More Calmly Reactive

I knew that they would eventually arrive.  The winter's Polar Vortex surely suppressed them for awhile, and the cool spring dampened their enthusiasm while the timely rains added their healthful blessing.  But summer will have its way.  Eventually the arid heat arrives, and on the wings of it:  the bugs.  A few cabbage worms showed up last week, albeit it in small numbers.  Hopefully I nipped them in their bud.  Yesterday, however, the squash bugs were out in force.  Small "herds" of them newly hatched and grazing for supper. 

To the uninitiated, squash bugs can be frightening.  Gray, intimidating, almost militaristic in their shield-like armor, they look as if they could withstand a nuclear blast, under their devastating influence a sturdy, sprawling squash plant can be reduced to shriveled blackness before the zucchini bread is cooled.  A novice gardener wilts almost as rapidly in the face of it.  I know this from experience.

But this isn't my first cucurbit rodeo.  I'm slow, but unlike my first gardening season I am no longer traumatized and paralyzed.  Since then I have read.  I have asked for advice.  I have experimented with responses.  I've battled the little buggers in my dreams.  And despite their Star Wars appearance, I no longer believe they materialized from outer space and are marching on Washington.  Although...  But let's not digress.

As it turns out, there are organic tools to ward off the invasion.  Last year I learned about Surround, a clay-based spray that deters infestation.  If applied early enough, bugs find their supper unpalatable and look elsewhere for their meals.  Unfortunately, it's possible to apply it too late, once the invasion is full-on, and the deterrent coating does little good.  But all is not lost.  Spinosad, another naturally derived tool accepted for organic gardening, is a little more aggressive response. 

That latter I have in reserve.  The former I applied yesterday. It looks a little disconcerting, but hopefully it will have its desired effect and Plan B will not be necessary. 

No sign -- yet -- of the Colorado Potato Beetles or aphids or horned tomato worms or...  But "'tis the season"; and I am ready.

In the meantime, I continue to harvest.  So far I think I am up to 17 tons of cucumbers in miscellaneous colors, shapes and sizes, and 1/4 ton of various varieties of squash.  And so we are eating.  And preserving.  Last week it was bread and butter pickles with Lori's mother and sister.  Last night we worked on Indian pickles and pickle relish.  Tonight, the dill spears.