Time for another monthly garden tour!
This year is definitely shaping up a bit differently than last year. We're having much more in the way of pest issues. In fact, I believe those cucurbit beetles may have infected one or two of my zucchini plants with bacterial wilt. :( For now, they're still producing, but the leaves just do not look happy. I expect that they'll be finished off within the next few days if my suspicions are correct. So sad.
Ye trusty ole kale. Something seems to be snacking on it a bit, but I can't figure out what it is. It's not doing too much damage, though. Thankfully.
The mesclun mix in my pallet raised bed is growing slower than molasses!! I don't know if it's a sunlight issue or a soil issue. I think I'm going to replant some in the main bed somewhere. Otherwise we won't have any lettuce until Thanksgiving time at this rate.
When I went outside to take pictures for this post, I realized that something is also snacking on my cabbages. Probably the same thing that's munching on the kale. For now, growth doesn't seem to be impacted. We're having a lot of rain right now, but when it stops, I'll go out and sprinkle some diatomaceous earth and see if that helps.
Peppers are starting to come in!
And our tomatoes. Here we have brandywine, san marzano, and black chery.
Who doesn't love the look of a squash blossom!?
I think beets are my new favorite thing to grow. I love root veggies, especially in the fall. I planted half of a raised bed with beets in early spring as a trial run. We're enjoying them so much that I'm planning to plant a full raised bed next month in order to have a Fall harvest. Beets and Fall just go together, in my opinion. Do you have any favorite beet recipes?
We planted these black raspberry brambles last year. Only two of them survived our very harsh winter, but those two little brambles have produced about 4 cups of berries so far! Not exactly enough to make into jam, but the kids are having fun snacking on them anyhow. I'm hoping to plant some more next year. We didn't get around to it this year before I realized that half of them had died.
My mom planted this sweet potato in an empty space in my garden. Our climate here is too cold for it to actually produce, but she's having fun watching it grow. She cut the top off of a sweet potato, set it in a dish of water by a sunny window until it sprouted, and set it in the soil! Neat little experiment ...
The pumpkins and butternut squash are doing well, as are the cucumbers, so long as those cucurbit beetles don't come back. On my post about getting rid of cucurbit beetles, someone commented about using Neem Oil to get rid of them. I ordered some *just in case* those pesky bugs come back. Hopefully I won't have to use it, but I figure it can't hurt to have more than one tool in your gardening arsenal!
Oh, and my broccoli and cauliflower are growing well, too! :)
How's your garden doing so far this year? Any major successes? How are you battling pest issues or nutrient deficiencies that have snuck up on you?
This is a list of some of the awesome sites that I occassionally link my posts at. They're all great blogs about anything from parenting, simple living, cooking, homesteading (backyard and large scale), gardening, Christian life, frugal living, etc. Check them out!
The Chicken Chick, The Prairie Homestead- Homestead Barn Hop, Strangers and Pilgrims on Earth- The Art of Homemaking, Homestead Bloggers Network- Tasty Tuesday, Backyard Farming Connection, Growing Home- Growing Homemakers, Wildcrafting Wednesday, So Much At Home, Hope in Every Season, Green Thumb Thursday, Home Acre Hop, From the Farm Hop, Farmgirl Friday, Front Porch Friday, Simple Meals Friday, Better Hens and Gardens.
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