My garden has survived being flooded by all the rain we’ve had, being attacked by bugs and now it’s fighting off some kind of fungus. I’m surprised it’s still living, but it is and some things are finally starting to grow and produce. Since my last update, we dug the potatoes. After being flooded and sitting in water several different times, quite a few started to rot. In fact some were so rotten that Miley decided she didn’t want to help me dig them. That girl refusing the opportunity to dig in dirt… yeah, it was THAT bad. But on the positive side, we did manage to get a nice little box full.

The tomatoes are starting to ripen and I’ve canned one batch of salsa. I really need to get busy canning some more because they are starting to stack up on me.

We’ve gotten quite a bit of yellow squash, onions and green peppers so far. I’ve had problems with squash bugs attacking the zucchini, so I haven’t been able to harvest any of that yet. Some one else was telling me they had the same problem with the bugs getting the zucchini and not the yellow squash. The leaves on the zucchini plants were yellow and they looked like they were going to die, so I decided to do an experiment with them. I started spraying it with raw milk mixed 50/50 with water. I didn’t just lightly spray it either, I set the nozzle on stream and blasted every squash bug I could find. Plus I covered all of the plants until it was running off them. I’ve done that at least 5 times so far. Amazingly they came out of it, greened up and are growing like crazy. Just tonight, I noticed one baby zucchini, so they are finally starting to produce. The squash bugs are still there, but don’t seem to be bothering the plants. I don’t know if it’s the milk keeping them at bay or if they are just regrouping and planning a new attack. I guess time will tell.

Where the potatoes were, we planted 4 rows of fall green beans and several rows of onions. Last week we had 2.75 in of rain, so they were standing in water for a few days but it didn’t seem to bother them too bad.

On the other end of the garden, we planted more beans…. why we did that, I don’t really know. All I do know is if they all produce good, we will be wondering, “what in the heck we were thinking”, while being hunched over with aching backs picking them all. I already have a back ache just thinking about it. It will be nice to have a pantry stocked full of canned beans this winter, so that will be my motivation to get through it. Also pictured are sweet potatoes and cucumbers. This is my first year growing sweet potatoes, so I’m not sure what to expect with them. I had to replant cucumbers so they are just now starting to grow good and get a few blooms.

Pictured below are the honeydew and cantaloupe. They’ve really taken off nicely with all this rain.

Well, this is the latest on my garden. This has been a really crazy summer weather wise and I am finding it hard to keep the garden going. How’s your garden doing? Do you have any good ideas on combating the effects of weather, fungus and bugs on your garden?