Thursday, July 21, 2011

The Slow Death of a Garden

Not exactly, but still I’m disappointed with the way things have been going growing recently.  First of all it is 100 degrees here with very little rain!!  HOT, but I really don’t want to complain…I would take this heat any day over a cold day any day under 60 degrees. 
Anyway…
First the squash died, squash bugs were the culprit.  Some plants still looked somewhat healthy, but there were literally millions of squash bugs so they were doomed.  I pulled them all up. 
IMG_5692 Gross!
Secondly the cauliflower is not producing anything and they look pitiful.
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Thirdly the tomatoes are having issues.  I have 5 varieties.  I talked about those here.  All of the larger variety have had issues, black spots on the bottom of some and the rest that have even gotten close to being ready to pick have been eaten by something, no idea what. The small ones, Black Cherry & Sweet Gold have done well and keep producing healthy fruit, I even had a caprice salad of sorts with these two that was great (see photo below).
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Last, a glimmer of hope.  The eggplants that I thought were stumped in growth are actually Bambino eggplants.  I pulled out my seed pack to learn this (Duh!) even though the picture on the seed pack shows normal sized healthy eggplants.  I lost half of these because I thought they were not growing and I didn’t pick quick enough.  I did fry some last night and they were pretty good.  I should have a few more of these over the next few weeks.  
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IMG_5689 These are too yellow, past prime picking time.
Here is where we are today, a cluster of tomato plants and eggplants. 
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Hope any of you garden growers out there are having better luck than me.  Did I mention, I am a farmers daughter ?!?  I should be better at this!
April

2 comments:

  1. The Farmer and his wife are having garden issues too. Your tomatoes look just like ours. You can call the local Extension Office in your county. They will connect you to an agent who can come out to see what the problem is and can tell you what to do to correct it if anything. You may need to have your soul tested too.

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  2. Your tomatoes with the rotting on the bottom - it's called blossom end rot and it's caused by too little calcium around the plants.

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