I managed to sow some more lettuce, celery and carrot seed early this morning as long as I had a long shirttail to keep wiping the sweat from my eyes.
The first carrots I planted before the April freeze ('Nantes Scarlet') came up fine, but the next planting on May 2 of 'Kyoto Red' and 'Cosmic Purple' didn't germinate well at all, leaving a big hole in my carrot plot. I reseeded today with 'Nantes Scarlet', so it will be impossible for me to know which variety I'm about to pull when they mature, but I didn't want to waste more time on the two varieties that didn't come up well.
'Kyoto Red' was a free pack along with one of my orders, and I won't be planting it again even if they send it to me free, because last year I did order it, and what few I harvested were hard as tree wood and inedible. I figured I'd go ahead and try them again to see if that might have been a fluke, because why on earth would anyone sell a carrot like that? Maybe that's why they gave them away this year.
The weather conditions we're having are obviously very suitable for whatever leaf spot it is that's attacking pretty much everything that has a broad leaf (zinnias, salvia, toothache plant, roses, cabbage, arugula, beets, tomatoes, melon, cucumber, hyacinth bean, and lettuce that I've noticed so far). I don't know what's going to become of this attack, as it's not killing anything - yet. I'm not going to put any treatment on anything but the roses and tomatoes, so we'll see. I had sprayed the roses with Bayer Advanced Insect, Disease & Mite Control (Tau-fluvalinate +Tebuconazole), and I didn't want to apply more so soon, so I switched back to last year's plan of a spray of 2 parts water to 1 part milk. That seemed to hold off black spot pretty well, and it can't hurt to ingest it, so I'm trying it out on the tomatoes as well. Time will tell. Other than that, there's just too much disease incidence to try to tackle every plant. If I lose other things, I won't be too upset, but the tomatoes and roses are a different story.
The following pictures are some of the plants showing infection.
Zinna
Salvia
'Savor' Charentais melon
'Marketmore' cucumber
Liriodendron tulipifera - Tulip tree
On some of these plants, there's a definite yellowing of the leaf margins as well. I don't know if that's a separate condition, but it seems pretty clear to me that it's all related to the steamy weather.
From a distance, things look lush, but if that leaf spot goes brown and kills the tissue, they're going to look very sad. Perhaps I should say "when" that leaf spot goes brown. I'm trying not to think about it.
'Sunset' runner bean and 'Marketmore' cucumber
Of course, disease isn't the only thing hitting the garden now. As expected, bugs are out. Cucumber beetles are in the roses, and they're going to get hit this evening with Sevin, so sorry. And somebody fairly large is leaving its evidence of feeding on the zinnias:
If it's grasshoppers, I'm stuck. It has to be somebody fairly large to be eating that much of the leaves and leaving droppings that size. I know it's prejudice, but I don't mind knocking off grasshoppers. However, I hate to kill caterpillars if I don't know which ones they are, because they may turn into something beautiful like this Silvery Checkerspot butterfly (a member of the Crescent butterfly family):
Alas, I hate having the caterpillars eat up my plants more, so I'll also sprinkle some Dipel on the zinnias this evening. I'm not seeing these guys during the day (although they may be there - it's too hot to stay out long and watch for them), and Dipel breaks down in strong sunlight. It's an organic formulation (which I also put on my cabbages) that kills only caterpillars, so it doesn't harm bees, and the zinnias are inside the vegetable garden plot where I don't want to put harsh insecticides like Sevin.
The okra isn't showing leaf spot - yet. 'Jing Orange', which is on the outside arc of the following photo, didn't make as good a stand as 'Red Burgundy' to the inside. I don't have any guesses as to why.
The first planting of arugula has bolted, and I'll let it produce seed for next year. It's got a pretty little flower.
Two more of the new roses have begun blooming. 'Winter Sun' and 'Dark Desire'.
'Winter Sun'
'Winter Sun'
I don't know if it's the extreme heat, or if 'Dark Desire' blooms will always develop rapidly. I hope the former, because one day is not a good record for a rose bloom. I'm going to bring one inside to see if it lasts any longer.
'Dark Desire' in the morning
'Dark Desire' in the afternoon
I'm guessing the issue is the heat, because 'Pink Enchantment', which last year had beautiful blooms that lasted several days, did the same thing.
'Pink Enchantment' in the morning
'Pink Enchantment' in the afternoon
'Shazam!' is outstanding again this year; full of blooms that don't seem to be the least affected by the heat:
And so, as Bette Midler sang: From a distance, there is harmony.
And the snapdragons are sweet. (She didn't sing that.)
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