GARDEN REPORT
by Robin


Lots of Red & Yellow Sweet Bell Peppers. My chocolates went red eventually. I've not seen an orange yet. Hots are doing fantastic and I finally started giving some of those away.

Here is my main garden. It is looking downright pitiful in some ways. Many things were eaten or pulled or cut back this month. The herbs still fare well on the left side. I've had carrots & yellow onions growing all summer on the leftside as well. I pulled a lot of weight off the cherry tomato bushes and then tied them to the back cages where the old full-size tom bushes had died out. This will give them more room to grow once the Fall weather shows up again. I think the fall is our best growing season. I probably shouldn't have, but I put in another row of carrots while we had all this rain. The front right side of the garden is empty and awaiting cool weather for something fast-growing. I'm thinking spinach & lettuce again. That area will lose a lot of direct light once the sun changes its place in the sky.

I'm having a great time finding these catepillars on my carrot tops & flat-leaf parsley. The butterfly is primarily black w/ some blue. They come & lay eggs all the time and now I have several of these guys of all sizes on the bushes. Speaking of the parsley, I'm finally able to collect the dried seeds for new plantings. It seems like it's been 2 mo of blooming & waiting. Cilantro is finally beginning to sprout again with all of last week's rain.

This beautiful spider is living in my cherry tomato leaves. Since I'm not picking anything, I've decided she can stay for now. Once production starts up again in the fall, I'm hoping she will have moved on.

Here is another hot pepper plant that hasn't ever produced fruit yet. It is slow-maturing whatever it is.

Here is a sweet bell pepper plant that originally had 4 fruit at one time. I was amazed at how well it did carrying that load.

Here are the yellow onions, approx 2" on the big one. They sure do take a long time to grow. I probably won't do this again until I decide to cut an acre of ground to sow. I do enjoy having bunching onions compared to growing the large onions.

I planted pole & lima beans under the trellis on Wednesday. I don't know if they'll survive as tenderlings between the heat or hurricane rain but I thought I'd give it a try since I had so many leftover beans. Beans are pretty hardy, right? I can always reseed in Sept if need be.

We received a bag full of summer squash from a friend at Jack's work. His dad has multiple acres of veggies. I sure would love to know how in the world he got his squash to survive. In return, we are giving them hot peppers. This week, I'm going to pull down my dried cayenne peppers and grind the seeds. Any advice would be welcomed.