too much too late?

After weeks of no rain, desperate prayers from farmers and choking on the baked dust coating Our Fair State, the storms arrived.  It's been raining, on and off, for three days now.  We've had 4 inches of rain, an astounding 3 inches fell in one night.  The world has taken on a faint tinge of green, though I suspect things just look greener because the rain washed the dust away.  Instead of remembering to move the sprinklers on the vegetable beds, I'm remembering to close windows.  And it's cooled off--a balmy 85 degrees instead of 95!

I'm not sure if all this rain will help the farmers, but at least our stressed trees, shrubs and flowers got some relief. 

The squash beetles arrived right on time again.  I stand torn between wanting to destroy them with poison in order to save the zucchini and throwing up my hands in despair because how can you effectively destroy one type of bug without killing all the beneficial bugs?  I look at those sweet honey bees, dragon flies (swooping and whizzing around our yard each evening snapping up the mosquitoes) and earthworms and they give me pause.  And then I read a little more about how I can organically decimate the squash beetle population without adversely affecting those insects I do like--butterflies, crickets and those colorful sharpshooter leafhoppers. 

 

The sharpshooter leafhopper.  A snazzy little bug with a snazzy name.

It turns out I should've left some pumpkins to rot in my gardens to attract some squash beetles last fall and then squashed/drowned them before they could burrow in and lay eggs before this summer. And apparently I should set a small board at the base of each squash plant and check beneath it daily for signs of squash bugs--and kill them on site.  I should've also dug a root cellar so I can store the pumpkins that are ready and protect them from those nasty beetles.

I know so much now, but all of it comes too late to help this season's harvest.

In other news, the prairie blooms vigorously and I've got plenty of green beans to pick for supper.

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