Garden visitors today! My niece was delivering piglets to new owners yesterday & spent the night next door - the 2 great-nieces were along. They see garden pics, but wanted to see it in person. That got me going early, cleaning things up a bit after all the rain the last couple of days.
Due to the rain, the cukes went nuts. I threw away about 15 that were too big, getting a bit yellow. There were enough decent ones to send a couple home with the niece & 3 left over for us.
The first spaghetti squash was given away, along with 4 huge & beautiful bell peppers (best I have ever grown), a large onion & 4 scallions. My niece has never made a homegrown spaghetti squash before - hope it turns out for her - she says it is on the menu tonight.
While I was out there, I cut back the sage again, which has finished blooming. I also cut back the mint, which was thinking about blooming. The oregano that was encroaching a bit got cut back, too. The dahlias buds/blooms chewed on by the Japanese beetles were trimmed off and some weeds that I know are susceptible to vinegar were sprayed. Spotted baby squash bugs, but the squash is ripening so they got to the plant late - the vines are about ‘done’ anyway.
Wildlife: saw a Pileated Woodpecker this morning on the Redbuds & spotted a box turtle while mowing in the back field Saturday. Fortunately, the turtle wasn’t in deep grass - I hate running over them with the mower. This one was laying eggs so maybe we’re going to have little turtles around, assuming something doesn’t dig up the eggs before they can hatch.
Tonight was jalapeño popper night! The jalapeños are huge: Bonnie Mammoths. The only disappointment was that just one of the peppers had some ‘heat’.
Hopefully, I will get some peppers that will make it to ‘red’ & still be in good shape for jelly.
A friend at church gave my mom some habanero pepper jelly about 2 weeks ago, his ‘specialty’ ... painfully hot and that was it for me, no more.