Hello,
Shawn found a couple new pests in our garden this week – a green cucumber beetle. It is called a northern corn worm, but as far as I can tell it is a different variety of our good old cucumber beetle. You will find it in the yellow flowers of the cucumber, zucchini or melon plants. You should keep an eye out for these beetles as well as regular beetles during your daily trips into the garden. Hand pick and destroy.
We have also seen squash bug. They will suck the life juices out of the leaves, stems and fruit. If you see this bug, you should also trap and destroy before it has a chance to reproduce.
If you still don’t have zucchini or cucumber you may not have enough sun. Less than 6-8 hours of sun per day may give you a later harvest. Be patient, if your plants have nice green perky leaves and lots of flowers, your fruit should be coming soon.
Otherwise, you may not have enough bees to do the pollinating. Here again is the link on how to hand pollinate for a better harvest.
http://www.houselogic.com/home-advice/plants-trees/how-to-pollinate-zucc…
When you do see zucchini and cucumbers, make sure to pick them before they get too big. Leaving a large fruit on the plant will slow production of more fruit. Pick early and often.
Cucumbers in your garden have spikes on them when they grow! This is perfectly normal, you can simply rub them off with a soft cloth, or your fingers. The round yellow cucumbers are lemon cucumbers. They taste just like regular cucumbers, and should be enjoyed accordingly.
Black spots on the bottom of your tomatoes indicate that you don’t have enough calcium in your soil. You can correct with organic crab fertilizer. You can find it at the Coop de la Maison Verte http://www.cooplamaisonverte.com for sure, but probably other garden centres as well.
Keep the soil in your garden free of debris and dead leaves. They make great hiding places for pests and a great place for powdery mildew and other funguses to get started.
Beautiful lemon cucumber and zucchini salad
http://www.yummly.com/recipe/Minted-zucchini_-pea-and-lemon-cucumber-sal…
A nice recipe for zucchini bread
http://www.simplebites.net/how-to-make-the-best-zucchini-bread-ever/
Best,
Tereska Gesing