Garden Update

About 20 days ago I noticed the first signs of a japanese beetle damage and the little buggers crawling over some of the yard.  At the end of the season last year I picked up one of those yellow bomb looking Japanese beetle traps on sale. I figured it couldn’t hurt and if it didn’t work I’d only be out a couple bucks.  HOLY COW!!! It works. And it works well. I’m having to kill thousands of the beetles every few days. Here’s a picture of the first batch we killed by dumping them in boiling water. DIE! DIE! DIE! I need to go buy another one for back by the other garden, the little buggers are chewing on my baby grape plants. You have to be careful though that you put the trap away from the plants you are trying to protect. It lures beetles from all over and you don’t want them lured to your good plants.
About 10 days ago I harvested the garlic. I’ve got them tied up and hanging in the house to dry. This year I grew a soft neck variety specifically so I could tie and hang them. Of course after I couldn’t figure out how to braid the ends my wife came out and did it for me. I don’t get much practice with braiding.

I also picked the first round of cucumbers and made Alton Brown B&B/Refrigerator Pickles.  The whole family loves them.  The cucumbers were about 2 feet long and Teagan says I could have won the County Fair with them. Hahaha. Speaking of which, we are going to the DuPage County Fair on Sunday. You should really go this weekend if you can get free. It’s fun and fairly cheap.

If the leaves are any indication of a good potatoe crop (they arn’t as far as I know) it’s going to be a record year!

And lastly, my tomatoes are not doing very well. They are growing fine, but fruit is taking a long time to set and it’s just not warm enough for them to really get going.  But that means my cabbage crop is doing great.  Another reason for diversity in the garden.