Kitchen Garden- Progress and Pests

Photos from May 23 - June 2, 2009

The garden is growing so quickly these days, I can't believe how much has changed since we last posted some photos.  I'm playing catch up, so here's some pics from a couple weeks ago.

The above photo is of our little greenhouse with some warm weather starts- cucumbers, watermelon, eggplant, peppers, some flowers, and a couple more tomatoes.

I decided it would fun to document some of the pests and diseases we've been encountering this year as well.  The leaf curl on this nectarine leaf is a fungal disease.  We've been pulling off the affected leaves as we see them.  We treated the trees in the winter with a dormant spray to kill the spores, but a few survived.

The holes in this broccoli leaf are from cabbage moth larva.  Those pretty little white moths that fly around mid-day will land on typically the back of the leaves and deposit eggs which hatch out a little green caterpillar.  We had been squishing the eggs as we'd see them, but it's gotten out of control.  There are holes all through our broccoli, cabbage, bok choy and kale.

We set out coddling moth traps in our apple trees because our apples were so full of worms last year it was disgusting.  We've caught 4 or 5 moths so far.  The pheromone in the trap attracts the males and they get stuck.  We're hoping they got trapped before mating with the females.

Beet leaf miner attacks beet leaves, chard and spinach which are all related.  The adult is a little fly that lays white eggs on the backs of the leaves which hatch larva that bore into the leaf.  The larva eventually falls out and buries into the soil.  Supposedly it is only going to be bad in May and June.  We're going to try and plant beets as a fall crop to avoid this time period next time. 

I also set out apple maggot traps.  The apple maggot fly is attracted to red balls that looks like apples.  I also bought the lures that emit an apple scent.  Instead of spreading the sticky goo directly on the ball, I covered the ball with a ziplock bags first for easy cleaning.  We've caught a number of flies, but I'm not sure if they are apple maggot flies.  

Here's our baby bean plants.  A pesky young cat was getting in there and pooping at night, so we laid sticks all around the bare spots to keep him out.  

Romaine Lettuce- so much we've been giving it away.

Dill- smells so good!

Baby nectarines

Baby apples

Baby Tomatoes

Yummy strawberries- with the recent warm weather- we've been getting a little bowlful almost everyday.

Tree onions a.k.a Egyptian walking onions

Bunching onions from last year that are blooming this year