Comings and Goings In The Yard

 There are lots of creatures great and small that come through or live in our yard.  Somedays I see lots and sometimes not hardly any at all.  On these two days, I found one and one about ran over me at the bus stop.

I was cleaning out the last of the squash plants and saw this and thought it was a piece of corn that had started to mold.

On closer examination I thought might be some type of bug.  Was it good to have in the garden or not to that was the question?   From what Google Lens tells me it might be a dry-Mexican bean beetle.  If this is the case it is bad news.  Doing research to see what I need to do  Mike Meadows what do you think?  You are my go-to gardening guy.

Then Adi and I were at the bus stop waiting for Ava and Jon Milligan was picking up Louie when I hear a voice...Jan...it took me a second and then I saw this big buck.  Others have seen him in the neighborhood.  He ran right across the yard in front of us and into the woods.  Beautiful.  I couldn't get my hands and camera to cooperate so this is the shot I got.  Maybe I should be taking my big girl camera to the bus stop.

Gardens Are Sleeping

 It was time for all good things to come to an end.  We all hated to see the season end.

The gardens are now sleeping.

The strawberries have all been cut back and covered to keep them warm.  And the Tower Garden stands naked and alone.

The Pumpkin Patch is void of any color.  Maybe next year we will have better luck.

Flower beds are in deep slumber.

The Watermelon Patch has seen better days.  Maybe one day there will be a greenhouse here.

The Goat Pen has no more tomatoes or peppers.

The raised beds are waiting for new soil to top them off and then a layer of leaves.

It was a great adventure for sure.

Starting The Fall Clean-Up

 

Mark, Michael, and I triple-teamed it last night once it got a little cooler.  A quick tip we never even thought about...use the weed eater to take out all the dead hosta.  Done in minutes then rake everything to the grass and cut over it when you mow the yard.  Very little clean-up.  Brillant!  Work smarter not harder.

The yahoos and I started cleaning up the goat pen garden.  There are still vegetables to be picked.

The pumpkin patch is ready for the pumpkin fairy.

Tomatoes are all gone and the strawberries will be the next things trimmed back.

Two lone jalapeno plants are holding up progress in the raised beds.

Punkins and Melons

 

Look what we picked today!

And we found another little one.

The watermelons are amazing to me!

Mysteries

Looks like all these guys are on the vacation of their lives.  My poor pumpkin vines.  We got not even one pumpkin out of the actual pumpkin patch.

I'm thinking these are three separate stages of the dreaded stink bug or probably more likely squash beetles.

The squirrels have had a banquet on this beautiful, huge tomato from Mr. John's yard.

There are some beautiful strawberries left.  Amazing.  Early fall we will be cutting them back to about 2 inches tall for the winter.  We will cover them with straw and hope they go nuts next year like they did this year

Sad last really small and ugly cucumber.  They were a bust this year.  We planted twice.

The last little pumpkin on the vine.

Then I found that all the rest of the little pumpkins that were trying to hanging on were covered with some kind of mold.

Bug dance party on the pumpkin leaves before I burn them.

 

Veggies While We Were On Vacation

 

Even though we weren't here the veggies were not going t wait for us to ripen.  So Wammyville parents and grandparents came to pick so things wouldn't rot on the vine and we are so thankful.

Cucumbers on the Tower Garden

White eggplant for Bridgit and Emmy.

green pattypan squash

one day of picking

a different day of picking

eggplant

Look at all those colors!

another eggplant

English cucumbers are going crazy and so is the basil.

 We have a rogue pumpkin that is developing on the goat pen fence.  How did it get clear across the yard?

Another Tower Garden cuke.

Tomatoes ripening on the vine.

We have a little bit of blight but it hasn't seemed to hurt the growing process.  Knock on wood.

Thanks to everyone for helping out.  Bridgit the flowers never looked better!  Murph thanks for the pics and being there to look after things.  And to everyone for picking and playing with the dogs.  I looked forward to your pics, stories, and FaceTime calls.

I Spy With My Little Eye

 

A volunteer pumpkin (I think) coming up in the Goat Pen...clear across the yard.

Jalapeno starting to ripen.

An actual pumpkin in the Pumpkin Patch.

Cucumber on the Tower Garden.

Zinnias had a visitor with a hurt wing. An Eastern tiger swallowtail

My one prize sunflower coming up behind the cucumbers.