Our cucumbers are starting to come in. We ate our first one straight from the garden yesterday. It was so good!
We’ve been anxiously waiting for the tiny cucumbers to get big enough to eat. I ran the first one down to Granny. She just loves cucumbers from the garden. We planted some in her garden and I hope they do good.
For the first time in ages we have several bush cucumbers growing too. None of them are bearing yet but hopefully they will be soon.
For the last several years we’ve battled squash bugs that love to devour our cucumber vines. The bugs like our yellow squash, zucchini, and winter squash too but not nearly as much as they do the cucumbers.
They never bother the cucumber itself. They prefer feasting on the tender vines and leaves until the plant finally just dies from all the attacks.
There’s all sorts of advice on killing them or keeping them at bay, we’ve tried about all of them and none work very well for us. By far the best method I’ve found is finding them and disposing of the little devils.
They lay their eggs on the underneath side of the leaves. You have to destroy them too. I’ve found once they hatch out there’s no stopping them because there’s so many. And the teeny tiny babies like to eat as much as their parents.
The bugs themselves look like stink bugs. The girls call them backpackers because they look like they are carrying a backpack.
In the photo above you can see two of them. They are brown and work hard at hiding from you. Often I’ll look and look in a certain spot and feel good that I don’t see any only to find several when I look from a different angle.
Last year I followed up on a tip from someone and used a homemade pepper spray. You can see the recipe I use here. The spray works better than anything we’ve tried. You have to apply it every few days and after every rain. We use a garden sprayer to apply the mixture late of an evening. While the pepper garlic mixture doesn’t bother me, it makes Matt cough and hack a lot because it irritates the back of his throat.
This year a few folks have told me to try throwing cinnamon sticks around on the ground so I have. The whole area smells like a bakery 🙂 I haven’t made a run of pepper spray yet this summer but need to get on the ball and make it.
Many gardeners take a different approach to battling the pesky bugs. They plant squash or cucumbers and harvest as many as they can then discard those plants as the bugs take over and plant new cucumbers and squash in a different location. We tried planting later cucumbers in a different place last summer but the squash bugs quickly found them.
Other gardeners grow a trap crop hoping it will attract all the bugs and leave their desired plants alone. Someone sent me a video that said blue hubbard winter squash are irresistible to squash bugs and is the best trap crop to grow. I bought some seeds but haven’t got them planted yet.
A few folks have told me to wait till later in the season to plant cucumbers and squash, but I’m not sure how that would work for us.
Even with the pestilence of squash bugs I’m enjoying our cucumbers and loving this year’s garden.
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Tipper
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Tipper,
still waiting for the first cucumber. we had a cool rainy spring and everything is getting a late start. But like you I would try to give the first one to my mother! there’s nothing as tasty as a fresh picked cucumber still warm from the summer sun, yummy I can’t wait!
I did not see any comments for today’s post. Probably something with this telephone.
Build a 2nd chicken coop and put 10 – 12 guineas in it. If you only place chicken geed inside the coop, they will learn to come home before dark. Let them roam all day. They will quickly learn that the garden is a bug buffet. They do not bother the fruits but will keep the garden void of bugs. From early spring to late fall.
My thoughts exactly I was just thinking about that why not use guineas they’d clear them squash bugs out in nothing flat..
Another first today! My Tipper Beans have pretty purplish blooms starting to open. I have pictures. May be time for an update to my first post about them earlier this year.
Ed, yes please 🙂
Tipper I just want to tell you how much you and your family mean to me you all make me feel better about life itself I’m in bad health now and Doctors can’t help me so it’s a matter of time but you all bring a old woman much happiness I watch you all everytime you come on and Katy an Korey also ..Thank you so much..
I hope you have a huge crop of cucumbers and everything else! Ours were planted a lot later than yours, so I’ll have a while to wait yet. But I imagine our bugs won’t wait. We are on the lookout for them. The kids like to hunt them like an I Spy game.
Tipper we always called them Pickles. I still call them Pickles. Okree, tomatoes and pickles are my favorite things from the garden.
Conniesue
Fresh homegrown cucumbers are so much better than those waxed ones that many grocery stores sell. I won’t even eat one of those things.
I hope you have the best luck with everything you grow!
This has been a frustrating year for my “bucket plants”…roller coaster weather, bugs, and sneaky ninja deer . Might try that pepper spray….
I hate squash bugs. They ruined so much of our stuff last year. I looked and looked for them (to squash) but couldn’t find the boogers. Your cucumbers look pretty! Stay cool!♥️
Last night watering my little garden, I gathered my first cucumber, bell peppers and tommy tomatoes. Squash and tomatoes are coming along really well. Since I do everything myself, it excites me to see things grow!! I haven’t seen any squash bugs yet and I’m sorry for the gardeners that have them.
Everyone take advantage of the cool mornings to do outside work and stay hydrated.
Yes Freida I did lots of porch sleeping as a young girl and as an adult also.
P.S. Tipper did the spray Matt used on your daddy’s headstone work?
Brenda-it’s supposed to work over time, but it does seem to be helping 🙂
I pulled my first cucumber today! I plan to eat it for lunch.
I picked my first Hornworm late yisterdee evening. It was a full grown one. Bout the size of my thumb only a little longer. It didn’t do a lot of damage so now ima wonderin how it got that big.
My second row of Tipper Beans are starting to climb now.
This morning I heard my first jar fly of the season.
This morning, for the first time in a long time, I made a pot of coffee without the carafe thingy in my $20 Wally World coffeemaker. The pot and the counter was due for a good cleaning anyway. It’s 10:10 AM and I’m just now starting to sip on some fine fresh Folgers.
I didn’t plant cucumbers or squash. There is some kind of virus in my soil that lets them grow good until all of a sudden they all die at the same time.
Ed-I remember doing the same thing with the coffee maker 🙂
After this I will try to say no more today, at 9:30 this morning the heat index is already 95 degrees. I plan to stay inside, enjoy the AC and be as lazy and worthless as I can be. I am not even going to swat at the flies that land on me thinking I’m dead! I might would consider going to the creek and sitting in it up to my neck if I could figure out how to sit down and get back up in my old arthritic age! I guess I could do “ a butt buster” instead of a “belly buster “ but I would still have the problem of getting back up. Just remember calling me an idiot is a compliment.
Randy, I always enjoy your comments. You have a naturally good way with words. And from what you said in the last post I think you are a pretty smart feller! I loved playing in our creek as a child on a hot day. We played below the spring so the cold mountain water was very refreshing. Like you, I couldn’t do it now because I couldn’t get back up. So I love to watch the videos of Stamey Creek and listen to it. Somehow just the sight and sound helps with the heat and is so soothing. All I have growing to possibly eat are a few of Matt’s favorite tomatoes in grow bags, garlic, blackberries and I had a few strawberries. I’ll have to depend on those younger than me at the local farmers market if I make more pickles and relish this year. I’ve done my share of preservation when I had more than me to feed. I have a lot of deer but also a big, shy, 2 yr-old mutt who likes to chew deer bones. He sounds brave barking at the deer and coyotes at night and so far my plants haven’t been touched. As for cleaning headstones, I’ve been told to be careful that what you use will not harm the stone. I need to do that in our small cemetery but not until the critters are not moving and it’s a lot cooler. Congratulations to Tipper and the whole family on the milestone. Keep up the good work.
My cucumbers have been producing for a couple of weeks now, not many but enough for us to eat and share with family. All our friends have big gardens so they don’t need them. I only get like maybe 2 or three every other day. Not enough to can pickles with unless I only do like one jar and it is way to hot to can anything right now. I may make some fermented refrigerator pickles. I made them last year and they were way better than my canned pickles. So far I’ve not seen any bugs, except them Japanese Beatles that eat the leaves. I’ve been picking them off and killing them. I planted half runner bush beans in front of my cucumbers, but oddly enough they are vining and climbing right along with the cucumbers. I also planted marigolds and some other flowers with the cucumbers so maybe that has deterred the squash bugs for now. I’m just hoping the squash bugs stay away this year. Just in case I might put out some cinnamon sticks like your subscribers have recommended. I’ve not tried that before, but I try anything to keep them from getting on my vines.
Everybody stay safe and out of this heat the best you can. Going to be 98 degrees today, but with the humidity it will feel like 110, they say here on the eastern side of NC.
Have you tried using diatomaceous earth to control the squash bugs? I use it and it does a pretty good job. We have stink
bugs, bean beetles, potato beetles, squash bugs and others. I used it last year for the first time and it was better than sevin dust. But it has to be reapplied after every rain.
Denise, we have tried it and it didn’t help a bit. I’m so glad it works for you 🙂
First of all, YAY, YAY, and YAY, Congratulations to you for getting over 3 thousand subscribers on UTube!! How wonderful!! Keep on keeping on:)
My squash is growing in leaps and bounds, tiny squash and I sure hope I don’t get those squash bugs. My cucumber vines are growing like crazy but no cucumbers yet. In fact, my whole raised bed garden is looking fantastic and it won’t be long till a big tomato will be ripe and on the menu for the first fresh tomato sandwich of the year:) I feel so blessed to just walk out on my patio and pick tommy toes or cucumbers and eat them right there. My neighbors say I have a huge salad bar right by my patio and they are right. I have had fantastic bed of lettuce and enjoying it everyday. This heat has taken a little down and its season may be over if the heat continues. Anytime I see something my Daddy and Mother grew that I really enjoyed eating like Mississippi Purple Hull Peas makes my mouth water. Not only are they beautiful looking but oh my sooo good to eat. Randy check around at some of your produce stands and you may be able to find some shelled in bags in the refrigerator/freezer sections. I found some years ago like that when I was around Tupelo, MS., and oh my were they a delight to me.
I recall a Midwestern saying, “Life is a hard fight with a short stick.” Gardening seems to get ever more difficult. I have also been tempted to call it quits. On frustrating days, I think, “Who would be a farmer on purpose?” I think maybe love is the reason. For me anyway gardening is about more than what it will produce. Partly it is about heritage. Partly it is an effort to stay as fit as I can as long as I can. And it is about a degree of self-sufficiency. And I am liking more all the time the giving away of things when I’m blessed to have enough to do that. Besides all of that, I just have an enduring interest in things agricultural. I guess that is because of a larger interest in nature generally. I expect the day is coming when I must give it up. Never been this old before and don’t know just how all of that goes, just know the direction.
I love cucumbers, I had tomato plants in 5 gallon buckets, two to each bucket, but one in each bucket has died, had to remove them I don’t know what the problem was I’ve never done that before, God bless you all in Jesus mighty name
Up here I the bowels of hell-it’s 90 plus-in southern WV which is really hot! I live in nature’s air conditioned city, but it ain’t true to its name at this time. Anyway, I canned 6 beautiful pints of the sweetest cucumbers I’ve eaten in years yesterday! Bread and butter they are. I got a zucchini and summer squash too yesterday with aplenty to come it looks like. I’m having those squashes this evening for supper or that’s the plan. If my Cherokee purples were ready, I’d be in vegetarian (no I ain’t one) heavenly fresh supper for weeks!!! I love just pulling and washing what I need and somehow I know both the grocery stores and lazy commies hate that I have a fresh nibble that ain’t been sprayed with some chemical (and I actually got up off my laurels I been resting on) and got busy doing something productive! Eating fresh is the way to go!!!! Btw, your garden looks absolutely picture perfect and like some very hard work has gone into getting your garden bounty. Gods love to you all this day and every day!
Oh I imagine those cucumbers were delicious! A cucumber and tomato sandwich sounds rather tasty.
My husband planted a few cucumbers and tomato plants in early May, and they were beginning to come on the vines. But something ate some of them, namely deer or rabbits. We have seen both roaming around in the yard and fields behind the garden. He put some metal screens around the remaining tomato plants and there are good sized tomatoes on the vines. Hopefully, we can get some ripe tomatoes. I haven’t had a fresh garden tomato in years.
This is both a reply to Freida and a comment. Last night around 9:30 I walked out on my deck and between the 86 degrees and high humidity it felt like an oven. We never had AC when I was growing up, we did have a box fan to put in our bedroom windows but the air from them would be hot. I remember when the stores at the small country town (Honea Path, SC) we would go to did not have AC, some had large ceiling fans. The Western Auto Store was the coolest store in town, it had some type of wooden slat tower out back with water circulating through it. On Saturday afternoon many of the men would sit ( turned up Coke Cola crates and old church pew) in the back service repair area and watch a baseball game on a TV that had been brought in to be repaied and drink small 6 oz Coke Colas while their wives shopped. I have a friend that was raised at Rocky Bottom, SC in an old two story house that told me he and his brother would climb out the window and sleep on the roof. He would joke and say you quickly learned to lay still. AC has ruined/spoiled us, we can now no longer take this heat like we once could before AC. On days like yesterday and today I enjoy being spoiled while sitting in my AC double wide!
How many of you younger folks know what 2-60 AC is? It’s rolling two widows down in a car/truck and doing 60 mph!
I pulled my first cucumber on Monday and another yesterday. Lots of blooms so hopefully lots of cucumber sandwiches until the tomatoes ripen. I pray that everyone has a place to be cool these hot days. I remember hot days growing up. Before we had air conditioning, my parents would let me sleep on a pallet in front of the door, which was a screen door.
Last night when I opened the door before bed, it felt like a sauna…..maybe it is my age, but the hot just feels different…..so heavy. I wonder if any of your readers ever slept on the porch in hot weather…. I have done that also.
I used to lay with my face in the window and it was still hot. I really wanted to sleep out on the porch roof like Pollyanna but, of course, I wasn’t allowed. It does feel different hot now to me as well.
Well, I don’t have to worry about squash bugs or any other bugs for that matter in my garden, thanks to the deer eating everything I had planted last Saturday night. I was real proud of my Mississippi Purple Hull peas, now they look like someone came through them with a lawn mower. The only thing the deer didn’t eat was my tomatoes, I have them inside cages made from concrete reinforcement wire. I did get some tomatoes Monday from my early girl plant. I think I am done with trying to have a garden anymore, between loosing everything to the deer, fighting the hot, dry summers and my arthritis legs, it is no longer worth it. I will just plant a few tomatoes if I’m still around.
Just saw your good news post from yesterday!! So glad for you!
We’ve had our usual cucumber and onion salad for a couple of weeks now-so, so good. I picked one yesterday that was 14 inches long but still good. Amazing what the rain has done. I did try planting yellow squash later this year but so far, no fruit. Tomatoes plants are taking over and one tomato is starting to ripen!