Garden progress

The tomatoes have been pleased with the little coverings, have reached the top and are flowering.  However, they may have preferred if I flipped the top of the cover back over them for these past few cool days.  For certain seedlings, I’ve added anti-slug wire fences as recommended by my neighbor. Sunflower seedlings are planted in the flower/herb/perennial bed. The rain was helpful and now some sunnier days would be most welcome!

Slug Retraining Program

Slugs have found the fennel seedlings and quickly chewed two of them down to stubs. The others all had signs of damage like the photo below. Something had to be done. Now, I don't mind having slugs meet their end, but I don't like to put out the poison to do that. I decided to try the same training program I've use with the cats, Dear Husband, and myself, for that matter.

Simply change something enough to make the bad habit less convenient or satisfying, or offer a better option. If the cats start sleeping somewhere I don't want them to be, I put something in the spot for a few days that encourages them to find a new place. By the time the "something" is removed, they've found a new place. It's best not to give a DH example. (See, the training has worked on me too. And removing the cats or DH is not an option!) Ok, sometimes it works, at least.So what to do with slugs? I decided to try coffee. First, I used the coffee grounds from my french press. However, that didn't go too far. So, I coarsely ground up some old coffee beans I had. Now, I don't know that it is the coffee that has much effect on them, but I thought they might not like the texture. Again, the purpose is simply to make things different enough that they decide to go elsewhere. I once used some old sheep wool trimmings around broccoli seedlings with success too.
All but one of the seedlings have new growth now (photo above), even one of the stubs. The other stub might still pull through too. The new growth is not being eaten, either.

If nothing else, I'm hoping the training simply distracts them long enough for Petunia to show up and eat them.

Sound the Alarm

Powdery Mildew! A sure sign that summer is transitioning to autumn. (& I'm not ready for this, but I do like the fall season.) Some humid days and cool nights we've had aren't helping.

Innocent enough looking at this stage, but don't be fooled. It will spread rapidly to the favorite host plants in the garden. For me that is the delicata squash, cucumbers, and eventually the zucchini (the zucchini variety I'm growing this is supposed to be PM tolerant, though).

So what to do? In my live and let live garden where the squash and cucumbers ramble out of their beds and across walkways, I did jump in the tangle with the snippers and opened up the walkway. This should improve air flow around the plants. I also snipped & removed some of the leaves with PM or other injuries to improve air flow within the plant (these don't go into the compost either). Then I mixed up a water and baking soda mixture (sometimes a little dish soap to help it stick) and sprayed many of the leaves. The baking soda apparently changes the pH level on the surface of the leaves enough to discourage PM.

But then it rained... so I'll check up on them today.

All I try to do is hold it at bay long enough to keep the plant reasonably happy and comfortable until the last of their days and the end of the harvest. If it gets really bad, I remove the plant. Not willing to start spraying anything stronger than baking soda. By then, we're ready to move on to eating something else anyway!