Let’s nip this “garden envy” in bud, shall we? It’s not all peas and kale.

Something is eating my broccoli, and has been for a long time. My Alaska Gardening Guide suggested cutworms as the culprit, and listed possible remedies. Since cutworms are active at night, I actually got up at 3:00 a.m. one night to go cutworm hunting. Oh, yes, I did. And I’ve been out both very early and very late. I have found not a single worm.

Shouldn’t they be moths by now anyway?

Yet the munching continues. The broc is a sorry sight. I’ve found two of the oblong red beetles with black stripes that plagued my collards and kale the first year, but that’s it. Someone recently suggested rodents as the culprits.

I have no idea.

Next year, I think I’ll plant broccoli in different places, including in the middle of some onions.

My bucket cucs have three cucumbers forming. This is the biggest. As of two weeks ago, the plants looked great.

Today they look like this.

What’s up with that? Are they root bound? Too few nutrients in too little soil?

We just purchased two large storage tubs from a thrift store which I plan to make cuc and zuc tubs next year. I also hope to try a soil-warming strategy (grow through clear plastic) on one of the beds in the garden to see if I can’t get green beans and cantaloupe to grow along with cucs and zucs and maybe peppers. Hope springs eternal.

My bucket zuc continues to look pretty good and put out flowers upon flowers, but it’s not producing fruit. I picked the two it made, and that seems to have initiated further production, but it’s not like the zuc plants I’ve known in the past that produce more than a person can consume.

Again…root bound? Too few nutrients in too little soil?

The garden zucs have hardly grown, but one is making a zucchini, bless it’s veggie heart. The garden cuc is about two inches high and content to remain so in spite of the heat, sun, and frequent watering. Go figure.