A watched pot.....

Well everyone knows that a watched pot DOES indeed eventually boil, and so does a watched garden indeed grow. In fact of all the organic gardening how tos I've read, the one thing they can all agree on is that you should watch your crops closely. And now that all of my spring planting is done, so the watching begins, and not too soon.
In my most recent conundrum of trying to determine when to harvest my peas, turns out just a few days later they waved their proverbial white flag and I just knew.
Just as I knew on Friday as I sat and pondered the coming of my first tomatoes the signs of my first uninvited guests into my garden. Cutworms. I needn’t have waited though to see the stem whose leaves where completely missing, or other leaves that appeared to be disintegrating before my very eyes. I knew these little guys where coming. I had seen the moths scatter when I watered and knew it was only a matter of time. So, I went about methodically removing these little guys one by one and occasionally removing entire branches from my tomatoes and then as I realized they had also moved on to my potatoes and have now spent the better half of my three day weekend picking off and mushing these little buggers with a stick.
I have also spotted with my little eye the first signs of powdery mildew, so armed with my trusty pump sprayer I gave all of my plants a good foliar soaking of Actinovate, a “good” bacteria solution.

Other sightings and goings ons in my garden:

The peas are harvested and the pea fence is down and will soon be replaced by a row of eggplant.
Thanks to a little dry weather and the absence of any really serious pest or disease, I harvested my first zucchini ever and have another right behind along with about 6 or so squash. This harvest has not been without it’s mystery though. Everyone knows that you always get tons of male flowers before the fruited females show up. Nope not mine, almost all are females, luckily with at least one male a day or so behind that I’ve been able to strip open and use to hand pollinate.
The blackberries are blooming.
My first tomatoes will be the Green Sausage. Very prolific as I am discovering. There are at least 10 tiny little egg shaped fruit and more developing every day. Despite my hand pollinating efforts,sadly the first 3 flowers on my Brandywines have dried up and fallen off.
All of my corn is coming up nicely.
My cucumbers are blooming and appear that they may takeover very soon.
And, lastly on a non vegetable related note, the Iris’s that I planted by my gate 2 years ago have finally decided that they too will bring me a first and bloom.