Fruits & Veggies ...and mites

It's finally Summer here in Portland....well it has been for what a month or so now I guess.  This means more sun and less rain.  My plants are a lot happier - and growing quite a bit faster when it's warmer, dryer and sunnier.  What a surprise.

The sad side of this is that I finally have had the chance to use my drip irrigation system - only to find out that something is wrong with the timer I have.  For some reasons the valve doesn't open up completely but the motor keeps running (it's blocked somehow I think) which causes the battery to die.  I have yet to take it apart and examine the insides! And I haven't checked on the warranty yet either. 

 

 I have many one red bell pepper growing (top left), 3 tomatoes (top right, this picture is almost a week old now eek!), and many many small zucchinis which I've started to add to salads.  I'm not sure what the cause of the small size is - I know it's supposed to be a smaller type but I thought they'd be a little bigger than they are (~2" long). 


 

My eggplant started to flower which I was super excited about, until the next day when I found a million mites again.  Being that this is the 3rd wave of mites to attack my plants, I've decided not to freak out.  After my last post about pulling out my dill weed, my friend Brian suggested again that I try ladybugs.  Well this time I listened to him.  I went to Portland Nursery and got ladybugs last week and sprinkled a couple of them on my plants on Friday.  As of this morning the mite infestation has gone down probably 98% :)  However I still have little white dusty looking things all over which I'm guessing are larvae.  If the ladybugs I have on the plant leave before they hatch/grow then I'll just take my little ladybug pouch out of the fridge and sprinkle some more over it.  Hopefully the ladybugs are laying eggs so they will just live in my garden - they're AWESOME!

Other than that my catnip is finally growing which Maddie and Mambo are very happy about.  The kale is growing little by little - but I might just be hoping for too much with the little container I have it in.

The oregano is loving everything! I don't think I could kill that plant if I tried.  And my basil is also finally starting to grow more - I found that harvesting it helps too.