Odds and Ends

• I'm continuing to harvest beets.  I put up two more pints of beet pickles this afternoon.  We ate harvard beets for supper the other night.  I love the taste of sweet and sour with beets!
• As the beets get somewhat thinned out I've been able to find space for a third row of okra down the middle of that bed.  I got those seeds tucked in just in time for a little rain shower to soak them good on Friday evening.  The other two rows of okra are holding their own.  The plants have sprouted and grown up through the beets.  They're a little spindly, but will become more robust as the weather heats up and the beets get out of the way.
• For some reason, all the butternut squash seeds planted in four of the five hills have sprouted and are growing well, but none of the seeds in the fifth hill sprouted at all.  What?  I planted more seeds in that space.
• The tomatoes are growing and have had to be tied up, up, up.  The sun golds are just about to go over the top of their stakes.  I'm worried that several of the tomato plants are looking a little strange, with leaves that look dry and shriveled on the edges.  Time will tell what's going on there.
• All the beans are looking good, and the climbers are moving on up the string trellis.
• The eggplant is eaten up with flea beetles.  I've replaced the Black Beauty eggplant that died.
• The brussel sprouts that my father-in-law gave me?  Turns out they're broccoli plants.
• A second type of cabbage worm has shown up, the Diamondback Moth caterpillar ... all green, tapered at both ends.
• The potato plants are showing evidence of bug damage.  I saw a couple of orange and black beetles.  I don't know if they're causing the damage, but I promptly smooshed them.