Great Start for August in the Garden

This is a home made butterfly feeder. A handmade leaf shaped plate was attached to a 4 by 4 and we put over ripe fruit in it to feed butterflies. At one point there were 20 butterflies on the peaches at the same time. Here's a great butterfly identification site, Butterflies and Moths of North America.
The feeder is 5 feet off the ground so they can land safely.


The rest of the peaches had to be picked today and the garlic dills had to be made. So we split up the chores and got it all done.

The mess of greenery in the photo is: In the front bottom of the photo is the TN Sweet Potato Squash. Behind it is tomato vines comingling with cucumber vines.

A friend invited us to pick corn yesterday morning and while we were in his garden he pointed out squash borer eggs. So, I checked every one of our squash leaves this morning and found 8 leaves with clusters of copper colored eggs. Thanks, Richard.

Colorado State University Extension has the scoop on squash beetles and their offspring.

Suggestions: *Get rid of mulch around squash *Apply insecticide to the base of the plants. Diatomaceous earth/pyrethrins are recommended for organic gardens. For gardeners who are not worried about organic treatments, use esfenvalerate, permethrin, or carbaryl as the active ingredient to control squash bugs. Apply in June (too late for that) and then reapply. *Check plants weekly for eggs. Here's the link to read the whole article.

To make the jars of pickles, I checked under every leaf for the right size fruit. Look what was lurking in the cucumber vines this morning.

Cicadas are here every year. They do not wait the 17 years of the 17 year locust cycle you often hear about. The Gardeners Network has a thorough article about them here. The female Cicada lays 600 eggs - good grief we are defenseless.