Patchwork Patio: No, Scruffy! NOOOOOO!

Little blackish brown spots.

Yellowing.

That's not a good color for anyone.

I think this is called Septoria Leaf Spot, which is a kind of tomato fungus. I'm told it doesn't effect fruit, so that much is good. The bad news is that there's no cure, and it will ultimately kill the plant. But, supposedly, you can keep it under control (relatively speaking) via pruning and spraying with copper fungicide. I did both today. I hope we see many more orange tomatoes before Scruffy gives up the fight.

When I came in the house after spraying down Scruffy, I felt something crawling on my arm. I looked down and saw a huge black bee or wasp crawling down my arm. It startled me so bad, I actually screamed like a little schoolgirl (which I haven't been for quite sometime), after which I flicked it off my arm, ran away, and yelled at my husband, "Get it! Get it!"

I sometimes like to think that I would be more composed during these kinds of situations, but then when those situations actually present themselves, well, apparently I revert to my childhood.

You might be relieved to know that we did not kill the bee, we just let it go back outside. And by we, I mean my brave Hubbyman. Knight in shining armor, anyone?

But I digress.

My son saw these and said, "Mom! You planted pickles?" He was so excited, I was reluctant to burst his bubble. I did the right thing, of course, by explaining the difference between a pickle and a cucumber. He wasn't nearly as interested in the concept of cucumbers. These are no pickling cukes, and I don't know how to pickle things, so I'm sorry, kiddo, but cucumbers will have to do. (Provided they actually develop into something edible.)

I fully admit the fact that I have never grown cucumbers, and the couple of times I saw someone else's cucumber plants, I failed to observe what healthy cucumber growth looks like. So don't make fun of me if these are totally screwed up!

I have several baby crooknecks, but then I have a couple of these weird shaped things. They don't look like anything normal at all. What the heck is up with these things? Well, whatever the case, I am getting good, tasty, normal crooknecks too. So in the end, I'm okay with it.