The all-time number-one corn hazard in my experience is the freakin’ raccoons! 
Earworms are susceptible to Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis), but I’m not sure how and when one applies it for control.
The dear eat the ears, the coons husk and eat the corn. That’s how you’ll know which one at what ear, when you see hundreds of tracks all over of both.
Bt works on caterpillars when they eat vegetation with the spray on it. Their gut stops working and they starve before 24 hours is up.
You may want to look up some flowers and other plants to interplant because they attract beneficial insects, and some discourage detrimental insects.
Wow, so much good information, thanks so much!
I am shredding newspaper as we speak, and I bought a bale of straw from the neighbor for mulch.
Now garden album here are the pictures of the garden so far.
Tonight I did notice blooms on the squash and either the musk melon or the cantelope, I’m not sure which is which at this point.
When I watered with the soaker hose yesterday, the moisture crept up the hill rows a little, but didn’t meet in the middle, and is pretty dry on the outside at the moment, though between the rows, where the hose lays is still damp. I watered for about 35 minutes or so.
There are ant hills at the bases of my melons, is this still okay?
A few leaves have turned colors, there’s pictures of them in the album, I’m not sure from what though.
I’ve gone out in the early morning and after dark, and haven’t seen anything but a few slugs, and I sunk shallow pans with beer in them around the perimeter of the garden, we’ll see if I’ve caught any by morning.
So after seeing the album, do things look okay?
Labelless, the garden looks great. The soaker system is very smart, and you have put a lot of work into supporting and mulching (plastic) your plants. I think the newspaper and straw is a great idea to keep in moisture and smother weeds. Every garden plant has some nicks and bruises- don’t sweat the small stuff. A general purpose organic fertilizer can help green things up a bit- the corn looks like it could use a boost but everything else appears to be thriving well.
Here is an important warning, and why I don’t use straw. Dry hay burns extremely fast. One spark and half a minute later a 10 foot section of hay is burnt. The plants surrounded by burning straw are quite brown and flaccid afterwards. Somebody walked by with a sparkler, and well I already told you. Milled sphagnum will retain water, smother weeds, and makes a good soil amendment for next season. It will burn, but doesn’t flash up like straw. Hay is also full of seeds that sprout in the garden. Enjoy the garden.
Thats a good point, and I should have known that coming from farm country. We lost a barn full of hay very quickly that way. I will have to look into milled sphagnum.
I weeded throughly today, and I swear by the time I got to the other side of the garden, there were more weeds on the first side. shakes fist at weeds
Though, is this unusual? I found what looked to be the ‘husks’ of a bee and a dragonfly in separate rows of the garden.
On a good note, yesterday, 9 cayenne peppers, today 13! I’ve gotten a few more blossoms on the squash and musk melons as well. And I noticed two buds on the tomatoes. I must be doing all right so far.
The husks are likely because of a spider. I like my garden spiders.