Gardening seems to get easier or at least a little less stressful the second time around; I’m already anticipating that next year will be a breeze! With that said, no I have not had bountiful harvests everyday or even every week., but I’m learn a lot and figuring out what works and what doesn’t.
This summer I’ve experienced highs and lows in the garden. I was very excited at the possibility of growing:
SPAGHETTI SQUASH
This guy appeared in mid to late May and had a few other buddies show up. Sadly his friends were scavenged by some random critter that got into my backyard. But I was excited this one really seemed to be thriving and doing great. Then I went on vacation in early June and was gone about 10 days and the temperature started to heat up…it did not survive. So, the lesson I learned is…spaghetti squash needs to be watered twice a day when the Texas summer heat sets in.
CUCUMBERS
Late May early June I started to see a lot of these appearing. The first cucumber or two (I can’t remember now) was ready for picking while I was on vacation. There was a bit of a lull after the first two and since then it seems like I’ve been able to pick one or two a week which has been awesome!
ROMA TOMATOES
Check out all of those tomatoes! This is what one of my plants looked like before I went out-of-town for vacation. After all of these were ready for picking I’ve only had a few more grow. I’m not sure if you can tell but the container isn’t all that big considering how big my plant got and I don’t think the roots had enough room. But I have no scientific research to back that up it’s just my best guess. I will be on the look out for bigger pots fall and winter to upgrade for next summer.
CANTALOUPE
I love me some cantaloupe and was beyond ecstatic that it looked liked I was going to successfully grow cantaloupe. Sadly this guy lasted all of about 2 weeks before rotting and ever since the plant just has not done well. Again, I think it’s the container and not necessarily me…at least I hope!
PEACHES
These look kind of impressive, don’t they? It’s all a lie. None of my peaches got to be bigger than about two inches in length and they never got all that round. I think I had the potential of growing close to 30 off this one tree but 90% of them fell off or disappeared. I can’t complain too much, I bought my peach tree at the end of last summer for $8. I can only hope for better luck next year!
I am currently waiting for my pepper explosion to be ready for harvest. Between my two jalapeno plants I have 20-30 small jalapenos; and on my three bell pepper plants I have about 9 bell peppers. Most of my bell peppers keep developing these brown spots on them where it looks like the outside has been attacked by something and then they die. Since there are so many I’m hoping to at least have a few survive.
It’s my cucumber plant that has made me feel like I’ve got a rockin’ green thumb! Look how big these guys grow (yes I know what your giggling about):
I currently had this many cucumbers in my fridge over the weekend:
And they were put to good use this past weekend:
This plate was full when it was set out. You probably can’t tell but that blurry hand is the hand of a one year old who devoured the cucumbers. She loved them so much I sent her mama home with a cucumber for her to have later. Now I better head out and see if I’ve got any cucumbers to pick today.
How’s your garden going this summer? What are you going to plant for the fall?
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