I realized today that I am at least two weeks (if not more) behind on posting about my garden! So, your first question will probably be, “How is your garden?” I can tell you that my pepper plants are alive, well and thriving. In fact, above are all of the peppers I picked today. We did spray all of our plants just once with sevin and since then, the bugs have dwindled drastically. The pepper plants also seem to be happy with the amount of sunlight and water they are getting.
Much of my garden is alive. On the other hand, a lot of it isn’t doing so well. Since I’ve posted last, I have had a creature destroy all four of my tomato plants. Last time I posted, my cherry tomato plant had lots of little green cherry tomatoes and I was able to pick 3 or 4 red tomatoes a day. Well, the creature has eaten off most of its branches and all of the tomatoes. A few weeks ago, my roma tomato plants were thriving with lots of large green tomatoes. Now, every single tomato is gone as well as most branches. We think the culprits are deer because whatever the creature is/was, it managed to get top branches. You can see our attempt to thwart the deer below as we have an old chair leaning against the cherry tomato plant. And, nope, the chair hasn’t helped one bit. So sad. When I plant my next garden, do you have any tips for keeping scavengers out?
Another sad event in my garden is my squash plants pictured below. They looked so amazing about 3 – 4 weeks after I planted them. But, I only managed to pick three large squash from them. The plants have since withered away and they are not flowering at all anymore. I did fertilize them once a week for three weeks and it didn’t help. Do you all think I should pick and toss these plants?
Another disappointment for my garden has been my cantaloupe and cucumber plants. The cantaloupe plants have flowered but I haven’t gotten even a teeny tiny cantaloupe. My cucumber plants have only started about 5 baby cucumbers but they have not grown any more than the two babies pictured above. (I think that means they may not have been pollinated? I did try hand pollinating some of them..)
I know you may think that I’m down about my garden. But, really, I am loving it. This has been an awesome learning experience and while I tend to get discouraged when I see that a deer or whatever ate what seemed like 50 – 70 baby tomatoes, I am still into this. And thankfully, my pepper plants are still producing so even though I get frustrated with the cucumber or zucchini plants, I can at least see thriving pepper plants. Remember my jalapeno plants? Well, they are still producing jalapenos as you can see below! We had a party a few weeks ago and I used 20 jalapenos to make jalapeno poppers that turned out amazing! This is still possibly my favorite gardening purchase just because it has been such a hearty plant!
You can see above that the cayenne peppers are finally starting to turn red! Do any of you have any tips on drying/crushing them? I’m thinking about drying them since there are approximately 50 peppers or so that will need to be used..
The chili pepper plant pictured above is still thriving as well. None of the peppers have even remotely started to turn red. I’ve picked and used many green ones. I’ve also placed some of the picked ones in the sunlight on my lanai but they never did turn red. I am wondering if this type of plant stays green?
Then there is my yellow banana pepper plant. This plant is amazing. Constantly producing banana peppers even though it was laying on a 45 degree angle at one time. (We’ve fixed that problem by using a piece of wood to support it. These peppers are really tasty and another fun aspect of my garden.
Questions for you:
1) Should I give up on my tomato plants or should I hope that they flower and produce more tomatoes? Also – what should I do to prevent squirrels and deer and other varmints that are eating my garden? (They don’t seem to like peppers…)
2) This may be an early question, but at what point do you start to think and plan for your fall/winter garden? Especially if you live in Florida? Just curious. I know I planted my garden a bit late in the “season” so I want to make sure I’ve planned ahead for the next part of my garden.
3) Do you know how long my pepper plants will live? Will they continue to produce peppers through the end of summer? Into the fall? Just curious.
4) Would you remove the dead squash plants from the garden?
And most importantly, how is your garden doing? Would love to hear how your plants are doing and what fruits and vegetables you are harvesting! 🙂
Thanks for coming to Addicted to Saving! Here’s a little bit about me so you can know who’s behind all these posts!
My name is Liza and I began my money-saving journey in the Spring of 2009 as a way to stretch a limited household income. I had lost my job and my hubby was self-employed. I launched Addicted to Saving in November of 2009 and it has grown by leaps and bounds. Since then, my hubby and I have struggled with the ups and downs of two failed adoptions and are now LOVING being parents to our little man Asher who we brought home from Ethiopia in August of 2013. I feel incredibly blessed to be able to help you save money. My goal is that you will have FUN and become empowered to save more and more money each week..
Hi Liza. It is too late for everything but peppers and okra. pull the tomatoes and squash. We got the second flush of peppers last week. We dehydrated, roasted and froze, and cut and froze. I had to pull a few pepper plants, but the rest are doing well. By all means, start planning your fall garden. We are saving toilet paper and paper towel cardboard things and cutting them into about 2 inches each. We are going start the seeds in those, rather than order the expensive peat moss containers. This will be the first time for this, so will let you know how it works. We covered all of the beds except the one that still has peppers and okra. We did this with thick plastic we had leftover from some really cold snaps a few years ago. The point here is to kill nematodes and just let the soil rest. I live in NPR as well. My husband us the big garden planner and i am the big gardedn hoe. Haha. Any other questions, juse ema me. Good site. Univ. Of Florida extension services. Good luck! Patty. P.s. Dead plants invite insects.
It’s not deer, it’s horn worms and they are evil. They eat so much and love the new, tender growth of the tomato leaves. Bacillus Thurgesis (spelling?) will work and is only harmful to caterpillars. It’s a bacteria that destroys them but is safe for humans. You’ll have to spray it all over your tomato plants once per week to get rid of the hornworms indefinitely. The larvae of the hornworms are already in your soil, just waiting to come up. =( These pests also like corn which is why you never plant the two together (aside from them competing for nutrients. lol)
1. It depends on how damaged your plants are and what zone you’re in. If you’re not in South FL, I wouldn’t give up just yet. 🙂 Treat the horn worms and add a good amount of compost to the soil.
2. I live in South FL and I have to start all my gardening in September through April/May. It’s way, way too hot here for anything to do well before then.
3. Depends on the plant. Traditional peppers will eventually die off despite pruning- especially if there is a cold snap. They need warmth year round. Chili peppers can be grown for several years in a warm climate successfully with soil amendments regularly (compost.)
4. Yes, I’m not sure where you are but it may be too hot or not enough nitrogen in the soil.
Amanda – thank you so much for the info on horn worms! The way the branches are cut so short, I just assumed a deer was eating them. So are you saying the horm worms will eat the branches? Are there any ways I can verify that horn worms are in fact destroying my plants? Should I be able to see the horn worms?
Yes, you should be able to see them, they get HUGE but are really hard to spot! Google a picture of them and you’ll see what I mean, they are very well camoflauged. In my garden, when I start to see the leaves being eaten I start to look for them. I can look the plant over so many times and not see them, then about to give up I realize I have been looking at one the whole time! I just pull them of and squish them. I have never had them eat the tomatoes or the branches though, just the leaves. Other critters that will eat the toms include opossum, racoon, and I have even had birds peck the hell out them.
For your cayenne peppers, you can thread a needle with cotton thread and string the pepper by the stem. They will dry and be a beautiful addition to the kitchen. I have done this for years and it works well for me!
I was wondering how it was going, glad to read this post. Your peppers look great! My tomatoes are still thiving and producing flowers but the tomatoes have started to crack. It must be from all the rain??? We have deer in our yard but they are more interested in the acorns in the front yard than my tomatoes that are very close to the house in the back.
My neighbors have built their planter boxes and had a load of soil delivered for their fall garden. I think they said to plant next month but not sure.
I live in south FL and have/had tomatoes, several varieties of peppers, leaf lettuce, green beans, basil, cilantro & radishes in my summer garden…. Basil, Cilantro, peppers, are all doing well. The leaf lettuce is doing pretty good too (was shocked at this). But, the radishes and green beans have not done well. As for the tomatoes, I never even got to eat one!! Various bugs got to them, then they began cracking from all of the rain , I guess…
I have more tomato plants started from seed, and hope that they do better than the previous/current ones…
Hi Liza… I have grown peppers for many years and many times they have grown right into the fall even into December! The banana peppers always seemed to do the best. With my own garden, it always does best here for me in Central Florida early in the season. Between the nasty little critters and the hot summer sun, by the end of June the plants are ready to be ripped out.
As for the squash plants… spray them with water and see if ugly squash bugs come running out. They usually hide very well and are not so easy to spot. They have wiped out my squash plants for 3 years now. They feed off of the plants and actually inject a toxin into them that makes the leaves turn yellow and the plants die. Not sure if that is th eproblem with your squash but something to look out for.
I’ll be starting my fall garden at the end of next month. Can’t wait!
Blessings to you and your garden! 🙂
~Louise
The jalepeno poppers were great at the party, so keep up the good work, so we can eat more! LOL!
Your peppers look beautiful Liza! Sadly my cucumber plants look just like your squash plants and have not produced a thing. My tomato plants looked beautiful and I had several nice tomatoes coming but now those plants are taking a turn for the worst. One plant is completely yellow and shrivled, the other looks like it’s heading in that direction. Hoping they live long enough so at least one of the tomatoes ripen!
I pulled up all tomato, cucumber and squash because they have been done in by the heat and rain. My garden guru suggests putting a garden shade cover over them if you want to see if they will keep going. Peppers, basil, mint, stevia are all doing well. I’ll start planting for fall around the end of August.
I feel your pain! I lost all my cukes and my squash. It blows. My tomatoes are now destroyed due to root rot! Thanks to all this wonderful rain that we have been getting. I think next year I am gonna try to add a 6-8 inch thick layer of pea gravel under the top soil and potting soil, just to give it more drainage for the “wet months” here. I am planning my fall garden now since the only think THRIVING in my garden is my watermelons. SIGH.. if you find any good tips please let me know! I am struggling with this and I am not one to let somethign defeat me..lol I will figure it out.. one way or another! 🙂 My dad probably knows tricks to keep deer out, Iwill ask him and see what he says then post it on the FB page 🙂
OH, I forgot, my peppers are booming too! They were the ones I thought were gonna die all spring and early summer but I pick all kinds of peppers every day. The sad part is that I don’t even like peppers..lol Thank god Tim and my best friend do..LOL