This ain't no Garden of Eden

[jinman]

Doug: My garden is weathering the heat really well. Other than my Better Boy and grape tomatoes not setting much fruit, you wouldn't know it has been so hot. I lost two more squash plants this week. It's funny, but whatever is wrong with them made the stems become woody and not able to take up enough water. They looked great in the morning, but would wilt down during the heat of the day. They finally got so bad that they couldn't even maintain water uptake during the night and that's when I pulled the plants and threw them outside of the garden. I broke apart the stems to look for squash borers, but saw no bugs whatsoever. These two squash plants are plant sets from Walmart. The other yellow squash was from seeds. It and my zucchini do not look like they are having many problems. They are still producing fuit, but have slowed down since the vines have run out over 4' from the hill. My cucumbers also show signs of disease, but they may just be getting sunburned. I don't see any bugs, just some of the older leaves have suddenly turn yellow and brown. They are certainly slowing production also. Of course, cucumbers and squash are all in the same family.

I have never seen any plants more healthy than my peppers. I have one banana pepper plant almost 4' tall. Most of the others are 3' tall and filled with perfectly lush leaves. My red chilis had some bug eating on the peppers, but my Sevin seems to have eliminated them. I have some bell peppers that had some black spots on the bottom and I don't know what caused that. Since I sprayed, the spots have been reduced, but I still see one from time to time. The spots can be small or as big around as a dime. When you cut the pepper, it seems the spot only is on the skin and the interior of the pepper is normal. I just cut away the spot and use the rest of the pepper. It's no big deal. Every 3 or 4 days, I'm picking about 25 big (over 6" long) banana peppers. They are my favorite. I didn't grow jalapeno peppers this year; maybe next year.

My Early Girl and 444 tomatoes are really producing. I've picked about 30 tomatoes about baseball size and smaller. We've been giving them and cantaloupes away to all our neighbors and family. Last Saturday night, I went in to Texas Motor Speedway with my grandkids to see a monster truck show. I took a cooler full of veggies and 5 big cantaloupes. My daughter said she is going to make salsa and fry okra for the kids. They also love cantaloupes, so I'm sure those won't last long either. I've picked over 30 cantaloupes now and there must be at least 25 more ripening on the vines for the second wave. My plants are so dense there is no way but to step on some of the runners when we pick them.

My wife picked and dried enough herbs to almost fill four big spice bottles. We have two types of basil, parsley, and thyme. The coriander seeds are starting to mature and my sage is big and very aromatic. Those will be next.

Ray: Thanks for responding about your garden. Please keep us posted. My wife was planting seeds for a late garden about 1 month ago. She planted some of your tomato seeds and they are up and ready to transplant. I will try to get that done later this week after the rain. I'm sure I'll have to shade them from the brutal sun though. It's supposed to be back up to 100 by this weekend.

We also have some more squash and pumpkins ready to set out. I was going to have just a small garden this year. Yeah! Right!

 

[Ray2310]

Jim,

Hope those Italian tomatoes work out for you. I have a few that will be ready to pick this week.

The early girls I have been picking are good but can't compare to those Italians.

 

[Bird]

Jim, we went to the little Denton farmers market again today for tomatoes. I bought a big pretty yellow meat watermelon and when I got home and cut it in half, it was several days from being ripe enough. I cut the heart out and threw the rest away. The heart isn't bad, but not as sweet as it should be. We didn't buy any cantaloupe, but all the vendors had cantaloupe and I believe they were generally the biggest, prettiest cantaloupe I've seen in a long time. And we had fried eggplant with supper tonight; first time I've eaten any eggplant in several years.

 

[Uncle Doug]

I am working nights this week. First time in about 10 months. It messes up my garden schedule but I did get a few hours of work in before leaving for work. Been having to water much earlier than I would like. Have to leave for work at 4 pm for the 5 to 5 shift. Atleast tomight is the last one. I actually like working nights as not very many people out here to bother us.

Its been cooler this week with some passing thunderstorms. Most move so fast it only settles the dust. I worked outside through one shower today, I was already wet from sweat anyway. Made the loose soil in the garden sticky so I guess some is soaking in.

I pulled up the bell pepper plants and a few of the tomatto plants that had died off. Picked some Jalipinos for the guys at work. Still getting a fair amout of white squash, it is in great demand among friends. Still racking up points with them. The yellow squash is only doing so/so. When the blooms do set the squash after getting about 5-6 inches long will wilt on the bloom end. I still get 3 or 4 a week that reach picking size.

Cucumbers have slowed down quite a bit, now only getting 3-4 a week to full size.

Real pleased with the cantalope. Most have grown larger than we see in the markets around here. I try and pick when the rine is turning brown but still a little green. They finnish ripening up in the kitchen. That way I at least beat the critters. I have only lost 3 to them and they were all in the week I was gone. Not a lot of new mellons but seeing a few. I know what you mean about treading on the runners when picking a ripe one. They criss cross everwhere. I try to only step into the mess when picking.

I threw the guts of one last week on a couple of extra hills with nothing planted. Looks like every seed has sprouted as each hill has 10-15 sprouts.

Pumpkin sprouts are only about an inch tall and only a few of the hills have sent up sprouts. Hoping to let the grandkids pick a few for halloween. I may of planted late but I shouls still have a few smaller ones.

The watermellons are growing very slow with no new mellons in the past 2 weeks. A couple are about the size of a football but most are about softball size or smaller. I do have a couple of volunteer plants that came up in the pig pen. The pig was dispached by the neighbor for the 4th of july so nothing to distrub them. No mellons on those vines yet but lots of blooms. There is also it looks like, a volunteer cantalope plant in the pig pen. I was going to get in there with the tiller and break everything up but now may wait a while, ground to hard right now anyway.

No banna peppers but got a few from the ag shop green house a couple of weeks ago. They must of had quite a few plants at one time. School been out over a month and there were still 15-20 plants still doing good.

 

[Bird]

For those of you who live too far off, you have my sympathy. And yes, jinman's garden is doing well, and I get to do a more precise evaluation than most of you. And that's because Jim just left here after delivering cantaloupes, yellow squash, zucchini, tomatoes, cucumbers, okra, and at least 3 varieties of peppers. You just can't beat a deal like that. I didn't even have to go pick'em.

 

[jinman]

Bird, I figure it was an even trade for the tour of your shop. Talk about organized...WOW! And I got to meet your "skinny" little underfed puppy too. I've never seen a chihuahua that was so friendly. Of course I have a kitty that's almost as big. It was a pleasure to have a short visit and get to see you. Kathy and I hope you and Margaret enjoy the veggies.

 

[Bird]

There is no doubt we'll enjoy the veggies; already eaten nearly all of one cantalope, some tomatoes, and Margaret even ate one of the cucumbers.

 

[TBDonnelly]

It's been nearing the record to be the coldest July on record for our area in Michigan. And since we had frost the week after memorial day our gardens are way behind schedule. Wonder if Jim would drop off some veggies up here?

Don

 

[Bird]

I sure wouldn't say it was cold, but it actually got below 70 for a low the last 2 mornings and the high stayed below 90 yesterday. So that's "cold" for us for July. Forecast is back to 100 Saturday.

 

[jinman]

It's been nearing the record to be the coldest July on record for our area in Michigan. And since we had frost the week after memorial day our gardens are way behind schedule. Wonder if Jim would drop off some veggies up here?

Don

No problem Don. Just tell me where the Chuck E. Cheese's is in your area so my wife can take the grandkids there.

We don't go to Bird's town very often, but yesterday my wife had my stepson's four kids to have their pictures made and take them to Chuck E. Cheese's before they move this Saturday. I went and helped corral them at the place "where a kid can be a kid" and then drove down the road a few miles to deliver veggies to Bird. It just worked out that way. Bird's place is a lot quieter than Chuck E. Cheese's.