Parsnips, Pumpkins, and Pests

Sunshine!

We are having the first solid day of heat and sunshine that we've had since the end of May.  Hallelujah!  When I went out to peruse the vegetables and do some weeding, I discovered that the parsnips (pictured) are coming along well, as are the second planting of beets.  

Melon (??)  in the middle, pumpkins either side (one invisible!)

I also discovered three pumpkin seeds have sprouted, in two different containers.  Those melon/pumpkin containers are going to be crowded...









 
One of my tomato plants, a Black Krim, has set two little tomatoes.  :-)











I planted some more pac choi in the space where I originally planted Red Oak Leaf lettuce - twice.  (That lettuce didn't come up).  I also planted some more kohlrabi where there was space for it in the kohrabi bed.



R. spotted the first **BLEEEEEP** cabbage moth of the season.  How I loathe those things.  More to the point, I hate the eggs they lay, which hatch into fat, squishy, disgusting green worms that keep me on edge when I'm cutting up cauliflower to blanch and that make me shriek and swear when one falls out on my arm.  Revolting.  

I have been saving eggshells since last summer, as I read somewhere that sprinkling crushed eggshells on the ground around brassicas keeps the moths away.  Elsewhere, I read that this is simply an old wives' tale.  I am trying it, and spread the eggshells in the garden this afternoon.   I also placed little pots with sage seeds (I hope they grow quickly!) among the plants.  Strongly scented herbs are suppose to deter the little buggers.  I hope these things work.  If they don't, I might resort to using Bacillus thuringiensis (BT).  




The flower bed.  I should know by now not to try to grow most annuals from seed.  Takes forever.  

Along the right side, Creeping Thyme (a perennial which eventually produces small pink flowers) with two small Silver Mound in between.  Wooly Thyme (perennial - love this, and it also produces tiny pink flowers) in the foreground, and a bit more Creeping Thyme in the left corner.  Along the left side, orange calendula, Scarlet Flax (I assume the things growing in that spot are not weeds), and in the back left corner, gomphrena (planted weeks ago, and didn't germinate until just a few days ago).

.