Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Frustrations and Beauty

My compost cantaloupe plant is infested with the squash bugs since I have let the squash plants die out. I pulled out the other surprise plant from my compost because it was looking too hot and I squashed as many of the bugs as I could with my shovel (about 30).
I need to purchase some pesticide.

I have two "cherry" tomato plants that have produced 3 large tomatoes between the two of them. They have looked about this size and green for over a month now. hmmm.

I am still hoping for some corn although it is way too hot and odds are the corn will be fried before it can fully grow. I water thoroughly twice a day.

I am concerned about our citrus trees. Below is my grapefruit tree, the leaves often look sad like this and I don't see any growing fruit on it anymore. It appears that the fruit all withered and fell off on the ground. I have been constantly dripping on all the trees (each day a different tree) and increased the water within the past week hoping to help all the trees out. The most western orange tree and the tangerine tree still have many growing fruits, so I have hope for them. I am sad to think that our harvest will not be as brilliant because of my failure to water them enough.

The dropped grapefruits:

Here is proof that the sunset can be just as beautiful in a not-so-beautiful part of town. Even while being adorned with power lines.

Friday, July 2, 2010

My Zucchini Problem

I think I have figured out a problem that may be causing my zucchini plant not to give me any squash. The Squash bug:
This guy is causing me some trouble. I started seeing them after I watered about a week and a half ago. They would come to the top of the plant and sit on the leaves after I was done saturating the ground around the plant. I started killing them by flicking them off the plant and brutally smashing them with my hand shovel. I hadn't seen them for a few days, so I thought I had defeated them, but this morning, I saw babies and a daddy (or mommy).
I read a bunch of helpful information on this site about common problems with growing zucchini: http://www.gardeningknowhow.com/problems/solutions-for-common-problems-growing-zucchini.htm