Tootfinder

First harvest of San Marzanos. But not by me. The usual suspects are squirrels, chipmunks, catbirds, and sparrows. #tomatoes #allotment #garden

Bonus points for the person at the allotment who covers their water buckets so that mosquitoes don't leave eggs. #mosquitoes #allotment

Any advice on when to harvest melons? #melon #garden #allotment

With a heavy heart I ripped out one of my tomatoes yesterday. Plenty of flowers but not a single fruit, plus new growth in last week looked stunted and twisted. Assuming some sort of virus. #tomatoes #garden #allotment

If anyone needs a gift for a vegetable gardener, I just love my folding Opinel harvesting knife. It's especially useful when the zucchini plant is crowded with stems, flowers, and fruit. #garden #gardening #allotment #zucchini

Backlit corn silk to show off the feathery surface that helps snag falling pollen grains. The stigmatic lobes can grow over an inch per day. #corn #maize #pollen #botany #gardening #allotment #pollination #pollen #stigma

I've finally had some success growing watermelon. Still super crisp and sweet even though I harvested it three weeks ago. Excellent plain, but also great with balsamic vinegar and feta cheese on a bed of arugula. Very good chance that some will end up in a cocktail this weekend. #watermelon #garden #allotment #cooking #citrullus #berry

Stilt roots of maize are really creepy when they are reaching out for soil. #maize #zea #roots #corn #botany #garden #gardening #allotment

I've been harvesting bags of Dr. Martin lima beans every several days. Pure heaven with a little butter and salt. #LimaBeans #legumes #beans #garden #cooking #allotment #phaseolus #seed

Harvested some of my Dr. Martin's lima beans yesterday and cooked them up with butter and salt. So good. #LimaBeans #beans #allotment #garden #legume

Watering the tomatoes. The white PVC tube is 24" long, capped at the end, and has 1/8" holes every 4". If I had to remake I'd probably make the holes 1/16" so that the water was released a bit slower. #tomatoes #water #garden #allotment

Yesterday I found a squash vine borer (Eichlinia cucurbitae) egg on one of my zucchini. I highly recommend examining stems, leaves, and flower stalks several times per week so they can be removed before the larvae emerge. Swarthmore, PA, USA. Zone 7b. #zucchini #squash #garden #allotment #sesiidae #lepidoptera #pests

Sharing my solution to squash vine borers (Eichlinia cucurbitae), the larvae of which burrow into the roots and eventually kill the plant: inject Thuricide Bt into stem wherever you see frass accumulating. This is easier to do if you train your plant vertically so that lower parts are visible. I also regularly police for eggs. #garden #gardening #squash #zucchini #vegetables #allotment #insects #lepidoptera #moths