Harvest + Good News

I have good news to report. It seems like some of the squash zucchini plants made it through the squash borer's infestation! The plants seem to be thriving again. : ) Thanks for all the tips. Although, the squash it is producing shrivels up and dies while it is still tiny. I think this might be because it has been way too hot lately! You can see in the background that the tomato plants are struggling with the heat too.

I think I am going to say that the cucumber plants are a bust! No cucumbers has been produced so far, well not any edible ones. The few that grew went from green to yellow and then fell off. I was waiting for them to get bigger... maybe I was supposed to pick them when they were green.. I don't know, they didn't look fully formed to me! I will browse around for pics of what a cucumber is supposed to look like.

The tomato plants are still producing plenty of tomatoes! We picked over 50 one day! And they taste good too. I think next year, we will plant more tomato plants.

I will add a pic of my jalapeño plant later but as you can see, it is producing peppers!!

That's about it for now.

Garden DISASTER! : (

So I have been MIA from the blog for a few days and I am afraid I come back with bad news. We were out of town for a few days and that was enough for the garden to fall apart. I should have known better. I had read about squash bugs and squash borers, but figured that the plants were strong enough to withstand anything. I was totally wrong! Bugs show no mercy. By the time we finally got around to checking on the garden- mostly everything was DEAD. We had to pull our beloved squash plants that had taken us so much work and so many days to grow. I was devastated. I still am. This sucks. : ( I know it is mostly our fault for being not being observant...I guess now we know for next year. I should have used stronger insecticides- guess the organic spray was not enough.

Pictures of the destruction and the stupid bugs that caused it all. 

 

Wondering how that sawdust from squash bugs borers looks like? It looks like this.

Bugs we found around the garden:

I didn't even know this kind of damage was possible. That black thing is an ugly slug! They ate half of this squash plant and carved out the rest of it.

I guess the only good news is that our tomato plants are still thriving.

Here is what we got from them : 65 tomatoes.

The cucumber is doing OK. But I wouldn't say it is doing well. The leaves are turning whitish and looks like mold or something is on them. But the cucumbers are starting to form.

The strawberries are also making a comeback but the harvest looks disappointing. My husband decided to throw some plastic over his strawberry plants to protect them from the birds and I think it worked, but he accidentally put some of the plastic over the cucumber plant and I think this is why they are suffering now because the ones that were not touched by the plastic seem to be doing well (see first pic).

My jalapeño plant is the one thing that seems to be thriving! I am so glad I planted it, otherwise this would be a pretty depressing post.I think I will try the first jalapeño this weekend.

 

Harvest Monday: Lots of Tomatoes, First Jalapeño

 We got a lot of tomatoes and a few zucchinis. The last zucchini was a little deformed because it got trapped between the stems, so I guess it grew as best as it could. The tomatoes taste really good - they are sun sugar tomatoes, in the pictures they look yellow but they are actually orange. Apparently, they won't turn red.

The garden is looking about the same as last Monday.

We don't have cucumbers yet, but the plants look good so far. The yellow cucumber flower is so pretty. 

I am so happy that the jalapeno plant is producing peppers. : ) I can't wait for them to get big.  I haven't relocated it to a new pot yet; I am not sure if I should.

Days 54-63: Garden Progress & Harvest

May 10: The garden seems to be doing well. The tomato plants are really taking off. They have outgrown their cages. Hopefully they won't need additional support, but if they do, I guess we'll have to buy bigger cages.

 May 12: The potato vines continue to grow. They don't have too many flowers due to constant rain, but they seem to be growing and climbing the fence at a good pace.

We also added support for the cucumber plants. 

May 16: So the strawberry pot has been attacked by a bug. You can see the damage to the leaves.  

The strawberry plant on the ground is doing OK. It has pretty flowers, but hasn't given us any strawberries lately.

May 17: I think the squash plants have finally stopped growing; I was hoping they wouldn't get any bigger. They have produced 7 squash zucchini total. They all tasted great, except the last one- I think we took it out too soon...it was way too hard. The jalapeño plant sneaked into this shot...it is doing great. :) The tomato plant closest to the wall is getting huge!!

May 19: A lot of leaves on the squash plant are yellow..not sure if that is normal or not. :/ In this picture, you can see the potato vine on the left much better- it continues to climb the gate. You can also see the damage to the strawberry pot. :( Well that is it for now...

Small harvest:

Need to add photo of tomatoes.

Jalapeño Plant 20-Days Progress

I am starting to get a little worried that the pot might not be big enough. I didn't realize each plant should have been in its own pot until a few days after I planted them and I read that it might be too late to separate them now.

 Well, hopefully they continue to do well. I think this is one needy little plant...but at the same time I am glad it lets me know its needs right away. The leaves start wilting when I need to water it and so far it has been needing water every other day. I don't want to underwater it so I give it plenty and then let the excess water drain out.

You can't see it very well in these pics, but they have a few flowers growing, hope that means the jalapeños are soon to come!

Harvest Monday: More Squash and a Few Tomatoes

So we've been eating a lot of squash, needless to say. It is only two of us, so we have plenty to eat. Now there is no excuse, hungry? Eat a squash zucchini. : |

 This is how we've been preparing it, but this is going to get old fast. I need to look up some recipes for squash casserole and other ways of preparing it.

2 more!

 

Measurements for the ones above:  

 

Another 2!

  Measurements for the ones above:

Tomatoes

So we took a little long grabbing these tomatoes and the birds gladly ate them. Ughhh.... we are going to have to buy some netting or find a way to protect our tomato plants. The birds took almost all the ripe tomatoes.