Same date, same potatoes and at the far end, carrots (Valerie, Chanterey, and Kuroda) in sieved soil in a metal raised bed box. Japanese green multiplier onions on the right. (They grow large, the outer skin ages and splits, pull it off, and you have 3 green onions. Replant 2 and use one and start again.)
Mid june...Heat arrived and I decided to harvest the potatoes and carrots. Peas already gone. Got some small potatoes. (Then, of course, it cooled off for 3 weeks!) Seed potatoes for next year. The carrots were not full grown, but they were pretty crowded in the box and some animal decided to use the carrots for bedding at night. Time to pull them up! Kuroda was a very sweet variety. Others were also very good.
Once cleaned and the soil turned, I replaced them with Seeds and Such Bush Early Butternut squash. (90 days?) Some volunteer squash was growing in one of the sweet potato pots. I replanted it alongside but not in a pot and it has surprisingly grown well. Its climbing up a trellis and by the first female flower/fruit it looks like a butternut squash, probably full sized and 100 plus days.
Late July...picture on 7/11/2024. Sweet potatoes have taken over the picket fence. I am trying to keep them cut back to about 3 feet and limiting them to one or two plant stems to promote larger roots. (I hope.) Watering regularly. The volunteer squash is climbing the trellis.
Comments; Last year was squash bug hell. I have seen almost no spotted or striped cucumber beetles this year. The House Finches are hanging out in the spruce tree near my Plum trees eating the Japanese beetles settling on the watersprouts. I set out yellow cups with soapy water to catch cucumber beetles but nothing so far. (Is 5G driving them away or killing them??)
Vine Borers; I have syringe and injected s dilute amount of BT into the stems of my squash and zucchini this year in hopes of killing any squash vine borers. (When the holes stopped weeping the next day I covered them with a spot of Gorilla glue.) Will see how this works. Butternut is supposed to be resistant to squash bugs and wilt. I have already found and dispatched a number of squash nymphs. I suppose at some point I will need regular sprayings of high detergent dishwash soap to kill any that sneak in. (Really...a simple solution of soapy water kills them!! 1/2 cup to gallon of water! IIRC)
Off to bed. More photos later!