SuperLady Sunday Check-In: Garden Woes

Note: This check-in is inspired by Leigh Ann over at The Frugal Ima who is totally awesome and basically my favorite person who lives in Ohio who I've never met in real life. Check out her blog, it has lots of great and cute stuff on it. I'm adopting her Sunday Check-In in an attempt to at least assure myself one post per week.

WARNING.  This post is about bugs, bug poo, and squashing bugs.  The links take you to pictures of bugs.  So, if you're sqeemish, you might want to not read any further.  Or at least save yourself the link clickage.  :(

ALAS!  My gan is fighting many, many monsters.  Vine Borers have decimated my spaghetti squash plant... and I think they're going for the zucchini next.  Gnats or possible aphids are attacking the eggplant.  Cabbage Worms are noshing on my broccoli leaves.  So far, the tomatoes seem healthy, green, and happy. But, alas, alas!

Basically, the cabbage worms are just a nuisance.  They eat the leaves, stop photosynthesis, and generally slow down the broccoli growth.  They don't like the heads (which are really flowers and haven't developed yet) and you can just put the broccoli heads in an old nylon stocking to prevent any damage.  But, they're obnoxious.  I even broke down and starting pulling them off on Shabbat because I don't want them to destroy everything while I rest all day.  Beware, if you squeeze them, their... excrement... shoots out the other end.  Okay, that was really gross.  I'm sorry.

The vine borers, though.  UGH!  I noticed the frass (more bug poo...) and was in denial for several days.  But, I couldn't ignore it any longer.  They plant's base was dying.  I'm ferklempt for the loss of my beautiful spaghetti squash plant.  Little squashes were just starting to grow, about 3 inches long.  The solution I found was to kill off all the visible worms (maggots!) and cover the safe portions of the vines with dirt to encourage root growth and perhaps a few vegetables.  We'll see... I'm not hopeful.  I think I chopped in half more than worms than I ever want to in my life.  I'm AMANDA THE DESTRUCTOR.

And the eggplant's just wilty.  Still producing, but we can't tell if it's gnats or aphids.  Just unpleasantness.  Woe is me, woe is my garden.

OKAY, now let's be POSITIVE about something.  We have these DARLING cucumbers (the vine borers don't seem to like them) growing and it amazes me how some grow long and skinny and others short and stocky.  The Hazz, of course, pointed out, that he and his two brothers are a variation on that theme.  His little brother is 6'3" and weighs like 10 pounds.  His older brother is in the middle and The Hazz is the short one.

See... looks just like 'em!

Don't you like my MAD photoshop skills?

So, that's my week besides reading some AWESOME, OMG AMAZING BOOKS.  But, I'm saving that for another blog mid-week because they were so awesome that I started reading the first one again after reading the whole 3-book series.  Seriously, how did I not know about them sooner?  I'm sooo behind the curve.

How was YOUR week?