A burst of consistent 70s during the day the past few days has helped to nudge my garden along. Beauty is taking hold in the garden – at the same time I’m challenged with pests.

There is beauty to be found in the ordinary. Like these tomato blossoms.

Delicate cilantro flowers.

The pretty pink-purple of green bean blossoms.

And this wonderful eggplant. I’m not sure I like eggplant, but it’s one of this year’s new veggies in the garden.

I’m not the only one fascinated by these whimsical-looking blossoms.

This happy little ladybug has taken up residence in the greenhouse on the beautiful purple-green leaves of the eggplant.

Insidious cucumber beetles are taking up residence on my pumpkins (above), spaghetti squash, summer squash and cucumbers.

I’m tacking them with a combination of yellow sticky traps and sprinkling food-grade diatomaceous earth on the plants. After experiencing these beetles for the first time last year, I read that the yellow of sunflowers would lure them away, so I planted a long row of giant sunflowers. The problem is, by the time the sunflowers bloom, the cucumber beetles will have won.

As pests go, this little girl waits until I leave the green house screen door open and my back is turned. If I wasn’t worried about her scratching the dirt away from the roots of my plants, I’d let her go to town on the bugs.

I don’t know how this guy got in the greenhouse, but I nearly jumped out of my skin when I almost stepped on him. Although he won’t hurt anything, he has since been coaxed out the door.

And, just as I call the greenhouse finished, I’m figuring out how to make repairs. Something with claws punctured plastic. Since this is at eye-level, I’m guessing it might have been a bird.

This is definitely a learning year in the garden for me!