Monday, May 18, 2009

Perspective

Where exactly do slugs go during the day? It's not like they pack up the kids, drop them off at school and go to work, but oddly they are always unseen during the day and abundant in the early evening just like fireflies. It's just odd, if you ask me.

I want to thank everyone for the garden's compliments. I'm hopeful, and by the looks of things, I'm doing a heck of a lot better than last year. Many of you know that last year was our first real foray into gardening. We had six pots in the front yard. Everything looked fantastic, but all I got out of it was one zucchini and a hand full of cherry tomatoes. The fall garden did well with its lettuce and broccoli and I was inspired to try again this spring and summer. The pictures and film were curiously misleading. I only photographed the good and never got close enough with the film to show you the bad.

Photography is a wonderous thing; it allows us to highlight what we want and ignore that which we don't. Then again, we can also use it to let out a little of our insecurities at a time in the hopes someone like-minded can help identify a problem without overexposing our ineptitude.

Ok, so I've skipped the hesitant part of our program and jumped straight to utter humiliation, but I'd appreciate as much help as I can get.

Something has been munching this cucumber leaf.

My peppers are riddled with holes, but this leaf and a few like ones on other plants have me dumbfounded. The okra leaf below had some brown patches.
Although it does not bother me, the eggplant shows something has been dilligently gnawing on the stem. It also has leaf miner damage and you can see through that hole in a leaf.

Here are where most of my problems lie. These are my pole beans. The first few are the Fortex:

These are the KWonder

More KWonder
More KW
Can anyone offer any suggestions? I'm most worried about both of the bean varieties in that they might have some sort of virus seems it appears to be spreading.

I suppose beauty in the garden is how you look at it. Today I chose to focus on the amazing growth of that Banana pepper and the eggplant, however these beans kept coming back to my memory and pressed me to find out, if possible, what was going on. I really don't want to loose them all if I don't have t0.

The morning comes early. Sweet gardening dreams.

2 comments:

  1. No big deal on not showing the ugly stuff previously, I think we all are a little reluctant to. The thing about diseases and such...it happens, whether we want it to, or not. Apply some copper fungicide to the beans, and look for a possible pest causing it. Hope this helps!

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  2. I think most of us try to downplay the negative unless we're completely at a loss for any explanation. I've got bean problems, too, but although I started this project wanting everything to be perfect I'm realizing how many variables there are to this gardening thing and I'm starting to choose my battles. I'll watch for signs of serious trouble but won't jump to react immediately...a lot of things seem too right themselves over time. It has been an amazing thing to watch, even though I've only been doing this for 6 months!

    I actually think that pepper leaf is beautiful. It reminds me of half of a yin and yang symbol.

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