when are you sowing your garden this year?

[TheGrey]

Yellow jackets have the worst sting, like connecting with a live electric wire. I've sometimes found their underground burrows and hit them with wasp spray and the flame thrower. In Palisade our biggest problem is with the European Paper Wasps that make their nests all around the house under eaves, fences and the farm equipment. I do battle with them constantly and get nailed 2-3 times a year.

UGH. Wasps of any kind scare me to death.

We now have ten cans of various wasp/hornet spray on our deck, ready for battle. KILL! KILL! KILL!!

Tom blasted the nest with two cans and then put the pool upside down over the burrow. After the sun started going down, he checked. Ding, dong! The wasps are dead!

On the plus side, it looks like my remaining plants are doing fairly well. My peppers look like they may even have some lumplets (or whatever the proper terminology is) that may grow into peppers.

[Irving]

My two honeydew are officially dead. Everything else send to be doing pretty well with a few exceptions here and there. The corn is really taking off, as well as the Beefmaster and Golden Girl tomatoes.

[TheGrey]

That sucks. I feel your pain. All of the melons I planted were killed from the hail, so we won't have any in the garden this year. I had some expensive Indian melons I was trying for, too. Dammit.

[hunterhawk]

my watermelon and cantaloupe are very behind everything else I have planted... so far i have harvested some strawberries until the rabbits killed them, zucchini (thought some of the ends are turning yellow on some of them) and today I had my first cucumber. Tomatoes are getting bigger and the peppers are close... broccoli is starting to form as well. and of our spinach and lettuce have been going for a while now as well... I really just want the tomatoes to hurry up

[Irving]

I have two water melons and one is staying to take off a bit and the other one is near dead. Are you speed to do anything special with spinach? I have two spinach planted and neither one of them is really doing anything.

[Hummer]

Rhubarb Apricot pie! Awesome delicious.

[Hummer]

Still processing and freezing apricots today, so we made apricot rhubarb pies (one for our neighbors), some rhubarb sauce, and a jug of rhubarb liqueur.

When the peaches are ready I'll make some apricot peach wine.... That's surviving in style.

[TheGrey]

Rhubarb Apricot pie! Awesome delicious.

Beautiful!

[TheGrey]

Question-
The peaches on my tree are ripening nicely, but it looks as though something has been at them. Some have brown patches, some have tiny holes. Any ideas as to what's happening?

[Hummer]

Not sure, I don't grow peaches other than two backyard trees so I'm not very familiar with all the pest and defect issues. The brown spots could simply be blemishes from rubbing against adjacent branches, cosmetic only. It might also be damage from late season frost on the peach bud which can create necrotic patches. Or maybe corneum blight, a type of fungus. The tiny holes are likely an insect sting where they lay an egg or eggs, possibly a borer, paper wasp or earwig. It may be localized damage so you can still use most of the fruit.

Peaches in CO don't usually require much pesticide control beyond the early spring tree oil spray which can smother eggs and larvae preventing further issues. Growers here also spray the bottom 2 ft. of trunk twice in summer to control peach twig borer, crown borer and earwigs. Any of those could cause stings in the fruit.

A very wet year can cause aphid outbreaks, a very dry year can produce mite problems. If detected try to deal with them early because they can sap growth from the tree.