Hello, Everybody!
Tomatoes are doing well. I’m so glad I didn’t give up! At last count, we have 16 baby ‘maters on the vine.
I was amazed to see that the green bell pepper plant is taking off and starting to bloom again...lots of blooms! After I picked my about 1/2 dozen several weeks ago, I was almost going to pull it up, but since it seemed alive and happy, I decided to just keep watering it and see how the plant developed. Good decision! LOL!
The sunflower which was partially truncated at the bottom and repaired with a splint, has continued to thrive as best as it can, and has even bloomed. The flower is about 4-5 inches, petals and all, so looks like a regular sized wild sunflower. I’m so amazed it has survived and is actually bloomimg, bless its little sunflower heart! The other sunflowers seem to be thriving. A couple days ago I was in the garden and a neighbor drove by and asked what variety I had planted. “Mammoth,” I replied, and he said he had been enjoying watching ours the past two years and wants to grow some himself next year.
Okra is amazing. I missed one of the pods and saw it the other day and it is HUGE. I’ve decided to leave it on for seed. Darlin said if I wanted the plant to produce more, I should pick it. I know that is correct because it does take a lot of energy to produce seed, but I decided that I’m not trying to maximize the harvest this time, but to see what a plant actually does.
Amaranth is continuing to grow. It is putting out new growth and some of the plants have started seed heads. I noticed yesterday that this variety has TINY little yellow flowers.
The cucumbers are producing well, and taking up a lot of room in the refrigerator. I think I’m getting to the point where it may be time to share some of the “overs” with some friends.
The snow peas are thriving and climbing and seem pretty happy. No blooms yet. The other legumes are also producing, but I’m letting them all grow and harden into seed.
The new squash plants are growing. The acorn squash isn’t growing very fast, but the scallop squash is racing.
We’ve been fighting grasshoppers here. I killed a huge one the other day which had been munching down on one of my mammoth sunflowers. We also killed a huge borer bug by immobilizing it with neem, then stomping it.
I have been learning so much by working with plants this year, and that process has been helped along tremendously by what I’ve learned on this thread! Thanks to all of you for your input and encouragement! But there’s still so much to learn, and I’m grateful that I can turn to all of you for advice as we continue our efforts to become better gardeners.
Yay for your maters and peppers, and thank you for sharing your information!
My garden is winding down except for the tomatoes and peppers and some peanuts. Have some potatoes to dig that I keep putting off. May just dig them as needed.LOL
About those peppers. If you keep picking the peppers off as soon as you can, they will keep producing.
When the drought hit last summer, I dug up two pepper plants from Hubby’s garden, and put them in a pot. They produced all the rest of the summer on the patio.
When the weather got cold, I brought them indoors, and they continued producing all winter. In late spring this year, I transplanted them outside, where they have produced all summer so far.
Soooooo much easier than tomatoes. It was so great to have them this winter, I could just go in and pick them when needed. If the store had a special on green peppers, I would buy them and let mine grow a little longer till they were the nice red sweet peppers that cost so much at the grocery store.