Happy Saturday! Come on in! As always, a big thanks to Natalie of Natalie the Explorer for hosting WeekendCoffeeShare.

This week, I’m still battling an infestation of aphids in the garden. So far, I’m losing big time. Aphids are everywhere, not just on my edibles. It’s hiding in the leaves of the plum trees, on the buds of the rose bushes, even on plants that’s never ever had a previous attack. Over the last few weeks, I’ve tried all kinds of things- spray water at them, pyretherin spray, spinosad powder – nothing worked.

I have thought of neem oil but I don’t like to use it because of a bad experence I had. After getting rid most of the lettuce and brassicas in the garden and still not working, I decided to try a neem oil soil drench last night. If that doesn’t work, I don’t know what will.

I researched on how to get rid of aphids online and most of them said to plant flowers to attract beneficial insects. I did that. There are plenty of lady beetles in the garden, just not enough to tackle the task. U

The weather hasn’t been helpful either. After a couple of weeks around 70°F and there would even a few 80°F days, it plunged back down to the 50’s °F and worse, the cold temperature was accompanied by 50 mile per hour wind gusts, drying out all the top soil, despite there’s a thick layer of mulch on top. Of the whole week, I finally got to go into the garden last night.

Because I must eat, I harvested the purple sprouting broccoli for dinner. I haven’t harvested the other broccoli yet. Soon, though.

When I went out into the garden last night, I first went to the meadow and saw this new yet familiar blue flower in the patch. Can it be? I thought. Is that borage?

I had spent last year trying to grow borage and none of the seeds germinated. I even tried sowing the seeds indoors this year. Nothing. Then, a few months ago, I tossed the remaining seeds in the meadow. This sure is a seed that likes a challenge, sprouting in the part of the yard that’s rarely watered.

I picked the first strawberry last night. It was sweet but the flavor felt diluted perhaps it was because of the rain we recently had. It’s been forecasted there will be another temperature drop along with almost an inch of rain. I may have bring the remaining tomato seedlings back into the garage and cover what I can with frost blanket. P

Maybe someone should remind mother Nature that it’s late May?