The Weekly Digs #170
The fourth of July we went and played at the lake, but that morning I spent some time in the garden trying to get a few projects tackled! I’ve been working on stringing up tomatoes which is a constant thing, the tomatoes grow so fast this time of year!
Blister Beetles Attack
If you watched my most recent Youtube video, you’ve heard me talk about this already and may want to skip over it. But for those who haven’t seen it, here is the story:
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On that same fourth of July morning, I also walked over to my potatoes and saw something unusual. They looked like they were getting eaten by something. I thought it might be potato bugs since I know many struggle with them but it wasn’t. It was striped blister beetles and lots of them!
I tried to get rid of them by putting soap and water in a bucket, then shook the plants into it. It worked, or so I thought. We had a good holiday of fun and fireworks.
The next day, I looked at my potatoes and they were completely defoliated. Lesson #1 about blister beetles- They are most active at night!
It was good to learn, because then I knew when to look for them. By that point, the blister beetles had decided to scatter throughout the garden. I spent 3-4 hours a day in the evening and night for the next 2 days trying to keep them from defoliating other plants.
My back was killing me from bending over the plants and working on this every night. I couldn’t help but start crying from pure fatigue and frustration. I put a ton of effort into the garden and this year the garden problems have been more extreme!
I didn’t share this on Youtube, but in my fatigue I also felt like a terrible gardener because so many things aren’t working this year.
So seeing me frustrated and sobbing, Cam said we needed to pray for help and to have faith that God would do the rest. So we did.
The next night, I went out checking diligently among all the tomatoes, brussel sprouts, and peppers. There were no beetles there. Not one! Then I saw a frog right where there were many beetles the day before and knew that it was part of the answer to our prayer!
I continued to look around for the beetles and found them all congregated on a 15 foot section of potatoes. They were there in the thousands. The fact that they all gathered in one small area was the other part of the answer to prayer.
I was out until 1am that night making sure I got every single one I could see. The next night I went out again to the same area and I caught about a hundred. Way less than before and they are back to manageable levels, yay!
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Other garden news:
- Harvested all my onions. I haven’t counted them all but we have a lot this year! It’s a wonderful thing. I plan on freeze drying my white onions as soon as I can get around to it because they only last a few months in storage and because dried and freeze dried onions that are pre cut are convenient to add to soups.
- Harvesting green beans, cucumbers, all the rest of the cabbage, cherry tomatoes, and herbs.
- Planted Arkansas Razorback Cowpeas, Lima Beans, and Cherokee Trail of Tears Black Beans.
Preserving
- Canned another 25 pints of dill pickles
- Started a batch of cucumber kimchi. I need to finish it after writing this!
Home Projects
I don’t talk too often about house projects but we always have a few going on in the background. When we built our home, in order to save money there were a few cosmetic things we wanted to do ourselves. This weekend Cam painted our bedroom. It was white before and I was tired of sleeping in a white box.
I don’t fall asleep easily so I figured something very dark would be more conducive to sleeping.
An interesting little known fact, my first public blog (started 2014) was about fixing up and decorating our previous home. I then started a new blog where I talked about both gardening and home decor/ design. After a few months, I decided to only blog about the garden and created “The Seasonal Homestead” in 2019.
I really enjoy decorating and love how a beautifully designed and decorated room makes me smile when I’m in it! My surroundings have always had a substantial effect on my mood. I’m a very visual person and maybe that’s why it effects me so much. I’m also an artist which is the other reason I care about it a lot.
But I found when I blogged about home design a lot I became more consumed with having material things. So instead I put my focus in the garden and it’s been more enjoyable, easier on our budget, and better for my mental health.
An interesting twist is that in the last year a home tour has been the #1 thing requested in my emails from readers of the blog and viewers of our YT channel.
Originally I didn’t think anyone was interested in seeing our home. But those who are interested have gone out of their way to let me know. Consequently, I will be sharing a home tour on Youtube when I get a break from the garden and preserving (haha who knows when that will happen, maybe a few months from now?!) and I’ll also be posting some more details of our house plan, design choices we made for homesteading (double pantry is one example), and perhaps some of the building process here due to all the interest.
