I'm in a Dog Day sort of gardening mood but I want to keep up on photos to track progress. At this point the watering and repellent spraying is getting a little tedious. Everything is looking wonderful, and pests are scarce which is a big help. The Japanese Beetles are out in force but very few in the garden. They are out there but not in numbers where any one plant is suffering. No cucumber beetles yet. No Squash Vine Borers. I am expecting mildew to start because we have had a lot of high humidity.
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| Cucumbers |
We've got cucumbers! Gardeners all do it - we over compensate. Back in 2019 and 2020 I had way too many cucumbers. I vowed only to plant two or three vines of slicing cukes at a time. In 2021 I had virtually total crop failure on two plantings of the eating cucumbers. So this year I over compensated. I planted a dozen slicer vines, a dozen pickling vines and and three bush style. And they are performing their
heads off.
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| Pole Beans |
While the bush beans chose not to participate this year, the pole beans are over achieving. The beans will be ready soon.
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| Cantaloupes |
The cantaloupe vines are looking awesome. I am still covering them at night for warmth. We had a few chilly nights down near 50 or the low 40s and I think it helped. There are pollinators all over them.
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| Peak-a-Boo |
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| Sweet Corn |
My main gardening goal this week is to keep the sweet corn watered. Six foot high corn stalks take three times as much water as two foot high stalks. Especially on a windy day. The tassels are out and the ears are starting to emerge. Sweet corn has a very noticeable leaf roll in response to heat or drought stress. The upper leaves stand straight up instead of curving down. We got an inch of rain earlier this week and that helped me catch up on watering the corn and now the leaves are beginning to relax.
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| Comparison of two plantings four weeks apart |
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| Banana Peppers and Hot Peppers |
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| Lots of Tomatoes Hiding |
I've had a little blossom end rot again this year which is no shocker since we have had such a dry dry year. I don't like to over water tomatoes but for the most part I have a lot of fruit developing.
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| Tomato Plant |
The peas are all out and I am planting buckwheat in their place. I harvested and dried enough pea seeds to replant next time. The potato plants are beginning to yellow out and I pulled one bag. From one seed potato I got 8 useable taters and there were still a few small tubers well attached so I repotted the plant to see if they will continue to develop. The plant never wilted a bit so in theory it should continue to grow.
Is there anything you do not grow? Our cucumbers are going nuts now.
ReplyDeleteYes, I no longer grow eggplants because fried eggplants make me fat LOL!
DeleteIt all looks great! My bush beans were a bust this year too. Weird!
ReplyDelete—Melanie
So weird. I planted the first row of bush beans like normal. Nothing. I replanted. Nothing much. I went to the other side of the bed and planted. Absolutley Nothing. OK {rolls up sleeves} I'll plant them in worm castings and cover them with row cover. Those came up better but then fizzled. I have half a dozen from the first row that are giving mediocre results. I actually picked a hand full, but I am no longer watering them and I'm just going to pull them and be done with it.
DeleteI always grow a row of green bush beans and a row of yellow bush beans. The yellow ones came up just as they should and the row is full and just starting to flower. The green beans had terrible germination and I put replacement seeds twice in the bare spots. It's still a very sad looking row (maybe 75% of seeds are growing) so it will be interesting to see if I get the quantity I want of the green ones. I usually have more than I can give away so I might get enough for our needs. Your garden, as always, looks fantastic!
ReplyDeleteIt seems like the veggies across the country conspire to give gardeners a hard time. I wonder how they coordinate their efforts. How do they send out a signal that this is the year the bush beans have a sit down strike?
DeleteBeautiful. I hope you know how your garden inspires the rest of us. We didn't do a garden this season because we thought we'd have a house remodel underway (haven't posted about that yet, ha) and in retrospect, with our drought and heat I'm kind of glad we didn't. We're also thinking of relocating the garden once the house (whatever we end up doing) and I always come here to be reminded of what a good garden should be. Question, what size container is the one that the peppers are growing in? They look great and happy. Is that a 5 gallon container? Again, thank you for always being an inspiration.
ReplyDeleteIts bigger than 5 gallons. I would guess 15. But I have 8 plants in it! If you had a 5 or 10 gallon container, just put in fewer plants. They seem to like the company and the warm roots. Thanks! And you're welcome. :)
DeleteWell maybe the pot is more like 10 or 12 gallons
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