Planting Zukes and Cukes

Yesterday morning I had in mind to plant some of my seedlings out into the garden. But I decided against it for two reasons: 1) it was going to be a very warm day (89 degrees), and 2) thunderstorms were forecast for the evening. It didn't seem wise to expose new plants to those kinds of weather. So I opted to do some preliminary weeding instead.

We did get the thunderstorms, although the heaviest parts passed us by. Still, we saw plenty of lightning, heard lots of thunder, and got some rain out of it. And a nice sunset.

This morning was sunny and pleasant once again, so I planted some of my starts. The cucumbers were barely big enough to plant; I hope they live.

The golden zucchini were much bigger, and should be fine.

Likewise the yellow summer squash...

...and the zucchini.

For years now, I've been planting "hill crops" in plastic buckets cut in half or thirds. It helps keep the water where I want it, especially when the plants are small, and helps keep out cutworms. While I was digging out the last few weeds I discovered several kinds of larva or caterpillar things, including tiny white ones, larger gray ones, and reddish brown ones. I have no idea what they are, I just figure I don't need them in the garden. So I flicked them out into the field with the tip of my trowel.

Of course, planting doesn't just mean digging a hole and sticking the seedling into it. Besides removing weeds and larva-like things, I mixed in some commercial chicken manure and some balanced fertilizer pellets.

Monday I planted the sunflower and broccoli starts. The broccoli is in a raised bed, but the sunflowers went directly into the soil, inside a large tire. Two days later, two of them had been bitten off and a third had big holes in its tiny leaves.

After looking up information, I decided it might be the fault of slugs or caterpillars. In case it was birds or moths, I put the wire baskets over the remaining plants, and then sprinkled diatomaceous earth around them all. I hope those actions deter whatever was eating them.

Tomorrow I hope to plant a few more of the seedlings, and I need to dig weeds around the blueberry bushes again. We have a major infestation of bindweed, and it's coming up all around the bushes and throughout the clover patch. I've tried everything but toxic chemical herbicides to get rid of it, including agricultural strength vinegar and covering the garden with black plastic for several months, neither of which proved to be effective. I've been told that chemicals are the only thing that will. But I don't want nasty herbicides in the garden, so I guess I have to co-exist with bindweed. (Unless somebody out there has another idea!)