Lush

The last month has been dry, with little rain, but the abundant rain earlier in the summer put a lot of moisture in the soil and has resulted in some very lush growth. Both the sweet potatoes and winter squash have spread their vines far and wide, almost swallowing up adjacent garden beds.

On the insect front, the Japanese beetles seem to have finally died off after their mid-summer rampage. It seems everyone was seeing many more of these beetles this summer. We can only hope that they are at the peak of their growth curve. We did notice that when the beetles were in the grape vines on a large wooden fence on the east side of our yard, that house sparrows were spending a lot of time on the fence hunting and eating the beetles.