With all the rain we're having,  I'm noticing a definite lack of color on a few of my plantings. Although I typically fertilize mid season on the peppers and eggplants, this year the beans, squash, and cucumbers look like they could also use a feeding. Nitrogen never stays in the soil, it gets used by the plants, volatizes into the atmosphere or likely for us this year we're losing nitrogen through leaching. The rain is literally stealing our nitrogen and washing it away.
  So this week I'll spread a bit of blood meal around the garden to give the plants a quick feeding. Blood meal is a fast acting nitrogen and we'll see the plants green up over a week or so. It may be subtle but noticeable if you watch closely. On some crops, I'll make a spray and foliar fertilize, plants will pick up foliar feeding much faster than a ground feeding.
  As an aside, I heard today from a gardener that someone had recommended Epson salts for the garden. Epson salt is Magnesium Sulfate so when you use Epson salt you're getting both magnesium and sulfur. This combination is pH neutral so that's not a problem. However....here's the rest of the story. As Nitrogen leaches from the soil it never leaves alone, most of the time it takes calcium. As we lose calcium, the ratio of Ca. to Mg. goes more towards the Mg side of the equation. The more Mg you get in the soil, the harder the soil will get and the less water will drain through the soil. I attribute the drainage issues we have in parts of the garden to an excess of magnesium in the subsoil and when folks use Epsom salt in their beds the extra Mg adds in a small way to our drainage issues. So...don't use Epson salt unless or until our soil test says we need it. Thanks.

  We celebrated the summer solstice over the weekend and as we did I looked ahead towards the fall crops. We'll be planting cauliflower is six weeks and it is often difficult to find transplants when we need them. Two years ago, cauliflower and broccoli transplants were available, last year they weren't, so we can't depend on having transplants when we need them. So to preclude that problem we start our own transplants.
  Last week I started cauliflower and this week they are sprouting nicely. I plant 2 white varieties along with one flat each of green, purple, and yellow cauliflower. The colored varieties are mostly novelties, they don't produce real well but are beautiful when they do. Besides, colored veggies including cauliflower are more nutritious. I'll grow the seedlings about 5 weeks, and they'll go into the garden at the end of July.
  Cauliflower takes about 80 days to make a crop and modern varieties are self blanching. That means the top leaves stay tightly wrapped around the forming flower until one day the leaves open to expose the crop. It's just like peek-a-boo in the garden...when the crop is ready the leaves open to expose the cauliflower. The crop is a heavy feeder so it will require extra fertilizer mid way  through the season.

  It has taken awhile to get sweet potato slips but they are finally ready for you to plant. Amongst the grass growing in bed 142 you'll find sweet potato sprouts (slips). I left a bucket beside the bed with a trowel and small knife for you to use. There are also instructions, but basically you'll dig up the entire bunch of slips along with the mother sweet potato, cut off the slips from the mother at the base of the slip and replant the mother tuber. The slips will already have little roots and will quickly get established. Since there is a limited supply of slips take only as many as you need. If in 2 weeks there are any left, feel free to take more.
  Even with the hot weather we're having, the slips will root quickly. Plant your slips in a hill, your crop will grow vertically right under that slip. I plant my slips about 1' apart. Keep the slips well watered until you see new leaves growing from the slip, then water normally. Sweet potato plants like to ramble, you can plant sweet potatoes in a large pot on a deck, in the fall upturn the pot to harvest the crop. Sweet potatoes take about 90 days to make a crop, longer will make larger tubers. This is a drought tolerant crop but keep them moist for the best results.
  I've got an abundance of purple sweet potato slips and I'll take some to the market Saturday. The purple sweet potatoes are starchier, not as sweet, but make great fries, soup, and chips.
  Where to plant? It's time to start digging potatoes so dig your potatoes and immediately stick in sweet potatoes.

  The battle against squash bugs is well under way and requires constant vigilance and attention. A few squash bugs hibernate during the winter and breed prolifically in the spring so that by mid summer this pest is everywhere. There are no good insecticides we can use, even the professionals have a difficult time fighting squash bugs.
  I see this battle as a challenge and I keep score! I'll walk my rows of squash and hand pick these pests. You can put them into a jar of soapy water to kill them or do as I do and simply pinch their little heads. If you pinch their heads without squeezing the body you won't be overcome by the odor that qualifies these bugs as true stink bugs. I give myself a point for every squash bug I kill, I give myself 3 points if I catch and kill 2 stink bugs caught in flagrante delicto. On one sunny day I scored about 200 points but most days are single digits.
  You'll see squash bug eggs mostly on the top of the leaves of your zucchini. Gently rub the eggs off the leaf, once the eggs fall to the ground there are many predators that will eat them. As much as we hate fire ants, I've watched fire ants craw up the leaf and harvest squash bug eggs. If you find lots of squash bug nymphs, the commercial insecticidal soaps will kill them but it requires  multiple applications.
  By mid summer the squash bug numbers will be too great and our squash will be overrun with these pests. So we'll outsmart these critters. If we take a break and let our squash plants die so that there is no host plants for the squash bugs their numbers will crash. Then about the first of September we'll plant a late crop of squash  which will give us a small crop going into the fall.
  So join me in hand picking squash bugs, feel free to pick them from neighboring plots... keep score and we'll see who can get the highest score.