The Good the Bad and the Ugly

The good news is that for now the heat spell has broke. Phew...the house felt like a sauna. It was so hot in here that my hubby's stash of chocolate was melting...well I went and touched a few pieces and they were soft..but I am going to go with MELTING!

Despite the odd colored leaves everything still looked good as of last night. I haven't been outside yet today so aliens could have taken everything to Mars for all I know. However, I am sure things will be okay.

 The bad news is that the winds yesterday were 90km and they blew over all the corn and sunflowers. Unfortunately I don't have anyone or any supplies to make something to stand them back up. They had to lay down over night, but with a little elbow grease I should be able to get them standing again. Everything else is a wee bit wind kissed as well. However, there is always one day every summer like that. Better to have it now when everything is just flowering than later when my beans will end up in Kansas.

Last night I went and pruned off all the discolored leaves off the tomato plants and sprayed them. I am an idiot and should have just tried one leaf first to make sure my homemade spray didn't kill the whole plant. So yeah hope for the best cause I sprayed the beans, cucumbers, zucchini, sunflowers and strawberries too...Oh gesh what was I thinking
 

After reading a lot of information online I think I have an outbreak of Sclerotina bacteria in the garden. I hope that everything will still produce and if the spray doesn't kill everything that it all works out in the end. At this rate I am thinking of moving the garden somewhere else in the yard. I am not sure if the bacteria survives our winters and I will be stuck with the same problem next year or if I can just rotate the crops and every thing will work out. I see a lot more reading in my future. Its times like this that I wish I knew a lot more about gardening. Robin over at The Gardener of Eden Suggested that I may simply have a deficiency. I looked into it and I think she may be onto something :) I am going to stop in at a greenhouse in the city and see what they can suggest. I hope that my spraying everything doesn't make it worse...and if it isn't a deficiency then at least everything got a little treat..lol

Also a big THANK YOU to Robin for confirming the powdery mildew! The hubby hates zucchini so he is quite happy if they all die, however, I am thinking the spray will work now just to spite him now!

 And the Ugly

Colorado potato bug larva have been spotted. They were found near the peas and the tomatoes on some lovely weeds. Must get weeding!!! However, so far there are none across the garden on the potatoes. The little buggers are icky, but not the first year I have had them. The first year I put in a garden my hubby said the only way to get rid of them was to pull each one off. I still do that if there are a lot but I usually just dust with ash or soap the suckers up..So although ugly not a huge upset like on the other side of the garden.

As for other ugly and smelly things. Our momma cat Bast has been bringing her 2month old kittens Dusty and Squeakers mice to play with or munch on not sure which. Usually about this time she calls the kittens to come outside of the garage and follow her. Which always makes me mad cause they are 2months old they do not need to be running around the hamlet, but she never listens to me. This year we put a kink in her plan since we installed a kitty door. She still tries to call them put I doubt they are going to figure out how to climb up the door 2inches above their cute little head and climb trough the little flap. So after awhile she gives up and goes hunting on her own and brings them back a treat. Nice mommy, but she puts the mouse in the covered cat house and she seems to think they need a lot of mice. The kittens don't eat solid food yet so the mice fester till the hubby gets home to clean them out. This leads to stinky kittens by the way. Not so fun to pet stinky kittens..lol Also not very fun to reach down to grasp a kitten and you touch a dead mouse..ICKY

On a side note lasts years kitten we named Wiener (too many wobbly pops around the camp fire while roasting hot dogs during a family reunion)Wiener was suppose to be a boy and when he was about 5 months I noticed hmm a couple of things were missing. So we named him Sophie. Last week I walked into the garage to find my 2 female cats getting a little frisky. Since they were both female I thought whatever gay cats good for you. But then I noticed that Sophie had something a little extra. I figured who they heck is that cat. So I chased it away but it kept coming back and it looked exactly like Sophie. So I guess Sophie is a male now...you think me or the hubby would have noticed something in the past 12months.....Crazy cats!