This has been a rough year in our garden. It started out pretty well, but got rocky about the time we planted it all outdoors. As usual (but it seems quite a bit worse than usual), our plants are so slow growing. The pepper plants, which we started indoors five months ago are roughly 8 inches tall. EIGHT INCHES! In five months.
But today. Today I went out and saw progress on these petite little things. We have a few buds! Which means we might actually get some peppers this year! Think the plants can hold up any fruit? I highly doubt that we'll get anything of significant size, since the plants obviously don't seem to be getting very many nutrients to promote much growth at all. But still, these flowers brought some excitement.
Our lettuce has finally been producing well, and we have enjoyed many a delicious salad in these last 2-3 weeks. We have a fair amount without going overboard like we did last year. It produces just a tad faster than we can eat it.
My experimental pumpkin patch has had its share of ups and downs, as well. They took off with a great start, and transplanted incredibly well. They grew and grew, but then slowed down for awhile, but with the nice rain we've been getting lately, they have exploded once again. I can water with the hose, but nothing makes plants grow like a good summer downpour. Recently I saw our first few little round pumpkins, so it's time to be flooding that patch with water to help them grow big and fast.
We've had a time with these pests though. This is the third year I've grown squash, but it's the first we've seen cucumber beetles. They are such pests! I heard they can do a lot of damage in a little time, so at first sighting I started crushing all the eggs I could see. This was back before the plants were very big, which made the job a bit easier. Next, I needed to target the full-grown beetles, so I mixed a sugar-water solution and sprayed it on all the plants. It seemed to have helped, since the leaves haven't been getting eaten like they were. Checking on the plants a couple days later there did appear to be fewer beetles, but they were still attacking the stalks, flowers, and base of each plant. I only applied the sugar once, so maybe another shot at it would've rid them entirely.
My next plan of attack was diatomaceous earth. I had a giant bag left from last year, so I generously dusted every bit of the plant I could. I'm not sure how effective that was, but I think I need to do it again. I've had so many buds die and fall off already, I can't afford to lose any more. Thankfully there seem to be a growing number of them opening, so I may still get a decent harvest.
The sad part is that my larger variety pumpkins seem to be dying in the center of the plant hills. I'm guessing this must be from the cucumber beetles attacking the stem. I haven't noticed it happening to my pie pumpkins yet. I planted those using seeds I had saved from my best one two years ago, and those plants seem to be so hearty and healthy this year!
Look! A little pumpkin!
I planted some beets, hoping to get a few to eat fresh and also some to make borscht. Aaron doesn't prefer plain canned beets but loves them pickled, so last year I only made pickled beets. I found myself wishing I had some plain ones just to eat, and also thoroughly enjoyed the borscht I made with the few stragglers that were left in the garden, so I wanted to plan on having some this year so I could make it again! I wrote a blog post with the recipe, which you can find here.
The deer came through and ate the tops off most of the plants, but don't seem to have been back in the beets since. I was afraid they were all done for, but they have nice, lush leaves once again.
The cucumbers seem to be doing pretty good, too. By this time last year I was in the middle of pickle season, so they are definitely late this year. I spotted cucumber beetles on these plants as well, but not in the quantity that were over in the pumpkin patch. I dusted the cukes heavily with diatomaceous earth right away, so it was more of a preventative measure than a war on cucumber beetles. This was a couple weeks ago, but I did see a few while out weeding this morning, so I need to go reapply the DE powder again. I think I can stay on top of them here as long as it doesn't rain so much that I can't spread diatomaceous earth.
And then there are the tomatoes. These things have been all over the place. They didn't take too well to transplanting, suffered some weird deficiency that turned the plants all black and purply, and got flooded during the national emergency that was declared in our area, but the buds are plentiful and growing tomatoes! I am super excited to see fruit after wondering if I'd lose all my plants over and over throughout the summer. I have never had such a roller coaster ride watching plants before, but every time the tomatoes showed progress, something else would happen. Actually the latest was something coming through lopping the tops off the plants right through the tomato cages. I thought deer were the most likely culprit, but didn't know they ate tomato plants? My pantry is bare of most all my tomato products, so I need these things to survive. Things are looking hopeful now, but until I see a few red ones, I'm still holding my breath. Here's to anticipating homemade salsa and chili!
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