Garden Update

These should be the HOT days of the summer season. Not the case here in the south. We are lucky if the temp hits 86 or 87. Simply not hot enough to get a good crop of peanuts! I also don't have any figs this year. They keep falling off. The tree keeps making more, but the weather is making the tree drop them! I think it is too much rain. My herbs are too wet as well. Not sure what the final results will be on them. In an attempt to save some, I pulled up a few plants and transplanted them back to a pot. The few that I did that to are doing better than the rest I left in the ground. 

The good news? The temps here are perfect for tomatoes and squash.  No bugs on either as of today. I haven't seen any tomato horn worms yet this year. I am sure I will soon, but none so far. I can tell when they arrive because they love tobacco. I only get one or two on my tomatoes but, I can spend hours picking them off of the tobacco.

Here is a picture of my late planted squash. Planted just before July 4th, they are about to flower now. You can also see the blossoms from the carrot in the background. I should be harvesting seed from that soon.

Lots of healthy green bean plants too. No bugs yet. I have baby green beans now but not big enough to pick. 

Here are the peanuts. The plants look good but I would be much happier if it got hot outside.

Here is a lovely picture of the wild tobacco. I am going to collect seeds from this plant so I am letting it bloom. These flowers are yellow/green. The flowers of the cultivated tobacco are purple and white. You can see the cultivated variety 'One Sucker' in the back of the picture on the right.

The apples are doing well too. I have noticed that my Red Delicious apple tree can't tolerate the same kind of fungicide that the Golden Delicious can. I have a bit of leaf burn on the Red Delicious. I had been using Neem Oil. I am going to have to switch back to Daconil. While it washes off in the rain, both trees can handle that better.

Now that it has stopped raining every day, I am getting more strawberries! I am also still picking blueberries. A little late for blueberry picking in the south but I will take it! 

There are always both pleasures and disappointments in a garden. While you enjoy the bountiful harvests this year, hope does spring eternal because there is always next year to learn from this year's disappointments!