Greetings Fellow Earth Diggers!
It's been a while since I updated about my garden, but there wasn't much to talk about until this point. As the year is coming to an end, the temperatures are soaring by the day, yet still freezing at night. It's gotten to a point where we can be in the low 30 degrees C by day and dip below 20 at night. This has been playing havoc on my peppers and cantaloupe. However, my cucumbers have been loving it!
Thriving Cucumber and Garlic
I currently have two cucumber plants, this gorgeous one, and one that isn't thriving so well, but more on that just now.
I've had many male flowers on this particular plant and only a handful of female flowers.
As you can see, the female flower has the accompanying fruit at the end of it. Sadly, this particular flower never got pollinated, thus resulting in it looking like this after a few days.
Luckily, it wasn't the only female flower and soon I noticed this beauty.
Don't let the picture fool you! It's only about as long as an index finger and a little thicker. But let's turn to my struggling cucumber. Those of you who have read my earlier posts will know that this plant was dwarfed and I thought it was because of the radishes that were growing in the same pot. I learned today that this wasn't the case.
I was pulling up the last of the radishes as I had already collected all the seeds I need. One reddish looked like this. It was completely eaten from the inside, leaving the tough cellulose walls behind. As I knew the radish would be bitter from bolting, I wasn't too upset when I saw the damage done by this guy:
Seems to me I have a cutworm infestation, and since I don't get many birds in my garden, this may be a problem until I can take the soil out and scrape it open. This is the likely reason why my cucumber isn't thriving; its roots are being attacked by this little guy's friends and family. However, despite this, the little cucumber tries, and presented me with this:
The Little Cucumber Who Could!
This guy is significantly larger than the other and I look forward to enjoying it pickled!
I hope the fruit survives the attack on its roots. I really don't want to resort to poison unless absolutely necessary.
In Other News:
My blueberry is loving the weather. After what looked like hundreds of flowers, many fruits followed, and with where the plant is I haven't had any issues with birds trying to take the berries.
I've been picking a few fruits now and again every time I pass. I'm looking forward to potting this guy overcome winter so it can have more room to expand.
Helpful Insects
In previous updates I have complained about the aphid infestation that took over my radishes. I had a little helper against the monstrosities and I didn't even know it!
Hover Fly Maggot
While it may seem blurry, it was tough to get a good picture of this little guy snacking on an aphid with so much gusto, I'm sure the rest fled for their lives because they all seemed to disappear after I took this picture.
Hover Fly Pupa
As soon as the aphids disappeared my little friend decided to pupate. I had to carefully remove it as I collected the radish seed pods, and now it's safely set aside where it can emerge as an adult a few days from now.
Future
As of right now, it's too hot to do much in my garden. My tomatoes have failed completely, and I have no idea why. I'll have to try again when it's a little cooler. The cantaloupes seem to have picked up a fungal infection and I have already culled two of the five. I'm going to continue to baby them in hopes of them growing into actual fruit by next year, but we'll see.
As soon as we leave February I will be planting radishes again, as I have quite enjoyed the experience. They are also ridiculously easy to grow and tasty to eat.
Until the next update my fellow gardeners, I hope you all have a wonderful time with your snow, ground, or whatever you have to contend with. See you later for the next update!