Early July Notes

No time for photos now, but it's time for some updates on the garden.

• I dusted the asparagus with rotenone a week or two after we stopped harvesting to get rid of our nasty asparagus beetle infestation. It worked nicely and the plants showed some nice new fern growth, but the beetles were back last week. After picking them off for a couple days, I wasn't seeming to put a dent in them, so I dusted again. So far so good.
• The garden loved the June weather. There were no heat waves after the nasty one the first week of the month. It seemed to serve to warm up the soil and get everything off to a nice start. The temperature was then about average and the rainfall only slightly above average the rest of the way. Yet the rain came several times a week every week with no dry spells and only one severe storm that I can remember. We had hail the size of peas, but I didn't notice any damage. Up in Wayne County's fruit country and in other CNY apple orchards, the hail was bigger and did some real damage. Anyway, the nice regular rainfalls kept me from having to water and made the plants happy.
  
• We started harvesting peas last week. The Oregon Giant came out first and the Mammoth Melting Sugar was delayed by only a few days. Both are tasty and of similar size, though so far the MMS seems to keep its pods nice and thin for a longer time than the OG.
  
• The peas were not attacked by critters again until we left town for 4th of July weekend. The night before we left I became another happy customer of Havahart's traps, but apparently the dude had friends that were still around. Across the street, Joe has caught 5 woodchucks the last I heard. He knew of two more that were still around. Maybe we're down to one? I hope?
• The tomatoes are growing like gangbusters. In my six years of gardening, these are the best I've seen at this point in the season. I tied them to the stakes for the third time tonight. They are dark green, bushy, and healthy. I love the smell of the plants when I'm in the middle of them.
  
• Volunteer sunflowers are nearly ready to bloom. I might have let a few too many stick around, because they've shaded out some peas, beans and tomatoes, but I think it will be worth it in the end.
• Pole beans behind the tomatoes are climbing nicely and seem to have finally outpaced the sunflowers. The ones behind the herb garden are still way behind because of the woodchuck. That soil is pretty lousy, so their lagging may also have something to do with that.
• Summer squash is nearly here. I had to cut off one fruit that was a dud, but we returned from the weekend to find two zucchini on one plant that are nearly ready to harvest. Cucumber beetles have done a job on that plant but, interestingly, not the other two that are smaller and have no fruit yet.
  
• Peppers are doing much better than last year, but they're taking their time. The first flowers peeked out late last week.
• I harvested a good cup or so of basil leaves off of the five or six plants for pasta salad on the 4th. A few of the plants look great, but the ones in with the tomatoes seem to be struggling for sun. They still look healthy but are trying to grow taller than they seem to be able to. The basil tasted great. I love the flavor before it starts to flower.
  
• The garlic is in trouble. I may have some kind of disease as several plants wilted and left me with crummy bulbs. Now it seems that others are in the process of doing so. If I pull them out now, some of the bulbs are turning kind of brown but others are okay. George had the same thing happen to him for a few years and now he's taking a several-year hiatus from garlic to try to let the disease out of the soil. Has anyone else had similar garlic issues?