i’ve been away from my cucumber plant for a few days house-sitting. i’m sure when i go back tomorrow there will be 394093839408 cukes on it, ready to be picked.
i’m curious how long the harvest will last for these, never having grown them before.
wish i had grown a smaller/more thin-skinned variety, but i don’t want to jinx it.
I was stung by some sort of yellow jacket on Thursday afternoon around 4 pm.
I didn’t think I was allergic, and the initial sting wasn’t as bad as one I had 3 or 4 years ago when I disturbed an inground nest while mowing the lawn.
The wasp that bit me while I was mowing the lawn chased me 120 feet then stung me.
These yellow jackets on Thursday got me before I could run.
These yellow jackets came out of nowhere. They were angry and started to attack my leg. I am guessing I must have disturbed another inground nest while pulling grass near my garden’s edge.
The stinger was left in my leg. I pulled it out in the garden. The stinger was just a little darker it than my hair.
I understand wasps and yellow jackets don’t leave their stingers, so I must have killed it when I swatted it as it stung me.
The stinger wasn’t barbed, so it wasn’t a bee. Most of our bees are honey bees or bumblebees and I don’t think they would have made the angry sound I heard as I was stung.
16 h later, my leg started to swell around the site, 4 inches above my knee. A small circle, then a bigger one. Very hot. I was worried I might be developing cellulitis. Luckily, someone in my household knows more about this stuff than I do, and he thought it was as localized reaction. Our local emergency rooms often have 12 to 18 hour waits lately so I’m not going to an emergency room unless it’s an acute medical situation.
I started marking the red area with a pen and the time. It was growing by half an inch every hour or so. It became an oval shape, stretching across most of it length of my leg. The redness and swelling was over 18 inches long at its worst. I had trouble bending my leg on Saturday and walking was painful. Muscle ache Sunday. The redness was still growing at 54 h, when the mayo clinic and other health sites suggest a moderate local reaction usually gets better after 48 h.
Luckily, the swelling and redness started to recede on Monday.
Today, I can see there were 2 stings. My skin is turning a bit of a mottled lavender colour.
I will try using an EpiPen if I get stung again. I didn’t know I was sensitive. I’m 52 and this is the first time I’ve had any reaction like this. Claritin didn’t help much.
I also used a Benadryl cream and a 1 percent cortisone cream to help with the itching.
I have spent more time in the garden than ever before. And dealing with more bites and stings this year! I had to ask for a doxycycline Rx 2 weeks ago for a black deer tick nymph bite. Apparently the nymphs are spreading a lot of Lyme lately. The one that had attached was about the size of a poppyseed and very difficult to remove.
Saaame! This is a helluva year for ticks.
Sorry, they got you, too!
My vet works with some migratory birds, and he told me this year, their breasts have been covered with engorged ticks when they arrive on the northern shore of Lake Erie from further south.
Gross! I am so paranoid now. I keep feeling like something is crawling on me (and sometimes it is).
I also found a tiny one trying to attach above my dog’s eyebrow. And I’ve found 2 crawling on my shower wall. They can’t live for long inside a house or apartment because they need more humidity, so they’re drawn to bathrooms. I guess, after they have hitched a ride into the house on clothing or one of my dogs.
I’ve become disciplined to keep my gardening clothing and shoes in a separate room far from my bedroom, and I keep my city clothes separate from my garden clothes, something I didn’t always do with barely used clothing before this summer.
I had invested in some long sleeved dovetail shirts that I was wearing a lot while gardening, as well as a posh French gardening shirt from Gardenheir, a birthday splurge 2 years ago. I was wearing one of these garden shirts the day the tick snuck into my life. Now I use those shirts once, then hand wash them. to make sure any ticks are gone.
I have never heard of a “gardening shirt”!
Already as a wannabe gardener who is afraid of bugs, this thread is taking a dark turn. 
Now I have to watch out for my cat who likes to sit in the grass and stare at the birds while I do my daily garden things. He did get fresh tick/flea meds application, but this season might be something out of those sci-fi monster movies.
Here is my work shirt from Dovetail
The French garden shirt came from here. The one I purchased doesn’t seem to be available anymore.
I also bought these garden clogs in olive green, which I love.
That wouldn’t surprise me, unless the caterpillar was too large for the wasp to carry off. Most larger hornets and wasps paralyze insect or spider prey and feed them to developing larvae, or leave them in solitary nests, for the immobilized caterpillar to die a gruesome fate!
Braconid wasps are tiny, usually gnat-like, and not capable of delivering a potent sting to humans. In true horror film style, Braconid wasp females inject eggs under the skin of, say, a caterpillar, and the larvae devour it from the inside! Then, the larvae bore out of the skin and weave tiny cocoons, which resemble oval eggs, glued to the dead or dying insect. Grim.
Those tomatoes look obscenely healthy!
Thank you and I don’t get it! They are doing great so far!
I’m out of town… again!..and I hope I didn’t jinx them.
I just figured out how to use fingers-of-color! 
I picked my first eggplant and potato today.
I ended up making Hodge Podge with odds and ends as I tidied the garden, including zucchini, eggplant, snap peas, snow peas, green beans, fava beans, potatoes, dill, and store-bought local carrots.
I ordered some “French gardeners’ pants” that arrived today. I’m blown away by the quality- I see myself buying more from them. They arrived way sooner than I thought they would, too. Thank you for introducing them to me!
You mean your not supposed to run out in your pjs as soon as you wake up? 
De rien! Enjoy!
I feel seen.
Same.
