Corn Will Soothe All Sorrows

The summer garden is on it's way out, I'm afraid. The zucchini and one squash plant were exterminated last week by the SVBs, the bush cucumbers, bush beans, and pole beans were ripped out some time ago. The vining cucumbers still have some on them, but they've stopped flowering. I suppose they're done as well. I've got a second set of bush beans that have yet to set and I just started some new pole beans and peas; the peas have yet to break ground and I'm anxious about them.

The next things to go, I'm afraid, are the second squash plant and cantaloupe, both of which are showing powdery mildew. I'm hopeful we can harvest the one cantaloupe before we leave town next week, but even though I'll be sad to lose those plants, again, it works well with the "have everything out of the garden before we leave" plan.

The only things out there still working hard are the tomatoes and the bell peppers. You know, we haven't gotten a colored pepper yet. They sure do take their time about it, don't they. Sweet potatoes are still looking strong; they have some holes in the leaves, but I'm not concerned. The butternut squash is also in the young stage, but looking nice and strong as well.

With everything either at the start of life or at the end, I have good news to report.

Ladies and Gentlemen, the boy has corn.

Or he will soon, hopefully. I went out there and tried to hand pollinate and shook them a bit just in case. I hear tell you need to do this every day for about 3-4 days, so we'll see how it goes. He wanted corn so ridiculously much and I'm so glad he may actually get some.

To revisit the tick issue from yesterday, this morning I asked my neighbor if he was having problems as well. He said his daughter had four on her just yesterday and the woman next to him has mentioned the tick issue as well. It's good to know that we're not the only ones, but goodness, that's a lot of ticks for the entire neighborhood to be having a problem.

We've got the bug man coming on Wednesday to take a look at things. He may not be able to do anything, but at least he's coming out. We'll just have to keep a close eye on ourselves until the situation abates.

The morning comes early. Sweet gardening dreams.