After being gone just one day, I thought my garden would be safe from diseases as I sprayed the June and April tomatoes six days ago with the copper fungicide. My thinking was that the garden just got some rain, not enough to completely take the shield off. Boy, did my gardens get rain — two inches were in my rain gauge. So in that 24‑hour period the diseases started to creep up on one of my June tomatoes and a few other trouble spots on the others.
Right away I got my scissors and my baggie with my two paper towels doused with 70% alcohol and snipped off the diseased parts, and in between plants I wiped the scissors to try to keep from spreading it more from plant to plant. Once that was done, I sprayed just the June plants with copper fungicide. Tomorrow, I already added spraying what I did on Friday before the rain — July transplants, peppers, and eggplants. It is a good thing they are small and don’t take that much time, as I have a lot on my agenda for tomorrow.
Once this task was done, I did another walk‑around and noticed the squash transplants were okay, and as far as I can tell the direct‑sowed seeds were okay too! I started on my long to‑do list and gave the peppers and eggplants a dose of 8‑24‑24 fertilizer. I also did the blueberries with 1 tablespoon of the azalea fertilizer.
My blueberries have gotten overgrown with weeds, but even though there were weeds, the blueberry babies are looking healthy. Maybe the weeds protected them from the heat. In the weeds I actually found a tomatillo plant with blooms on it. This was the spot I had them last year. I put a cage to help it, so I will be curious if I get anything.
Sometimes this works out, like the cantaloupe that started growing near my spinning compost bins — and I have to say it only produced one cantaloupe, but it was the sweetest cantaloupe, and my grandson now wants more for his Bentgo Pop Lunch box.
After this I spent the rest of my time mowing and weed‑whacking the weeds on the pathways in the Pickle Patch and Rudy’s Radish Ranch. I then tackled the weeds and took out the dead tomatoes, and it now looks better.
I still have along the fenceline to do where I have bocking, blackberry bushes, and other plants. While working on all the weeds I found the rhubarb crowns and hope they are not rotten and are in a dormant phase.
All I know is when I came back from vacation the rhubarb was collapsing, and I seem to remember that is what it did in Michigan when I had rhubarb from the previous owner, but that was over 30 years ago. One last thing is I tucked in a few pole bean skips and then left for the day.
Tomorrow I have a lot to do — spraying and getting a cucumber bed and raised beds ready for planting, and then hopefully finally finishing at least my cage‑reduction area to redesign it over the week, as before you know it, it will be time to plant my fall greens and cover crops, and I have to be ready for that time. Till tomorrow.