OH NO Rgreen! Please be VERY careful with that guy. Looks like a big one! Maybe you can throw a sheet over it to keep it calm and unaware of what is happening around it.

itsmcs - you can cut a slit in the stem of the squash and remove the SVB caterpillar and then cover the stem up with soil and the plant may recover if it is not too far gone already. Ideally it is done as soon as the frass is spotted and before too much damage is done. Other people inject BTK into the stem when they spot the frass. I've never tried either but I do spray BT around the lower part of the plant and stems as a preventative to SVB.

Very nice looking garlic Laura - well done! Especially for a first time garlic grower! Now the question is how many are you going to save to plant this fall? That is the catch with Music and other porcelain types...they only have 4-6 large cloves per bulb so you have to save more bulbs to replant then other types with move cloves.

Jack - this past year I grew 8 bulbs within my raised bed, and they kind of took over (grew bigger than I thought!). So my husband is building a dedicated garlic planter and I'm planning on doing 12-15 in that, maybe a few more in 5-gallon buckets. I'm realizing I want to give some bulbs away as gifts, but with saving cloves for seed, that would leave me with very little for myself!

Laura - have him just put in a small 4'x4' raised bed for the garlic if you have the space and you can grow 49 bulbs in it in a 7x7 grid.

Jack - I've got a very small backyard so wouldn't be able to have that size additional raised bed. Right now I've got a 4'x6' raised bed and several containers. Not even sure where I'm going to put the new garlic planter!

OK I see. That's too bad because garlic is so fun to grow. I probably grow too many myself but I can't help it. I've actually cut down to ONLY growing a little over 200 this year.

My dog just came within inches of dispatching my garden nemesis. Groundhog was dead in the middle of the garden when the dog spotted her. Darn thing climbed right up and over the fence to get away. But the dog is on a mission now. And so am I.

Itsmce, your garden looks great! There’s definitely something wrong with my tomato plants. They aren’t half the size yours are. I’ll try and post pictures. Your melons are great and will just keep growing! What a great way to remember your parents by keeping their garden in great shape. What timer do you use for your soaker hoses?

As far as surgery on the zucchini, you can do surgery like LoneJack described, but I’ve had more success injecting BTK into the hollow stem. The hardest part was finding the needles to inject it, actually. I ended up buying some veterinary needles online because they had a larger needle and didn’t get clogged like I was worried smaller ones would.

Chris, thanks for the idea. I think rather than wrapping the stem, I’ll just check them before we leave tomorrow again and hope for the best. I’ve been trying to mound soil on top of parts of the spaghetti squash vines so that they root along the way in case a SVB gets the base. Sounds like your pest could be a rabbit or baby groundhog. If it is a groundhog, this forum is having groundhog issues this summer!

LoneJack, do you have someone water your garden while you’re out of town? I have a neighbor watering ours because I have 10+ pots of flowers between the front and back decks.

Rgreen48, oh no! Did you move and release it without getting sprayed?

Laura, nice looking garlic harvest! Isn’t it a fun crop!? I don’t know how LoneJack can fit 49 bulbs into a 4’x4’ bed but I’m tempted to try that this fall….

Its easy Sunflowers. Plant one clove at 6-12-18-24-30-36-42 in a 7x7 grid. 6" spacing is plenty for garlic.

I will water everything well on Friday before I leave and then the garden is on it's own until we get back on Wednesday. Forecast is showing a decent chance of rain on Monday and Tuesday. I may ask the next door neighbor kid to come over and pick cucumbers and squash.

LoneJack do you plant right next to the wood of the raised sides? Or 6 inches from that? I think I'd need to take a measuring tape out to do that otherwise I'd fudge the spacing and give them more than 6" of space.

I think you're fine over the weekend. I wish I could have some kind of a timer system because after one vacation it would pay for itself. Usually we just trade watering when each other are on vacation but this year they aren't going anywhere during the summer so I offered to pay (also because we have more to water than last year). Half of the plants are on drip irrigation and half are still hand watered. In the future I'm hoping that everything can be on drip irrigation but I've already exceeded the maximum water output of one zone.

Sunflowers, yes, I just now got back. Last year I moved 3 of them, so unfortunately, I've had some practice. As LoneJack suggests, you just have to slowly walk up to the cage with a sheet/blanket/tarp in front of you so they can't see anything to spray, lay the cover over the cage, and they calm down once it's dark. The sheet isn't seen by them as a threat. This one went easily. It was asleep when I walked up, so I put the tarp in front of me while still a few yards away and began to soothingly talk to it. You don't want it to awake to a fright. The cover should be big enough so their vision of you is obscured, and just move it gently. When you get to the place to let it out, just uncover enough to open the door and prop it open. This one came out quickly, but sometimes they wait until they feel safe.

Laura, that's some great-looking garlic! Like Jack, I can't get enough garlic. This is my second year doing it and I plan to do much more for next year.

rgreen, YIKES!! Who woulda thought?? Hope you're able to get yourself outta that smelly situation.

Sunflowers, it's crazy that just in the past week everyone seems to be having groundhog problems all over! Hopefully the reinforcements I made kept the culprit out today. Maybe I'll catch them red-handed this weekend, so I can identify the thief and where they are entering. I won't kill any animals, nor trap and release them somewhere else, so my only route is to reinforce! I read that the SVB eggs take 7-10 days to hatch and then the larva will immediately start boring. Hopefully that will give you some peace of mind. Good luck!

Oh boy looks like everyone is having rodent problems... I guess some of us should count our lucky stars that we haven't hooked up with Pepe Le Pew like rgreen. Good luck with that guy. Maybe consider calling animal control if you have one and they are free/reasonable. I am pretty sure my city does not charge to have our animal control guy come and take care of skunks - I just don't know whether they require it to be in their own traps or if they will deal with property owner's traps.

Garden bargain (aka excuse to buy more stuff) heads up - My local Costco had those big resin half wine barrel looking planters (I think they are 20-25 gallons) on clearance already... I picked up 3 at $12 a piece.... Seems they will be perfect tomato planters for future years to come and look much better than buckets or those beer keg party tote things. Now I just have to hide them from the wife so she doesn't fill them up with flowers.

ETA - I was late posting and just saw Rgreen took care of the problem. You have better patience and fortitude than I. So it didn't end up spraying at all?

Nope... just waddled off as calm as can be. Meh, you'd do just fine. Once you're in the position, you just have to bite the bullet lol.

It actually sounds like a much less messy and smelly option than what I would have done if put in the same predicament, so I'm taking mental notes for the future.

Sunflowers- The timer for my soaker hoses is a battery powered unit by Hunter Industries. I have a line of PVC pipe that runs along the front edge of the garden with 6 valves evenly spaced along the way that are wired back to the timer. I can set the time for each "zone" independent of the other. System waters every morning at 8:00. I am having a huge problem this year with soaker hoses springing leaks. I have one hose that's been mended twice already and I just saw another spraying leak yesterday. I think that hose will be replaced. Sad news there is that it's the hose that runs under the melons. Nearly impossible to swap it out. Will probably just disconnect, leave it in place, and try to lay out a new hose.

I performed surgery on the zucchini this morning. Found 2 borers I sprinkled some worm killer stuff (name escapes me now) on the base of both plants and covered with dirt. Well, either the plant was too far gone, or my surgery was too aggressive (or both), because I think that plant is a goner. This is what I found when I checked this afternoon. Plant on the right may still be OK.

Itsmce - It's only mostly dead ;-) I'm sorry for your loss...at least that is 2 SVBs that won't be around next year! I hope the other plant survives. Did you find a SVB in that one too?

Sunflowers - First clove is 6" in from the edge. I have a couple 1"x2" boards that I use for measuring plant/seed spacing. One is 8' long and has markings every 3" on one side and every 4" on the other. The other one is 4' long and has the same markings on each side. For garlic beds I will transcribe the 6" space markings onto the long edges of the raised beds with a sharpie and then I can just move down the bed with the 4' long measuring board and place a row of cloves. It looks like we may get some rain this morning but right now it is staying to the north. I'm hoping not to have to water everything before we leave.

Kevin - nice find on the barrels! I have my 3 year old Rosemary in one so I can bring it in and out over the winter months. It's the only thing I have in a container.

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Jack, "mostly dead is slightly alive". Were you quoting The Princess Bride or just being funny? lol Thanks for sharing the garlic spacing!

itsmce, sorry about the zuke, but the other plant looks to have recovered nicely!

Kevin, those half barrels are perfect for a tomato plant or even squash! I wanted to buy some cedar half barrels, but I can't justify spending $50+ for one.

Chris - Yep, Miracle Max aka Billy Crystal. Speaking of Princess Bride...I can't wait for my first MLT where the mutton is nice and lean and the tomato is ripe. There so perky, I love that. :-)

Hahaha! Don't even get me started with that movie. I think I can recite the entire thing. One of the greatest movies of all time.

As you wish.

Everything is growing real nice so far this season. Havent had any issues with leaf spot on my tomatoes this year and my eggplant doesnt seem to be attracting the flea beetles as much as in years past. I should be getting my first harvest of pole beans very soon, how big do most people let the beans get before picking? Its Kentucky Wonder variety.

Real nice looking garden Paul! Are those all onions is the near right corner? Some of them look huge and the ones right in the corner look more like leeks but it is a little difficult for me to make it out.

I try to pick beans when they are to full length but have not quite filled the pod out.

Yea, I may have grown too many onions this year :) I might pull some to eat before they are full sized. The big ones on the end are Egyptian walking onions (tree onions as some people call them). Are you familiar with them? They self propagate each year. The bulbs don't get huge, maybe like shallot sized. But they are spicy and delicious and come back year after year.

ughhh another two grocery bags full of septoria ridden leaves clipped and put in trash last night. I upped the bleach spray to 6.5 oz per gallon, and then applied a strong 2.0 oz per gallon of bonide copper fungicide after the bleach dried.... I am at desperate-measure mode. Thinking I am going to do the bleach spray every night for a while.

If you dont mind going non-organic, try Daconil. I have had good success with it slowing septoria way down in years past. I am shocked that my plants havent shown any sign of the disease this year.

Paul - One can never have too many onions especially ones that store well. I've never grown walking onions but they look pretty cool. I've grown shallots before but they usually bolt on me so I haven't grown any for a couple years.

Kevin - Septoria is really tough to slow down once a plant has it. Do you still have some plants left that are not infected? Paul's idea to alternate copper with Daconil is a good one. I've only found the premixed Daconil at the big box stores around here so I guess I will have to order the concentrate thru Amazon.

I have Daconil and I also just order Mancozeb... At this point I am willing to try anything. I think I will rotate between the three fungicide weekly and maybe a little more frequently in the near term to try to slow it down.

Jack - I don't have any plants left! I just gave the last one away to a neighbor and I hope it didn't pick up the septoria on its way out of the garden. I actually plan to check on her plant in a week or so to make sure.

The Homesteads are by far the worst but all the rest in that bed have been hit too. The only two plants not affected are the Cherokee purple, and the 'unknown' (Roma). Both of those are a good distance away from the infected plants.

Anyone think I could potentially have success rooting a large sucker from one of the better looking plants this late in the season?

Rooting a sucker or 2 from the unaffected parts of the plants might be worth a shot. Or maybe from the still healthy CP.

Yeah I think I am going to at least try to root a few.... I have about 80-100 frost free days so that CP will probably be cutting it very close... But the Big Beefs and Early Girls all have 80 to 90% of their foliage showing well. It might be good for them to trim one of the bigger suckers anyhow - give em some more space too.

Gives me something to try at least! Maybe I should get some potting soil and fill up my new barrels.

Good idea! Then your wife won't stick any flowers in them.

Paul, awesome garden! Wish my onions looked that good!

Kevin, are you sterilizing any tools or gloves you're using to remove the Septoria infected foliage? That's another way it can be transferred from plant to plant. I'd be careful not to let your clothes touch the plants either, if you plan on walking around the garden. I wonder if the heat from the dryer would kill the spores. I'm very curious to see if you can grow a sucker to a mature plant and harvest some tomatoes before frost! That would be awesome!

Chris - yes, I use the bleach spray on the clippers and wipe them clean frequently (at least between plants). I probably haven't been extremely cautious as far as clothes touching the plants, I guess thats getting easier the more foliage I trim out (glass half full?). I wouldn't say I am brushing up against the plants all that much though.

Looks like I got an experiment on my hands. Thinking I'll concurrently try to battle the septoria and plant some suckers in a couple of the half barrels. Thinking one Big Beef and one Early Girl.

I'm off to vacation tomorrow so I probably won't be posting much if any for awhile. Someone else feel free to start the July Veggie Tales thread and I will see you all there when I get back.

Happy Independence Day and happy gardening!

Kevin, sounds like a plan! Good luck to you.

Jack, enjoy the vacation! Download the Houzz app on your new phone :-) That's how I do a lot of my posts and it makes it easier to post photos. At the same time, you probably should just be enjoying family! lol See ya next week! Happy 4th!

Jack have a nice holiday weekend!

Paul - re: beans...I like to pick them small - no bigger than the diameter of a #2 wooden pencil. Pick them small and frequently and the plants will keep on producing. Well, that's usually how it goes for me, but for some reason it hasn't been a good bean year for me. Hoping for a 2nd crop. re: onions...I have WAY more than I (and my neighbors, and my friends) will need this year. My source for plants this year only sold them in 100 plant bundles. I wanted both yellow and red...and I'd started a few from seed myself. I haven't figured out where/how I'm going to cure all those, and I'm hoping they don't need to be pulled while I'm on vacation in a week or so.

Jack - have a blast on your vacation...whatever you're doing, be it packed with activities or just takin' it easy.

The perennial problem in my garden is spider mites. I never seem to be able to get ahead of them! I was in the garden early this morning trying the Murphy's Oil Soap solution that has been suggested. At this point, I'll try about anything.

Ever try Ladybugs, itsmce? They'll stick around and munch away as long as there is plenty of mites to feed on.

Harvested this beauty today

This Cocozella Di Napoli Squash is about the only thing I purchased that I am happy with from Baker's Creek, though I don't think even that was the freshest of seed.

My first garlic harvest! 60 heads, grown in a raised bed 3.5 x 3. Should be enough for the year plus seed garlic for next year. Some heads are very small though, may try some new varieties this coming year. Will also try planting earlier (Oct vs late Jan) to see if that improves size of head. These are a softneck variety called Inchelium Red. To dry them out is it OK that I have them laying flat on a metal metro rack shelving unit rather than hanging? Do not really have a place to hang but will figure something out if I have to.....

Peter - That's a beaut' !

Babuska - Nice looking garlic! I'm in the same boat as you - planted first crop this year in January and will be trying more and planting in October. I think you can cure them on a wire rack but you may want to put a fan on them to help dry them out a bit. Also you may want to move them around periodically so they get airflow around them all. I dried a couple heads that way this year and they seem similar to the ones I hung.

Nice squash, Peter! I don't even have flowers on my plants yet!

Awesome garlic, Babushka! Yeah you don't have to hang them up. The shelving rack will work great. I would just try to lay them in a single layer. I think the most important thing is airflow, like Kevin said. Also want to avoid them getting too hot, so keep them out of the sun.

We had storms overnight and I was pleased when I checked the garden this morning that 1) there was about 1.25" of rain in the rain gauge; 2) there was no damage from the wind. The garden looked pretty happy this morning, and I was tickled to see that the beans that I planted just a few days ago are already sprouting. At this time of summer I am always thankful for a good soaking rain. May you all be lucky enough to get periodic rains throughout the summer.

Spotted a SVB yesterday, the war has begun. I will be injecting my Zuks with BT and give them a spraying today/tonight.

Nothing like a good rain to perk everything up, eh itsmce??

Steve, nooooooooo. Well now that Peter and yourself have seen them, I really need to be on guard. Time to prepare for battle. Good luck!

First shot at an onion braid. Wife likes it so much she said I can't use them for cooking.

Babushka: I had the same results with Inchellium Red. Some variation in head size. I think it is to be expected with any variety you choose, not just this softneck. Similar to some kids end up short and some play in the NBA. There may be correlation between initial seed clove size and harvest size, but I'm not going for a masters anytime soon.

@Kevin - that IS a beauty. Totally agree with the wife, no cooking with that one! :)

@hokiehorticulture: thanks, good to hear. once these cure will reserve the largest heads for seed garlic and plant this fall too, will be an interesting test to see the difference, if any. may try a few other varieties as well, if i can find some free space!

Grrrrr....My 2nd zucchini plant is sick today. Time to get those other seeds in the ground.

@Kevin, you're lucky, my wife would not like that one bit! :)

itsmce, still plenty of zucchini season left to start new plants!