Ugh

Just found a squash borer larvae on one of my zucchini plants. I must have gotten him soon after he hatched since he hadn't bored into the stem yet. I didn't see any others obviously, but I didn't do a thorough search either. I have a bad feeling with going on vacation this is going to be the end of my garden.

Again

I think the deer may have been back. I only have two zucchini plants out in the open now and I just noticed that it looked like one of them had been munched on. It hasn't been looking that great for awhile, but I'm pretty sure this was fresh munching. The pieces of leaves still left were green. On the plus side that means the netting over the butternut squash and the screen around the rest of the zucchini served their protective purpose. On the downside, if I leave the butternuts uncovered when we're on vacation I might lose the whole thing. Or if I leave them covered the bees can't access for pollination purposes. I'm already a little concerned I may have been abandoned by the bees. They can still access the zucchini but it doesn't look like they have recently when I've checked in the mornings.

Another Butternut

A second female butternut blossom was open this morning along with a number of males. I've been tossing netting over the plants at night to keep out the deer, but that means the bees can't pollinate so I have to do it by hand.

Baby Butternut!

I had a female flower open this morning on the butternut squash plant along with a lot of guys. Finally! It's on one of the plants that the deer nearly stripped of leaves, so I hope it makes it.

The zucchini plants are looking a little better now that it's not 100 degrees out there. They're also in a slightly shadier spot now that I moved them to try to protect them from the hungry deer. Hopefully they start producing zucchini again.

The bean plants on the other hand are looking sad. They never perked back up after their experience with the deer and although they've all flowered again and have little beans growing, they are dropping leaves like crazy.

There are a couple tomatoes now on each of the tomato plants that were stripped clean by the deer, but they're too small yet to guess how they'll turn out. Those were the plants that I had trouble with the rot. The other plant continues to do well considering I've cut off a lot of the branches because the leaves had turned yellow.

The basil has little white flowers on it. We made homemade tomato sauce using the homegrown tomatoes and basil last week and it was delicious! The mint plant is also happier in its new spot on the front porch where it gets more shade and I'm going to pull off some leaves and try to make some mint extract soon.

Take that!

I decided late last night I'd better do something or risk another night time raid. I found an old roll of screen in the shed (after leaping around in the back yard waving my arms to turn on the motion sensing flood light so I could see- I think that might need some tweaking). I tacked the screen over the top of most of the plants. It wasn't pretty, but hopefully it serves the purpose. I didn't manage to get all of the butternut squash or one of the zucchini plants covered and they didn't looked munched on this morning (although pretty hard to tell after the previous devouring) so either the deer didn't come by or were too intimidated by my screening to even try.

Counter Measures Are Needed

Turns out deer do eat zucchini. Well, mostly the flowers and leaves I think. I didn't have an exact zucchini count from yesterday to know if any were missing, but there was one slightly gnawed up one on the ground that appeared to have been rejected. Yes, I was raided again last night. He/she/they took out the better part of another two butternut squash plants and chewed up at least two zucchini plants. I was too distraught to do an in-depth casualty analysis and was busy lamenting with a neighbor who walking by with her dogs when I discovered the carnage. The cage has done its job and the beans and tomatoes remain unscathed (although both still bear the scars of their past attacks), but the zucchini and butternut plants have no protection and I'm afraid may be whittled down to nothing in the next few days if these night-time raids keep up. Clearly counter measures are needed, but I don't have the time to put into a strategy. Ack!

Raided Again

The first thing I noticed when I walked outside this morning was that one of my zucchini plant pots was knocked over on its side. The second was that my butternut squash plant had been munched on again. I need a night sentry. But in better news, the zucchinis had male and female blossoms on them this morning, so if the rain didn't wash away all the pollen, maybe I'll get some zucchini soon.

More Beans

The bean bushes are flowering in force again despite having been nibbled on by the deer. Still flowers but no new tomatoes on the one tomato bush the deer got to and only two tomatoes on the other. I cut three butternut squash off this morning that I don't think got pollinated and haven't shown any signs of growth. Unlike the zucchini plants which are laden with female blossoms, the butternut squash plants appear to have pretty much only male blossoms growing at the moment. Disappointing.

Attack of the Caterpillars

I've been pulling little white furry caterpillars off of plants for the past couple days. The first one I spotted was chomping down on a rose bush stem and a few minutes ago I nabbed one devouring a basil leaf. They're on the flowers too, although I haven't spotted any on the zucchini, beans, or tomato plants. It's also entirely possible I haven't looked closely enough. With the tomato plants and the beans all in the cage it's super crowded and I really don't have good access to watch or even water the plants. As for the non-caged zucchini, I've pulled out a couple sad looking plants that were in containers with another plant and that seems to have made the remaining plants happier. All week I had up to a half dozen female zucchini blossoms open a day and not a single guy. I finally got a male open this morning but by the time I got out there the bees had cleaned it of pollen, so here's hoping they pollinated the girls while they were at it. Meanwhile the butternut squash plants continue to alternate between male and female flowers and as of yet has only had them open at the same time once. That resulting butternut isn't exactly butternut shaped and I haven't noticed much growth, but it's hanging there so we'll see. How frustrating all around.

Yum

Somebody has been munching on my butternut squash plants. I'm guessing perhaps the deer again. This is just how the tomato plants looked with bitten off stems.

It's not apparent from the picture since there's no means of size comparison, but that butternut squash in the background hasn't really grown. Out of the three or four I have, only one had a female blossom open at the same time as a male blossom. I've left them all alone though just to see what does happen with them.

For the second day in a row I had female zucchini blossoms open but no males. I don't understand the malfunction with these plants. If they want to survive they have to pollinate.

Unhappy Zucchini

In addition to the little bitty zucchinis that abort before the female flowers even open, turning yellow and eventually shrivelling up and dropping off, I'm also having problems with some of the larger ones. They look fine toward the stem, but at the flower end they're yellow. I cut one open and it was brown inside like a bruised apple. Another I cut open and didn't see any seeds, so I perhaps it's a pollination problem?

In addition to the tomatoes from earlier, I'm pretty sure a deer has been snacking on my bean plants. I hope she's been enjoying it. I guess I'm feeding more of the neighbors than I originally expected. :)