Other post-vacation garden updates

Other news from around the garden:

• Shaggy (the Cherokee Purple tomato) had a bad accident while we were gone too – one of his main vines either got too heavy or got whipped around in the wind, and snapped completely. When I went to cut it off with my knife, I think I snagged the stem and dug into it. Hopefully poor Shags doesn’t mind a few nicks and scratches.

• The lettuce pest I mentioned the other day turned out to be a cabbage looper (as identified via e-mail by my wonderfully helpful local university extension office). They recommend I use a BT-based pesticide to help remove them. I picked up some Thuricide at the local garden center and sprayed it on the lettuces. This seemed to help for a bit but I noticed a few more eggs and caterpillars in the garden yesterday, so I guess it’s an ongoing process.

• We also returned to find a minor aphid infestation (also identified by the extension’s master gardeners) on the Black Cherry tomato plant…

I sprayed some homemade insecticidal soap on them (lighter formula this time) and that seemed to take care of them.

Full garden photo round-up (couple days old) after the jump.

The infestation theme continues … and we planted some beans

First up, we have a frequent visitor to the garden (and house) now … his name is Pepe Le Pew and he’s pretty camera shy. This is the best shot I could get so far:

He showed up yesterday actually inside the house – Gabby tracked him down while he was checking out Leeloo’s bed. I shoo’ed him out several minutes later but now he keeps hangin’ round the deck. Dude loves hangin’ out in the sun but does not want to stand still for his glamour shot.

In other news, tonight I went out back to plant the Blue Lake bush beans .. and encountered some other most definitely unwelcome visitors in the ornamental bed right by the veg beds (large picture warning).

From what I can tell, they look like red spider mites. I’ve attached the uncompressed picture so someone can help me identify them. Google tells me this is not a great sign. Looks like the best treatment option is insecticidal soap. Since I don’t have any just yet (perhaps I can make some), I went ahead and blasted them off the rocks with the hose. We’ll see if they show up again tomorrow.

I did get the green beans planted though (in the east bed) – 1 4 ft. row, give or take (had to work around the soaker hose).

Fifty-five days later and we might be eating some beans.