Pinto beans, wildlife - the turtles and the bees?

Pinto Bean Harvest

The pinto beans were in a patch that was flooded and partially washed out, not to mention attacked by rabbits (and a groundhog, perhaps), and overgrown with weeds (I was able to cultivate it ONCE - it was too wet the rest of the time).  Anyway, I had to go in and pick what beans I could find.  I was able to harvest probably 8-10 lbs of beans!  Not bad considering the situation.

Filled in around porch

I moved and leveled the porch last weekend, but there were gaps around the house and base of the porch that I wanted to fill in with dirt.  This weekend I got a couple of front-end-loaders full of dirt and fill in a bit.

There was a hole on this side - in the corner next to the house, that I am pretty sure a groundhog had been using (or had plans to use) for a den.  I wanted to shut down such a bad idea.

European Hornets

I was in the kitchen when I noticed this guy on the kitchen screen door.  These guys are all over the pears and apples!  I need to figure out how to eradicate them!  They are eating a significant amount of fruit and they are quite disturbing.

They are about twice the size of a regular bald-faced hornet!  Thankfully, they seem to be relatively docile.

Turtles!

I caught these two doing this outside!  Such naughty turtles! LoL

More summer squash!

Yep, well into fall now - but the summer squash are doing fine!  Will this be the last harvest?   The plants are looking pretty rough...

Winter squash (buttercup) are doing fine

There some decent looking squash coming on.    Wouldn't have minded a few more - but maybe there are enough...

Confused Forsythia

I discovered a number of forsythia that were putting out blooms!  They normally bloom in the spring.  Weirdness.

Pinto bean picking continues

It goes slow with all these weeds!  Hard to even see the beans in there.

Garden planting finally done!

Cool - they gave me even more mulch!

This is sure saving me lots of work!  Now all I have to do is to move it to where it belongs.  Around they trees mostly.

I still need to move the new stuff up on the pile so that it "ferments" better

Grape health

There is no doubt that the new sprays (myclobutanil and manzate) are keeping the black rot and rust at bay this year.  With the weather being this wet if I didn't have these sprays these grape vines would be dead - I am sure!

Lots of grapes on these vines!

I hope the varmints don't get them before I do!

Orchard update

The orchard trees look ok.  The June drop didn't seems to drop much; most of the fruit is still intact!  I have noticed some diseased looking leaves so I think I will spray sevin and fungicide - just like the grapes.

Pear tree looking ok.  Not needing bracing. yet.

For some reason this pristine apple tree isn't needing bracing.  Apples are lower in the tree i guess.

I switched out the stakes on the pristine apple trees.  The "leaning board" idea just wasn't working.  I moved back to the tried and true tripod setup.

These are getting close to ready!

More Choke cherry/berry damage

Freaking rabbits!  I have managed to kill 4 so far.  I also took out a small groundhog nearby and a raccoon out in the sheep hollow.  Still, there is a big rabbit that I haven't been able to get in this area.  I am pretty sure hes the one doing this too.  I got a couple have-a-heart traps at TSC last week.  I am trying them out.

They just snip off the top and leave them lay!

I mowed around the choke cherries this weekend too.  I use the small - hand mower for this.

Here is one of the have-a-heart traps ready to get the buggers!

Forsythia & elderberry cleanup

I finally got around to trimming the grass away from the forsythia and elderberries.  I did find that one of the forsythia had died below the elderberries.  I am trying to keep them clear until they are big enough to overwhelm the weeds.  I still can't get into the elderberries out in the swamp.

Squash and cukes planted!

I was finally able to get into the garden and put the plastic down and plant the squash and cukes.  I planted all of the buttercup and summer squash that I had left.  I only put in a few cukes.

The corn is growing nicely.  Where it came up.  I was used up all the old seed I had laying around.