Garden: Month 4

Oh the weather has been so good to us this year! Not only are we not in the 100s, but we've been getting plenty of rain! Except for a two or three week break, the skies have gushed for us. If this was another summer like the last two, I think I'd quit gardening, but the growth and productivity this year make me want to continue.

The strawberries seem to be done producing, even though they are called ever-bearing. I'll see if they make it through the winter, but if they don't, I'm certainly not going to waste my garden space replanting them. Sure, they tasted a lot better than store-bought, but they take up too much room and 5 plants only produce about 10 berries per week during their peak bearing time.

The zucchini got attacked by vine borers again, despite my vigilant spraying with BT and checking the stem every day. I didn't even bother trying to cut them out and rebury the stem because they just keep coming back. So we pulled it up and threw it in the compost pile. I will not be trying zucchini again. (I don't even like zucchini.) I've heard of injecting the vine with BT using a syringe, but where would a person find a syringe? If I could get one, I might try it on pumpkins....


Canna (with Daylilly behind)


"Flower bed" by the back fence: Different kinds of Salvia, Dwarf Crape Myrtles, and Dusty Miller.


Apple Tree. Everyone is right: the birds get the fruit before they even become ripe.


Raspberry bush resurrected


Blackberry bush resurrected


Grape Tomato Vines: They produced tons of sweet yummy tomatoes. I grow them because even the kids like to eat them.


Grape tomatoes, first picking. Lots more after that.


Tomatoes


Tomato Plants


Peppers and Jalapenos. How do you use this many jalapenos? Simple: stuffed jalapeno peppers. Rex LOVES them.


Jalapenos


Jalapeno and Pepper Plants


Green Beans, 2nd planting (hasn't produced yet)


Green Beans, 1st planting (seems to be done producing, but gave plenty during its season)


Beets. The heat was tough on them, but we got enough and they tasted good, unlike last year. I hope they do better in the fall.


Potato Harvest. The potatoes took up a lot of space and I probably didn't prepare the dirt far enough down, but they produced well enough for my first time trying. I was proud, even if the plants looked sickly and attracted too many bugs to allow it to stay.


Corn Harvest: the biggest two ears saved from the ear worms. Best corn I've ever tasted, even if most of it was only 2 or 3 inches long after chopping off the ear worm damage. BT and mineral oil did not work to keep them off.


This is the 2nd planting of corn next to the 1st planting.


Third planting of corn.


Basil