Wall-O-Water.
This is my window garden, my bay window on raised garden (rescued from the remodel). Each of these five contraptions pictured encircles a plant, in this case eggplant, to keep it as warm as possible. Last night, for example, the low was 55, so the plants probably appreciated the wall-o-water. The problem with these walls is that they are in a single piece, so you can't open them up. All you can do is lift them over the plant and move them aside. A problem that manufacturers could probably easily fix.

This year there are two crops that I planted from seedlings: the cucumbers, and the eggplant. I bought a pony with six containers, but each container had two or more seedlings in it, so I ended up planting eleven cukes. Along with the squash (three varieties) they have taken over the penitentiary, while the eggplants are languishing with fruit the size and shape of calamata olives. Go figure. I'll be spending the hours of tonight's insomnia attack garden sleuthing.

Spittlebug.
What I know about spittlebugs is that they, generally speaking, do not pose much of a threat to the plant they attach to. It's enough to wash them down with a hose. But there is probably more to know about them. Apparently they like my grape vines. They attach to the underside of leaves or directly on the fruit. Don't like them.

Pollinators.
We know bees are in trouble, thanks to the devastating effects of pesticides (I have signed a couple of petitions urging big farms to curb their use). This season we've had plenty of pollinators; nevertheless, I decided to help my cause by placing a hive in our yard. Following my friend Barry's instructions, I have come up with this section of a log, cut at a slant, a couple of inches deeper at the top, in order to provide a sort of overhang. As soon as the contraption passes Barry's inspection I will mount it on the juniper tree next to the greenhouse.

Fungus?
It's monsoon season here, and it has rained in the last few days. There is growth of all kinds in the yard, and this morning I saw a yellow semi-spherical glob, about two inches in diameter, that had oozed out of my compost bin. Unthinkingly I touched it. Gooey, something like the crack filler we use around window and door frames. By the time I had gone inside to fetch my camera, the now smeared goo was orange at its center, yellow at the edges. What is it?

Vegetable penitentiary.
There is a reason! Look at the picture of mediocre quality, but of telling content:

Yes, a full-grown deer peacefully resting by the yurt. Now I could claim it was he who ate the 3 zucchini we have already harvested, so "me" wouldn't be as disappointed as s/he might be. Fortunately the three zucchini plants I have are intruders in the herb garden, close to the patio. This, presumably, deterred the deer. Oh, eventually he got up and most gracefully jumped over the fence and slowly disappeared. Nothing like the traumatized dog we had for a couple of days a while back. Poor thing.

Gotta run.

Lemon cucumbers.
I picked these (and more) cukes this morning. The squash canopy in my veggie pen is so thick that I miss them. And it's difficult to move about because I fear damaging the vines (earlier I posted a picture of the pen). So, maybe I planted too many plants. The cucumber row has 11 plants; the squash row has ten plants (three varieties). The vines are climbing so fast I have a hard time disentangling them from the chain link fence, made worse by the lower two feet or so, which are covered by chicken wire. This is to keep out the local bunnies (we have many many).

While I intend to pick these when they reach the size of the small ones pictured here, I had missed them earlier. Who knows how many more I missed this morning.

Artichoke.
This is the artichoke I harvested today. I wish I knew more about crops that ripen out of season. In my experience as a youngster on the 38th parallel in the middle of the Mediterranean, artichoke tubers (I don't know the technical term--parts of the previous season's roots) were planted at the end of summer, and harvested in winter. The artichoke I planted a few years ago (bought at a nursery) keeps producing fruit in the middle of summer. I reduce the size of the plant each year, and stop watering it at the end of the summer. I'd like to know more about this.