Aphids have been Neemed

Just in from spraying corn with Neem II from Green Light, about $8.50 from Orange County Farm Supply.  Two things:

1. It's difficult to spray the tassels and upper leaves where the aphids are the worst
2. Lady bugs have arrived and are eating and mating - thanks for coming, but you're a bit late.  I regretted spraying with the LBs kicking it all over the place but a mans gotta do what a mans gotta do

Also plenty of ripe tomatoes and beans that need harvesting.  I'm off to go see Seanna in SF today so this will need to wait until I return tomorrow night.

Corn Aphids & The Compost Burnout

I've been away from the garden for about a week or so, busy with work and all that.  Went out today and gave some much overdue attention to the compost operation.  It was a chore, I didn't enjoy it, each fork load felt heavy, the mess annoying... the work just plain unpleasant.  This is odd, working with my compost is one of my favorite ways to spend time in the garden, I hope this is just a temporary funk.  Bitching aside, I did toss one pile into the third bay and wet it down, hopefully it fires up. Lots of grubs for the ladies, it so great to hear their little feet beating it across the dusty yard to get the grubs.

Inspected my corn which it appears I've finally figured out how to grow correctly, at least to get it to the expected height!  Upon close inspection of the silks and tassels I found them to be infested with aphids and to a lesser extent some other pest.  I'm in the middle of pollen shed and this is the worst time to have an aphid problem, but that's what you get when you ignore your garden for a week.  I'm going to pick up some neem oil tomorrow and get in a quick treatment before it gets too hot out.  Hopefully I can knock this problem down and still have successful pollination of this crop.  Great information on pollen shed at this site:
http://ohioline.osu.edu/agf-fact/0128.html

To do:

1. treat corn for aphids
2. Harvest last of bush beans and preserver (freeze)
3. Rake up straw and newspaper so I can torch the vetch infestation in EW4 and EW5 - it's crazy!
4. Start fall crops, sow in flats where appropriate
5. Shred tree trimmings
6. So much more...

Melon Success

I think I mentioned at some point that I had volunteer cantaloupe and water melons growing, I dunno, I can't remember.  But I do and after researching a bit I was confident the cantaloupes were ready to be harvested. I only had 3-4 that weren't rotten or undersized so I grabbed the closest one, took it inside and cut it up.  Holy crap, really good!  Very crisp with a mild flavor that intensified as the fruit cooled off (I picked them around noon on a 104° day).  Next day it was much sweeter and I later heard from friends and family that it was some of the best they've had.

So the plant that I don't actually grow on purpose, give no water to for the first 8 weeks of it's life and generally ignore turns out to be one of the best things to come out of the garden. - god hates me, or maybe he's trying to teach me something?  No, he hates me.

My adorable nieces in the background