Monday, July 6, 2009

Garden Woes

We head into July with temps just over the 80 degree mark. No rain in sight.  We're not complaining, mind you. It actually feels like summer. But there are a few problems in the garden.

First up, the potatoes.

 P1010614

It starts with a leaf slowly turning yellow.

P1010613

Then it spreads and several leaves are yellow.

P1010616

Death eventually takes the whole plant.

I assumed it was blight. At least it's a disease of great historical importance. But Wing Nut said it wasn't. Someone at the nursery suggested a mineral deficiency of some sort. So we gave them some compost tea. Died quicker than you can say "Great Irish Potato Famine". When we yank out a dead plant we find some teeny-tiny potatoes but nothing else suspicious. But today Wing Nut yanked out a plant and there was a very nice sized potato, half of which was mushy. Hey I thought potatoes were supposed to be easy to grow? This is the second year we've tried to grow potatoes. Three years ago we weren't even trying and we got lovely purple potatoes.

Next up, the zinnias.

orange zinnia

Pretty orange flower. Okay, pretty washed out orange flower. But do you see those brownish stringy things on the right? That's what's left of several leaves. On the left you can see a leaf with the damage in progress. And below are a couple more pics.

zinnia leaf zinnia leaf damage

Kind of creepy, no? The zinnias are around the squash in an attempt to attract pollinators in the hopes of FINALLY getting some decent squash.  Should we be worried about the squash? Or should we leave the zinnias so that the leaf skeletonizers will eat the flowers instead of the squash?

And finally, the lawn.

dandelions

I thought "knee high by the 4th of July" was an old adage about corn, not dandelions. I know, I know. I'm doing the bees a favor. But it's a wee bit scary when Diva Dog is almost lost amidst the sea of yellow.

There should be a country song about garden woes...

9 comments:

Mr. McGregor's Daughter said...

Oh, the weeds grow so tall, and the taters are so small...Ah, no. Maybe a Blues song would be better. Well I got up this morning
And looked out at the yard
The plants were all brown
and the soil cracked & hard
I've got the Blues
The Midsummer gardening Blues.

At least you have Zinnias. Not one of my Zinnia seeds sprouted. I thought Zinnias were supposed to be easy.

Jennifer AKA keewee said...

My Zinnias didn't come up too.The potatoes are OK, especially since I put chicken wire around them to protect them from the rabbits.

Karen said...

Did you guys know you reposted your previous post? I am impatiently waiting to see if you're going to write about the Kruckeberg visit! :)

A Cuban In London said...

I thought this was Groundhog Day :-)!

Greetings from London.

Shady Gardener said...

I'm absolutely no help at all when it comes to these sick plants. So, you have my sympathy...

Phoenix C. said...

The lawn looks pretty! Your dandelions look a bit different to ours over here in the UK.

Molly said...

Looks like my lawn!

Yolanda Elizabet Heuzen said...

Knee high by the 4th of July? Really? My corn doesn't seem to know that as it passed the 6 feet high mark about a month ago. ;-)

Potato woe, we've all been there and done that. Do you grow your potatoes on a different spot every year? This year I combined my tatties with corn, marigolds, squash and sunflowers and they did very well. I picked Catriona this year, a lovely spud.

BTW lovely wildflower meadow! ;-)

MollyTrolley said...

Missed you two at Daniel and Michael's last week. I'm hosting for August. If we start at 2:00 would both of you be able to make it?