green grapes are still not ripe, but lots of purple ones were ready for picking.
ESS helped find the most purple clusters.
We also searched for the tallest carrots.
Our first red carrot was pulled out.
Every week we find at least one funny one.
The search was difficult in the strawberry bed...
...but easy in the tomato bed.
We found our first funky tomato.
Our last big head of cabbage was pulled out. Can you tell that insects prefer green cabbage to purple?
Lots of kohlrabi was harvested.
We deadheaded the marigolds in the kale bed and planted some of the seeds in the new watermelon bed.
Three beds were changed over this week. The cilantro bed was refurbished with our usual mix.
We planted bell peppers and gave them a shade cover with a piece of weedblock.
Watermelon seeds collected from last year's plants were planted into the former red cabbage bed. It will be interesting
to see if the red and yellow watermelon cross-pollinated and made a whole new variety. Could we get orange
watermelon?
The seeded orach stalks were collected for seed saving.
We refurbished the 2 spots of orach and planted amaranth seeds. The grains can be cooked and eaten and the leaves
can be eaten fresh.
We have big ears of corn now!
We collected more sunflower heads.
The tropical milkweed is seeding.
We trimmed back the vigorous confederate rose hibiscus.
Oh no, bagrada bugs in the kale beds! If these guys get too numerous, we might have to rip out the kale. Kale seems
to be their favorite thing to eat and hand-picking is the only way to get rid of them. When they multiply so quickly, that's
hard to do.
We found these eggs underneath some of the dinosaur kale leaves. They might be bagrada bug eggs.
This guy usually stands gourd at that kale bed. Maybe he'll catch any adult bagradas trying to fly in under the row cover.
Lots of grasshopper activity in the garden again this week.
These brown widow egg sacs were found under the shed's lid.
This spiky pupa was found in the bell pepper bed.
Several black soldier flies were resting near the compost bins. We gladly welcome them. Their larvae are awesome to
have in compost piles. They eat waste like crazy.
Week of July 4 - July 8, 2016
Our first Japanese cucumber was included with this week's harvest.
Again, lots of pretty carrots to be found.
And one funny one.
The kohlrabi makes such a pretty color contrast with the carrots.
More tomatoes this time.
Every corn stalk is tasseled now.
And they're tall!
The pumpkins are striped!
The vines received their first major leaf trimming and fertilizing.
The purple curly kale is also tall now.
The black popcorn is corn bed #2 is trying to catch up.
We said goodbye to the red cabbage bed.
We turned it over with garden compost, worm castings, and chicken manure.
We moved the finished compost out from this bin. Lots of roots from the grape vines were in there toward the bottom.
That's the reason why our grapes are growing so well!
The Western bluebird parents are busy bringing food to their new chicks.
Papa has been bringing carrot wood seeds.
Mama brings more juicy morsels. Crane fly larva?
Lots of grasshopper activity. This one snuck into the kale bed.
And this big guy was sampling the kohlrabi.
A new garden bug! This is an ambush bug. He was near the marigolds and kale. They lie in wait on flowers and grab
anything that happens by with those big buffed forearms.
This fuzzy bumble bee was drinking from the lemon blossoms.
And this black bee was feeding on the calendula.
Week of June 27 - July 1, 2016
Another beautiful harvest this week.
We donated the garlic that finished curing in the shed.
We pulled some large purple kohlrabi and more giant carrots.
ESS helped with the harvest.
Along with all the perfect carrots, there were a couple funny ones to be found, a crown and a twin!
There was a basket to fill with strawberries...
...and lots of ripe tomatoes to find.
It's no wonder we harvest close to 8 pounds of kale when you get this many leaves off just one plant!
The row cover over the kale is doing a good job keeping out most of the pests, but occasionally the moths/butterflies/
grasshoppers will sneak in. Only a few of the leaves had any caterpillars on them.
Here are a couple moths we found playing in the beds.
Our popcorn/mini pumpkin bed is growing.
But it's the ornamental corn that's the garden stand-out.
It's finally begun to tassel and show it's baby ears.
Underneath, the pumpkins are blooming like crazy.
Thanks to the bees...
...we've got a few of these forming.
A grasshopper was doing yoga on the corn.
The nearby marigolds seem to be a magnet for baby grasshoppers.
But the marigold and calendula flowers sure do make the beds pretty.
The malibar spinach is wrapping its way up the fence.
Another big apple was picked.
Even surrounded by bird netting, the birds got to most (but not all) of the kohlrabi seeds.
We started to cut down the stalks of cilantro to collect the seeds.
A purslane weed popped up in that bed. Since it's an edible (and a very nutritious one!), we're letting it grow.
Other seeds we collected were from the Jupiter's Beard flowers...
...and the sunflowers.
Most if the sunflower heads are seeding, but there are a few still blooming.
We cleared away a section to plant our sprouting sugar cane.
Eventually it will straighten itself out.
Another compost bin brings the number of garden bins to 5. This tall one will store finished compost.
Lots of butterflies came to lay eggs. The anise swallowtail on the fennel...
...the cloudless sulphurs on the senna.
...and the monarchs on the milkweed.
Lot of skippers were around too.
A pretty harlequin beetle was found in the cabbage/kohlrabi bed.
The flowers on the coast rosemary have been attracting lots of visitors. A cabbage white butterfly...
...and fuzzy bumble bees.
The confederate rose hibiscus attracted the honeybees.
The other garden plant in showy bloom is the native buckwheat.
Week of June 20 - June 24, 2016
A full harvest this week.
Some of the hidden items are these kohlrabi.
And these carrots.
The tomato plants are making a comeback.
The sugar pie pumpkins are beginning to fruit.
The green and purple grapes are ripening.
The basil is blooming.
The marigolds are swallowing up some of the kale.
The strawberry bed, where we have garlic chives, marigolds, calendula. basil, and lettuce, is especially pretty.
Corn bed #2, our black popcorn with mini pumpkins, is coming along.
Corn bed #1 is healthy and tall.
A few of the kohlrabi failed to swell out into a ball.
The corner trees are blooming.
So is the native coyote mint.
The rose hibiscus was hiding this green lynx spider.
The cabbage white butterfly chrysalis was found in the red cabbage bed. Correction: this is a mourning cloak chrysalis
This beautiful polar sphinx moth was lying on the entry path. No longer living, but still beautiful.
Week of June 13 - June 17, 2016
Sorry, photos are currently unavailable. Stay tuned....
hives below-ground. Hopefully that wasn't the reason for them there!
plant seeded just a few weeks ago?
roots.
plenty of black aphids for them to feed on.
took down the house and found a baby inside that didn't make it. The picture shows the nest and the carrot wood seeds
the parents had collected.
only orange flowers.
these guys are still just as sweet and tender inside.
says its only 11.5 feet from the ground to the tip of the tassel.
wedon't want it to cross-pollinate with the variety growing in bed #1.
find soil with a lot of decaying matter in it (like our compost bins) to lay their eggs in.
to see if the red and yellow watermelon cross-pollinated and made a whole new variety. Could we get orange
watermelon?
can be eaten fresh.
to be their favorite thing to eat and hand-picking is the only way to get rid of them. When they multiply so quickly, that's
hard to do.
have in compost piles. They eat waste like crazy.
anything that happens by with those big buffed forearms.
grasshoppers will sneak in. Only a few of the leaves had any caterpillars on them.