I'm such a slacker.

I have not really been out in the gardens for a couple of days now. I have had this dull headache that I can't shake and just a general feeling of blah. There are things happening out there though.

First, I want to just say "NOOOOOOOOO". We have them. The dreaded Japanese Beetles. The little buggers are basically eating the rhubarb and the roses. I finally got a bucked of soapy water yesterday and started flicking them in with just a tiny bit of remorse for their lost lives.

unwanted Japanese Beetle

the destruction these little bastards do

their certain death if I see them out there.

Granted, I don't think we have as many as we had last year, or maybe they are just starting to turn up. They are not as bad as my poor mother in law has them at her house. It was just creepy how many were over there munching away on her foliage. I hope they don't get that bad here. Every time I take Patchy out for a bathroom break, I'm checking to see if any more have shown up.

In other gardening news, happier gardening news, our plants all look really good. The mystery compost plant is slowing taking over the brick patio. At least it's not choking out all the pretty flowers we planted back there. I have my doubts as to if this is a cantaloupe. I think it looks more like pumpkin. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

mystery

Speaking of mystery. Remember the free squash plants we got from the nursery. They were by a sign that said Acorn squash, but when I planted them they were labeled Butternut squash. Well, they have taken over the one bed they were planted in. The have choked out all the Hungarian Wax peppers and the onions. It's crazy. There are numerous flowers on them but still nothing growing to give us an indication of what they are.

squash of some sort

We are picking three to four tomatoes off the bushes a day now. One day our family gets a bunch and the next day Nancy picks a bunch. If you look at the picture you can see a bunch of them are red and ready to be picked again. There will be no deficiency of Lycopene in our diets. I had four sitting on my counter and I used three of them in tonights dinner of Channa Masala. They taste amazing!

tomato patch number one

Around tomato patch number two our pretty pest control is looking great. I speak of the marigolds. When we planted them they were these tiny little twigs that I didn't really thing would amount to much. I was wrong. They have bushed out so much and are very pretty. And they appear to be working because we haven't seen any kind of pests over there at all. Yay for marigolds!

perfect pest control

Last, but not least, look what I picked out of my pot of dahlias:

sign of fall?

This lone little red maple leaf. It has blown in from somewhere and is giving me a glimmer of hope for my favorite season of all. FALL. I noticed the other day that the ornamental cherry tree in the front yard has started to drop a couple of leaves too. It gets me all excited for cooler weather and all the fun fall activities associated. Wahoo.

That is all I think I have for you today. I should be outside taking advantage of the 74 degree weather at the end of July and cut the grass or weed the gardens, but I'm going to go take an alieve in hopes to kill this annoying headache. I'm also going to go cut up one of my freshly harvested cukes and eat it with some fresh, home made hummus. Yummus!!