Week seven in the Eucaplytus Garden and we're running up against that thing called Florida. This past week was much more in tune with the season - at least for most of it -- with temperatures in the 90s and humidity at saturation.
Thunderstorms closed out most days, but not until yesterday did the clouds form overhead, above Lakewood Terrace. When they did, it was a thing of beauty. Hypnotic. I sat and let it wash over my senses.
But despite the rains and because of the heat and humidity, the promising summer squash we looked at last weekend have been consumed by a suicidal parasite.
One day these plants were green and the next they looked like this. I had noticed a few days earlier that the sprouting end appeared stunted, but I didn't see any obvious infestation.
By Thursday it was impossible to miss. The leaves have not merely died, they have first been eaten. Something craved the suger they had stored in their cells, or needed chlorophyl. Whatever it was, it completed the summer squash in less than 24 hours.
And now it has spread to the leaves of the cucumber plants as well. What I see are tiny black dots on the leafs, what looks like spilled soil, but is clearly leaf eating vermin.
This is a cucumber leaf and baby cucumber that was healthy on Thursday. The fruit has been eaten and has become a nursery, the leaf will be shrivelled by tomorrow. The lesson? Maybe squash needs more pot space? I was told by my farmer friend that they would. But maybe, too, squash are not a summer season crop.
I have had success with all of the varieties that are not working here now during fall and spring seasons. Next summer I'll try a few variants, but this may mean no summer squash...
The tomatoes, for their part, continue to hold on. I have lost two plants and the one pictured here is yellowing around the edges of its leaves. Something is building tiny webs in its branches. But you can see that it has also bloomed.
The eggplants are fighting what may be a winning battle. This one has lost a number of leaves to some hungry insect or grub and yet it puts out a new one larger than before. Other eggplants are growing in similar conditions.
As in all things, when you move from the close in detail to the broader landscape view, the garden continues to flourish. Most tomatoes are still well, the lettuce has taken hold, the spices (cilantro, dill, basil, rosemary, and parsley) are thriving, peppers continue to grow, and the kohlrabi appears strong.
The corn, as well, continues to push skyward. I have transplanted four mammoth sunflowers to the front yard; they are doing well, too.
And the little desert rose that got this all started, pushes out more leaves and begins to take on that distinctive bulbous shape.
Until next week.
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