There’s always that brief window in the year when I think, “Maybe this year is the year that I’ll have the perfect, pest-free garden.” And then they arrive! Despite a relatively light spring in terms of pest damage (we did have the broccoli annihilated by cut worms, but little else was affected), they’re here at last. The eggplant leaves are becoming speckled with the tiny, pin-prick holes that are the signature mark of flea beetles and, more severely, cucumber beetles have arrived to feast on the previously perfect squash and cucumber plants. If in your garden you’re noticing ragged holes on the leaves of these plants with the outside rim of the holes looking dried-out and almost burnt, it’s probably cucumber beetles at work. These little black and yellow striped bugs will also chomp on the fruit of these plants, leaving rough, scar-like wounds on the skin of squash and cucumbers. If you want to deal with cucumber beetles in the least invasive way, it’s easy to pick them off the plants and crush them in the early morning when they’re still sluggish and slow to move. However, even though I’ve had cucumber beetle pressure everywhere I’ve farmed, the plants tend to be able to grow and produce through the damage at this point in the season. I’ll be keeping an eye on the beetles this year, but at this point we’re still harvesting more than enough cucumbers!
And, yes, the cucumbers are in! It’s always exciting when the first summer-bearing crop of the year starts to produce, as with the cucumbers this year. And with a hot, sunny week behind us and more of the same in the forecast, the crops are growing quickly, with the first tiny green tomatoes visible on the tomato plants and tiny peppers starting to form as well. In addition, the bush beans are producing their first brilliant purple flowers (check out Instagram for a photo of these!), so the heavy harvests of summer are just weeks away! For now, we’re enjoying a fresh salad every night, plenty of kale in our eggs at breakfast, and a regular supply of arugula pesto, as well as having enough left over that I took in another big donation of greens earlier this week!
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