Potato beetle blues

Tomatoes are waiting for sunshine

It's been an interesting summer, to say the least. After getting pounded with two feet of snow in late April, we scrambled to get the garden and greenhouse planted hoping that the seeds and immature plants would survive bouts of frost throughout May to early June. Most of June and July were wet, wet, wet, with the occasional hot and humid day. Surprisingly, even the smallest plants survived a hailstorm last month, too.

But, the temperatures haven't been ideal for growing veggies like corn and squash. Looking back on the past four months, it's a miracle that anything has survived. If it weren't for our raised beds, the garden would have been submerged under many inches of water.

Mixed lettuce

First greenhouse green pepper!

Here we are on the 2nd day of August and practically everything is doing OK. Peas are producing nicely. Lettuce has recovered from hot spells in June. Spinach stopped bolting. Beans and potatoes are happy and healthy. Corn is getting taller. Carrots, beets and Swiss chard are coming along. Asparagus will be ready for harvesting next year. Fava and soya beans are in full bloom. Four types of tomatoes are still green, but getting bigger.

Spinach

Peppers have many flowers. We have had two large green peppers so far and more than a dozen banana peppers, some of which I pickled last week. Celery and celeriac are doing very well. Yellow, white and red onions are tall and yummy. Garlic is coming back after two weeks of hot temperatures stunted their growth. The dill is finally gaining momentum.

Medium sized heads harvested in early July

Broccoli is still producing small heads, but the cauliflower bolted. Radishes are small, but tasty. Only three out of thirty peanut plants have survived, victims of the cold spells in May and June.

Small zucchini are tender and tasty

I love to harvest small zucchini to munch on as I'm working in the garden. There are many blooms, so I'll be making relish soon. I found out last year from some of my many canning books and mags that typical relish is made from zucchini. I had no idea! Last year, I made about 10 jars of it, and we still have a jar in the fridge.

Not sure if the spaghetti and butternut squash will amount to anything. I harvested six spaghetti squash last year, but they weren't completely ready. The giant pumpkin isn't big and the cantaloupe are very small. Everything is so late this year. And the potatoes, well, they are growing in leaps in bounds, but pesky insects are devouring the leaves.

Onions, lettuce and radishes

The Colorado potato beetle is a voracious eater and it reproduces so fast, it's difficult to keep up once eggs hatch. It thrives under wet and cooler conditions, so it's no wonder there are so many this summer.

Colorado potato beetle

Practically overnight, two potato patches were crawling with them. My day starts by picking every single bug off of every leaf. I do this several times a day. I've squished thousands of them under my rubber boots, and I'm getting really good at spotting even the smallest larvae from five feet away. I don't enjoy stomping the life out them, but after all of the gardening work we've put in this year, I'm pretty territorial about our diverse family of veggies and fruit plants.

I repeat the bug hunt several times a day, lifting leaves looking for clusters of orange eggs and removing infested bits of leaves. Picking larvae off the leaves and squish, squish, squish under my boot. Then, onto the egg plants which the bugs seem to love even more than potatoes. Most of the leaves are full of holes. You'd think that after several weeks the pests would be pretty much eradicated. Not! What are beetles from Colorado doing here, anyway? Get out of my garden and go home!

I don't want to use chemicals in my garden, and using any kind of powders or dish soap-type  remedies is pointless because it rains practically every day. We have a heavy morning dew which pretty much washes everything away, too. The good ol' fashioned picking and squishing method seems to be the best one so far. It's time-consuming, but it does get me out in the garden throughout the day and I manage to do some weeding after the squish sessions.

I even caught some nice-sized spiders in the greenhouse and relocated them to the potato patch. A few spiders feasted on some larvae. Found some small toads and frogs and relocated, them, too. Despite the infestation, the Yukon and PEI red potato plants are blooming and looks healthy, save some badly munched leaves here and there. Overall, I'm pleased with the garden's progress so far, and potato bug squishing is part of my daily routine. It's that time again. Off to squish!