New routines

Today begins the first full week of summer vacation for us, so I am now home during the weekdays. I decided to start some new routines of daily household (including garden) maintenance.

My chores for today included weeding the spinach/squash bed, planting more onion sets in the place where my original spinach never came up, and replacing the grape tomato plant that got broken in two over the weekend.

Over the weekend we finally set up our compost bin. I'm really excited about it and I get so tickled every time I have to take something from the kitchen out to add to the compost.

Also, I'm worried about a couple of things. My bush beans were getting eaten by something. I never figured out exactly what it was, but I bought some spray made from potassium and neem oil. I covered them that evening and I haven't noticed anymore evidence of them being eaten since.

I am also afraid I have some kind of disease or fungus in one corner of the garden, but I can't identify it from all the gardening books I have. My cucumber plants stems are white and split, but the plants aren't dying. In fact, the leafy tops are growing and sending out more healthy looking growth each day. I did spray it with the same stuff as the beans in the off chance it might help. I have no idea if this is something the cucumbers can overcome or if I need to get the plants out of the garden. I wish these things were easier to diagnose! I also noticed my muskmelon plants showing the same symptoms - white, split stems. Sigh. If anyone reads this and has any thoughts about what might be happening, please leave me a comment.

Oh, and my spaghetti squash and pie pumpkin plants finally sprouted and look healthy. My zucchini plants are getting huge and I need to harvest some of my lettuce.

Today's local weather:
High temp: 84 F
Low temp: 66 F
Sunny