Memorial Day garden clean-up and aphid killing spree.

We did our family BBQ on Sunday, so Memorial Day was spent on the serious issue of making the front yard (where our city garden resides) not look like crap. We added the newest member of our family last Wednesday, and I spent the next three days in the hospital so there was a lot left half done. The worst offence was probably spreading straw and leaving piles of it on the sidewalks to be drenched and blown around in the rain for three days. Ugh.

I found out later that it was about 95 degrees in Pittsburgh today, which probably explains why I was so lightheaded after a few minutes of work at 3pm. I got the bean and pea bed weeded (it was being invaded by some type of vine that the old home owners planted EVERYWHERE) and then went inside until around 7pm. I wouldn't say things are done, but they are certainly much much better.

The kids enjoyed our first "harvest" today, which consisted solely of some small pea shoots that were the victims of a serious thinning effort.

These two volunteers were oddly coming up in the squash bed. I KNOW I didn't plant them because they were coming up near the two transplants I bought, which are no where near the seeds I planted. Since our compost is heavy on cukes, squash, and other melon-type things, these could be almost anything. I replanted them in pots to see what grows until I can find a spot.

The two Space Miser transplants are HUGE and have some nice silvery coloration on the leaves.

Anybody know what this is? These are weeds growing in one of my beds but they have this deep purple bubbling on the leaves. I am worried that it's some type of fungus that might spread to my veggies.

We also made a spray for green peach aphids and sprayed down the tomatoes and eggplant in the pots out back. I only saw actual aphids on one of the plants, but there were spots that seemed to be caused by aphid damage on every plant. I am also awaiting a box of lady bugs on Wednesday.