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I woke up thinking it was Sunday - thank you for straightening me out with the Garden Thread on SATURDAY.

My SIL & I have given up on squash because we just cannot deal with squashbugs. We must be the center of Squashbugville. We’ve both tried just about everything, but they always end up winning.

I read somewhere that squash bugs come in “waves” ... the spring wave is the worst & if you grow squash later in the year (summer vs spring), you don’t get as many. If I had some squash seed, maybe I’d try it ... maybe. I AM seeing some squash bugs here and there in the garden now - not enough to worry about them.

Supposed to be a rainy day today - garden looked happy when I walked by it to feed the dog & chicklets. I planted a new bed of zinnias Thursday night - nothing showing yet, but they’ll be up in no time. On my current bed of zinnias, I’m having to cut blooms as soon as I see petals missing - the finches love zinnia seeds & will pick a bloom clean in no time. I save/dry blooms for seed for the next year so it’s a race to beat the birds to the seeds (particularly on blooms I especially love). I planted some sunflower seeds on a Monday & they were coming up by Friday! We have one big volunteer sunflower & the goldfinches are already working on the first seed head. The new seedlings are a ‘giant’ variety & the seed heads should be mature in the fall - the birds will love it.

Speaking of birds .... we have a young hawk who is driving us crazy. Evidently, he/she has been kicked out by mom/pop and is on its own. It has been “screaming” almost non-stop for 2 days (seriously - non-stop!) and while it has toned down, I heard it last evening, sounding off. It likes to hang out next door .... we think it has spotted the chicklets. There are a ton of squirrels around here so while they’re not easy prey, the hawk could spend its time more productively hunting than screaming.