Garden Update – August 3, 2011

I meant to do another garden update a couple of weeks ago, but knowing how way leads on to way, I never got around to it. So monthly will have to do.

Since last I wrote on this subject, plenty has happened: some good, some bad, and some ugly. Here is my story.

Peas & Lettuce. The batch of peas has died off, but I have planted a 2nd batch in another part of the garden. I put them in a more shadier area, hoping that it won't be too hot for them to sprout. We'll see. As for the lettuce, it doesn't seem to have bolted yet, and we're still eating and enjoying it.

Potatoes. The last time we had potatoes, 2 years ago, we harvested them the 3rd week of August. But I also went back and noticed that the potato plants all bloomed at some point in the summer. Mine haven't at all, and they're laying all flat now. I think I'll let them go to the end of the August, dig one up, and see what I find. I'm not too optimistic.

Potatoes, all flat and looking bad. The area in the back that's dug up is where I put the 2nd batch of peas.

Pumpkins. The saga of the pumpkins has taken many twists in the past month. So they were growing great, I had some blossoms but no pumpkins starting to grow, and I thought as long as I kept them inside the fence, I'd be okay. And then I went out one day and found that the vines were all eaten up! I'm guessing either a squirrel or chipmunk was going in and peeling back the vines (like peeling a stalk of celery) and eating them. The pumpkins looked left for dead, as they were all yellow and shriveled, and I figured that was that. But then, I went out last week, and they had bounced back! I guess the eating of the vines didn't kill the plant completely, and they started growing again. I'm guessing it won't be long before the chipmunks get to them again, though.

Pumpkins growing once again.

A note about the fence: I have noticed that chipmunks go straight under the electric fence with no problems, and the holes in the wire fence are big enough for them to get through as well. I did see one eating tomato blossoms that were close to the ground on one tomato plant, but I didn't get too worried about it as most of the tomatoes were high on the vine. Also, I hadn't seen any squirrels in the garden, so I felt like the fence was working on them. I was wrong -- more on that later.

Tomatoes. So one of my tomato plants died a few weeks ago, and it seemed really suspicious. The bottom of the plant stem was severed right at the ground level. I'm pretty sure a chipmunk or squirrel did it, especially since it was the plant closest to the pumpkin plants.

My dead tomato plant.

The rest of the tomato plants all seem to be doing okay, and there are a lot of Roma tomatoes on the vines. None of them are turning red yet, but I assumed that would come soon. Best of all, I had no evidence of anyone eating the tomatoes. (Last year I would find half-eaten green tomatoes all around the garden. Nothing like that yet this year.)

Roma tomato plants.

Roma tomatoes on the vine.

Peppers. By far the best story of the garden so far are my peppers. They all seem to be doing great, and we've already been able to eat some of them. Whether it's the green bells, red bells, hot peppers or my specialty peppers, all the plants have peppers growing, and it doesn't seem like anything is eating them.

Red bell pepper in the back.

Hard to see, but I have 2 Carmen Peppers in front here, with the lettuce-gone-wild in the back.

Gypsy peppers growing well. I think these will eventually turn red.

The topsy-turvy chili peppers are going strong.

Blackberries. So remember last month when I said "I've saved the best for last"? Well, not so much this month. Something, (or someone), is eating my blackberries!

Might be hard to see, but all the berries on this cluster have been eaten.

I'm not sure what might be doing it. Could be birds, but since it seems that the ones closest to the ground are the more likely to be eaten, I'm going back to the old squirrel/chipmunk culprits. There still seem to be plenty more coming in, so I'm hoping I'll get SOME, but it just seems that every step forward leads to 5 steps back. *sigh*

So that was going to be the end of my update, but I have to add one more tale. As I said earlier, I hadn't seen any squirrel in the garden at all, and no real evidence they were eating my tomatoes. But then, just this morning, I looked out the garage window to the garden, and there I see a squirrel, sitting on top of my fence, eating a green tomato. I should have known it was all too good to be true. I'm already debating whether next year I want to try another level of fencing/protection, or simply give up and throw in the towel. It really doesn't seem worth it anymore.