I decided to get myself on the ball and get this done a few days earlier rather than later this month. Things have been coming in slow but steadily in the garden this month. Not the windfall that I had hoped...but its early still...and HOT! I think many of the plants have slowed production because its just too...damn...hot. Temps will be in the mid 90's this week but we are looking for a few afternoon showers which should help the water bill. I put some DIY ollas in the pumpkin patch box over the weekend. Mine aren't as pretty or as nice as the clay ones...but they were also made of leftover gallon water jugs so there you go! Hopefully they will help regulate the water disbursement in that box.
The garden has been seeing its fair share of pests this month too...beetles eating the leaves and pickle worms invading my cucumbers (EWWWWW). We have also has the barrage of ants and aphids that are expected in pretty much any garden. I HATE...DESPISE bugs. Pretty much anything besides bees, butterflies and lightning bugs grosses me out. If it resembles a maggot or nasty little worm (or huge grub) its only worse. So...that all being said I have sprayed the garden twice with a neem oil mixture I made myself using some oil I ordered online. It smells like rotten peanut butter but its safe (you can harvest the same day), pests supposedly can't stand it and its one of the only things you can use on crops if you are USDA certified. So far, I still see beetles and worms the most...but I have read it is not an immediate thing and you have to wait for the effects to come about. I am also accepting of the fact that the produce from my yard will have bumps, bruises and bugs. That's garden life y'all.
And now for some garden pics:
You can see the damaged leaves on the cucumbers from those darn beetles
cucumber almost ready to pick
more cucumbers that have taken over the trellis and shaded out the peas
First of the Autumn sunflower mix has finally bloomed
Strawberries, basil, greens and sunflowers
Sincere pumpkin patch with hillbilly ollas, oregano and marigolds.
Total food grown so far this season is now 10.78 lbs. This has mostly consisted of cucumbers and tomatoes and one lone zucchini. There are 16 tomato plants in the back of the house and a patch of zucchinis that I ignore. The zucchinis that were in the front met their demise from vine borers and powdery mildew. I plan to try again with a July planting of zucchinis in buckets since I now understand that July planting is better to try to avoid borers and since we are int he South there will still be plenty of time for harvest before it gets too cold.
The Fall seeds have come in. We are planting radishes, Brussel sprouts, broccoli, kale, lettuce, carrots and potatoes again. Oh! That's right...the failed potatoes from earlier. They were infested with termites when I dumped them over and were super small. I think they were too hot as well and the plants dies off before the roots had time to really develop. I am going to try waiting until colder temps and move the can they were in. We should get a harvest for Fall.
That's all from the garden for now. Hopefully next month will see us harvesting more goodies and preparing for Fall planting.
