Garden Pic Wednesday: Alternate Garden!

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We've had an uncommonly wet June. About 30 inches of rain total---very unusual. 
All that rain killed both my tomatoes and one Bell Pepper. I had two Bells and, miracle of miracles, the other Bell has survived, though it's still semi-droopy. It's got two peppers on it and I noticed fresh stem growth today!
All the rain also brought in an onslaught of aphids to the melon, bush squash & even one of my blackberries!
Now that it's been dry, I've been out twice this week with a spray bottle of soapy water mixed with a tiny bit of natural Neem oil.
Today, I saw red Lady Bugs on the squash plant--they eat aphids like French fries. So, that's good news. 
Whether that squash plant will do anything worthwhile is still
up-in-the-air, but I thought I'd give it a chance to try.
The melon plant survived the wet, though aphids got all the growth tips. It will have to regrow new branches. There's a huge toad living under it's leaves. He must be 3 inches!
Toads are good garden friends, so I'm glad he's there.
I also saw something else rare today: a baby Praying Mantis. It was green and about 1 1/2 inches in size. It was on a sunflower leaf.
In the time it took for me to walk in the house and return with a camera, it was gone. I hope it's living in the huge bush of Basil that's next to the sunflower. Mantis are good garden friends, too.

Today's photo is of my "Alternate Garden."
This bed is against the house just outside the front door. It's home to my hybrid day lilies, blackberries and 2 container blue berries (one of those you can see in background). 
In the foreground: a new Tomato and two new Bell Peppers.
This bed is more of an emergency space as far as gardening veggies go.



For Mama Kat this week I'll be featuring photos of the yard and garden swamped by June's rain, so stop back by!

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