Welcome back. I hope that you had a great time. It’s always good to get away, no matter where you go.
Our tomatos are starting to slow down now. We still have about 8-10 large banana peppers still on the plants after putting up about 6 pints. Our one and only eggplant got pulled and half eaten by unknown varmit.
We are thinking of taking sprouts from some of the tomato plants and starting them for a fall crop. I dont know if that will work or not, but we have nothing to lose. Rather than pulling up the existing tomato plants after the last tomato, we may just prune them back to about two feet tall and see what happens then. Anybody got any thoughts about that?
Our okry patch is about 30’ tall and producing a few pods every day or so.
Wife’s flowers are all going fantastic. Its a very good year for her beds. We are building a new bed in the front yard that has got a medium size three tier fountain for it’s centerpiece. Well, in between rainstorms, that is. We have been getting 2-3” every day or so.
Do you have any issue with diseases affecting tomatoes where you are at? For me, it’s not about keeping them from getting sick, just trying to manage it. This spring I made the mistake of transplanting a broken off part of one of my winter crop near some spring seedlings, which of course simply ensured that the new crop started off sick.
On the tomatoes -- if you start snipping your larger suckers off now and rooting them in a glass or jar of water, you will have a good crop of fall tomatoes. Pruning the existing plants back will work also, just be sure to hit them with some good tomato fert (higher in phosphorus) to get them going again.
I wish you would post photos of the flower beds! Mrs. Bender and the gorgeous Bender Estate have really inspired me to put some work into flower beds this year. The ones I put in around the oak trees earlier this year are really getting pretty, but I lost almost every azalea. I will try to post update photos soon.
Your okra should really take off soon. We have some of that mutant stuff coming up on the turn row of one of our fields again. They re-seeded themselves rather well.
I really need to get my plants for the fall garden planted. (Wish I had a dollar for every time I say the phrase "I need to ..." every day!) My volunteer tomatoes are producing really well, and they are really delicious. I didn't water them through all of the heat, and the flavor gets really concentrated in the fruit that way. It is a trick to give them just enough water to survive, but well worth the effort.