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Okay, so things are both good and bad with my precious labor of love. I am happy to say that all week we’ve had salads made from our own homegrown lettuce and cucumbers. Last night we enjoyed pizza topped with fresh green bell peppers and basil – delicious! But…most of our plants’ leaves have been eaten holy by cucumber beetles. Meanwhile, the herbs are being ravaged by a very hungry caterpillar. And, I thought I had a beautiful tomato, but you’ll see from the pictures my excitement was short-lived.

I dusted the garden leaves with some organic stuff in hopes to rid my plants of the evil invaders. Now, I know I blatantly ignored all the advice of, “you oughta put that seb’em dust on ‘em,” but I wanted to stay true to my “no nasty pesticides” mission, despite the fact that Sevin Dust has been on the market for 50 years. Whatever, I’m stubborn. I chose the organic stuff. But, I have to say, I don’t like the looks of my cucumber plant these days. I guess time will tell. We have hit that time in early summer when there’s an afternoon shower almost daily, so hopefully the cucumber plant will rebound.

The next beetle bug gets 2 tablespoons of hot sauce mixed in a 1-liter spray bottle of water. That’s almost what would happen to whatever my husband eats anyway.