The greenhouse gets hot. Of course, right? I bought a 35 percent shade cloth to drape over it to try to cool it down a bit. Brian is coming at the end of the week with his bucket truck to help put the cloth on, to wigglewire the cloth into the channels on the high tunnel gable ends while Garcia and I tie down the sides. Try to save everything from the coming heat. The green beans have been great. They hold up well. We pickled some and they are fantastic. Yep, pickled green beans!

The zucchinis are looking for more pollinators. My honeybees are too busy with other exploits to bother with the greenhouse blossoms, so a major issue with greenhouses is how to get everything pollinated. Bugs, no bugs? The big push/pull of farming; how to treat bugs. Some of the best pollinators for greenhouses are bumble bees. There are lots of types of bumble bees, some endangered, and I admit I can’t keep them all straight.

Over the last few days, I have been watching a number of black, compact bumblebees go happily from flower to flower. They were especially diligent in the cucumbers, hitting every little yellow bursting flower, one after the other. Online, I started to buy a box of bumble bees to release in the greenhouse to help facilitate pollination. I was ready to hit the “complete transaction” button when I noticed the shipping was going to be $200.00! What? I said no freaking way and cancelled. Rich Hodgson said the bumblebees he bought for his greenhouse up in Downsville lasted only a couple weeks. I will let nature take its course, and it appears a couple bumblebees have taken up the greenhouse as their main hangout, and, through careful observation, it is clear a handful of bumble bees can hit every blossom in the structure within a few hours. They are very efficient and do not have a problem navigating into and out of the greenhouse, as some honeybees do.

Aphids. I was waiting for them to show up. I was surprised how fast it happened. I have never had a problem with aphids in the field; they seem to have enough natural predators. A greenhouse is harder to get into balance. Aphids are sap-sucking little buggers that can do a lot of damage very fast. They love tomato plants and cucumbers. I saw the damage first and then tracked down the little culprits. A handful of tomato plants were looking quite droopy, and I had to figure out a plan. I read soapy water was a good antidote. I bought some Joy dish soap, not the antibacterial, which I have been warned to stay away from, and a good hand sprayer which immediately became ineffective given the scale of the spray job which took shape as I realized, belatedly, I was going to have to spray every leaf and stem in the whole greenhouse for this organic solution to work. Garcia spent the morning spraying, and by the afternoon the first, most troubled, plants already looked relieved. Lady bugs love to eat aphids and we have sent for another shipment of 3000, or so, and they should be here soon. The plan is to spray soapy water again and then introduce the lady bugs to help manage the greenhouse pests long term.

No cucumber beetles yet, a bug which I find very destructive not only to cucumbers but most types of squash. Dark green and yellow striped, the size of a T-150 staple, they hide in the big squash blossoms like ticks in your beard. (I shaved my beard.) They are hard to hunt, and I don’t think Neem oil or Joy soap has much effect on them. Even with crop rotation they can track down any preferred plant. I crush whatever I can catch.

No potatoes in the greenhouse means no potato bugs, those ugly aliens that look like soft blobs of orangish hamburger, totally gross, and I never use that word. The best solution is to plant your potatoes at least 200 yards from where you planted them last year. I usually find time to pick all the potato bugs off by hand and drown them in the irrigation water barrel, thereby adding their grossness to some compost tea. Win, win.

Stop out some time, have a quick look in the greenhouse, see the bees. On our humble roadstand, we are offering local peaches (not organic), and then, all organically grown – fresh green beans, our famous local honey, green tomatoes, the first hardneck garlic, hot peppers and every day – something new. Thanks.