Despite the fact that I didn’t post about my garden last week, it is still somewhat thriving and I’m still loving every minute of being a newbie gardener! While I’ve had many moments of disappointment: watching my zucchini plants provide me with one zucchini each and then withering away into nothingness, watching my flourishing tomato plants with hundreds of green tomatoes disappear as the greedy deer ate the fruit, etc, I’ve still really enjoyed this process. I’ve cooked with more hot peppers this summer than I have my entire life. 🙂 I’ve learned a lot and while I’m still confused about some of the things I’ve witnessed, my hope is that next spring, when I plant my summer garden, I will be a little wiser with some of my gardening techniques.
I took a picture of the flower above so that you can see that new growth is still occurring in my garden! The main growth is peppers. Peppers, peppers and more peppers. Some of my herbs are still hanging in there. But mainly, any growth you see in my garden is peppers. 🙂
Dead zucchini plants. It is amazing to compare this picture to what the plants looked like when they were flowering and flourishing.
Cayenne peppers. They are so pretty! The plants look like a Christmas tree with the red and green 🙂 Today I strung about 20 of them so that I can dry them.
Even some of the green bell peppers are turning red. Love red peppers!! I’m noticing that most of my pepper plants are now producing red peppers. The red peppers came late in this growing season. I’m wondering if that is normal and that early fruit doesn’t turn red? Just a thought!
Yellow banana peppers. This plant is still doing amazing. Such a hearty pepper plant! One plant has produced at least 25 yellow banana peppers. Would definitely plant this again!
My chili peppers are finally turning red! I’ve picked quite a few of these and they never turned red even sitting on my counter or on my lanaii. So, I’m thrilled to see that my chili peppers are finally resembling chili peppers.
Evidence of Destruction #1. I know many of you have told me my disappearing tomato plants, branches and leaves were due to bugs and worms.. I just have a hard time picturing a worm being able to cut and digest the branches like seen on the pepper plant pictured above. Every morning I wake up and see more and more examples of this. There are no branches lying on the ground. They are entirely consumed by whatever is eating them. And, I’m thinking the sweet deer that I’ve been watching every day in my backyard are the culprits. (Even though I haven’t caught them in the act as of yet..) I really do love deer too. So I’m torn between being frustrated about my gardening losses and then being happy that I’m able to feed the hungry deer…
Evidence of Destruction #2. My poor tomato plants. All of the branches look like this.
How are all of your gardens doing? Are you harvesting any fruits or veggies right now? If you are planting a fall garden, when are you starting your fall garden and what are you planting? Would love to hear all of your gardening stories!
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..
My garden is doing great. I live just outside of Tampa (Wesley Chapel area) and my peppers (Like yours) are doing amazing aspeccially my banana peppers and bell peppers. My cherry tomato plant has over 20 cherry tomatoes that are all turning red at once; cantelope plants are flourishing and my watermelon vine has about 4 full grown watermelons ready to be picked. I havent had any problems with bugs besides those little worms that roll up inside your green beans plant’s leaves. Otherwhise everything is doing great.
Wow Kristen – you garden is doing amazing! Are you new to gardening or experienced? I’m so happy for you and extremely jealous of your watermelons and especially of your cherry tomato plant!
Kristen, you can fast freeze pieces of cantaloupe and watermelon in zip loc bags and they keep for a long time. We do that and then my husband uses them in his yogurt slushies. Lucky you, we haven’t been successful with the melons.
It’s time to start planning your fall garden. I have been saving toilet paper rolls and paper towel rolls to use for the seedlings instead of expensive peat pots. Beginning in September, it is time to start planting. Yay! We have a bigger harvest in the fall, than the spring. Less bugs, less heat. Good luck! Patty
I live in south FL on the east coast and I have red bell peppers, chili peppers, leaf lettuce and a few tomatoes straggling along.
I started some more pepper seeds about 2 weeks ago in the remaining little peet tablets. They are still too small to transplant.
Without thinking it thru, I planted tomato seeds some time back in those peet pellets in a flat and they grew nicely. I transplanted them into a regular flat with soil. And now they have been transplanted into the garden. I left my other tomato plants in the ground, even tho they are done producing as shade for these newbies. After they begin to take off…..(hoping) I’ll remove the old ones.
I’ll wait till Sept. to plant anything else. I’ve had a small garden for about 2 years, but nothing major comes from it. Been a learning experience.
Then, I’ll plant green beans, tomatoes, leaf lettuces, radishes, bell peppers, chili peppers, and…..
Liza, consider planting a fall garden. I’m planning on doing that. Can’t wait for some butternut and acorn squash. They are both delicious with brown sugar and butter. Yum!
Hey Liza,
I was looking at the pix of the damage to your tomato plants. I thought, like you, the deer were munching on them, however, that turned out not to be true. Although, it may be hard to imagine, the horn worm causes this exact appearance. Also called the cutter worm, it thrives on the early, tender growth of the new plant. It is ugly and can be HUGE, but it can simply be picked off and squashed. You would be surprised at how quickly they can level a garden – but, they can be controlled. I made it a point to go out EVERY day and check for newly eaten areas while looking for the culprit. I found the worm EVERY time!
Google it and you will find out what to look for and how to see them – and trust me when I say, they are sometimes quite difficult to see and blend in with the stems. I really enjoy keeping up with your blog.
Best wishes,
Selena
Selena – So interesting! Will google this cutter worm right now and will look for it tomorrow! I was very eager to blame the deer but truthfully, I haven’t seen any deer poop (tmi I know) around my gardens which was a bit odd to me.. I will google this worm right now and will look for it in the a.m. Thank you!
Selena! So I looked up horn worms. They are disgusting! Oh my gosh – so gross!! Everything I saw in the 5 minutes I spent searching mentions horn worms eating tomato plants. Do you know offhand if they eat pepper plants as well? (My pepper plants are slowly getting eating one by one..) I have more research to do but now I know what to look for tomorrow when I water. SO gross!! Have a good night!
The horn worms are hard to spot because they blend in with the stems and leaves so well. I’ve picked a few off of my plants that were just babies (about 1/4 inch long)…but still capable of severe damage. We’ve had a tough time with our garden this year. Too much rain early in the year…now no rain at all, excessive heat, japanese beetles, squash vine borers, and horn worms. Even still, our tomato plants are 8 feet high and producing heavy yields. We also have more zucchini than we know what to do with and peppers galore!
Horn worms eat pepper plants too! Also they do not distinguish between leaf, stem, or fruit. They will eat it all!
photo of some of the tomatoes I picked today.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dawnadeanne/6003764223/in/photostream
Hi Dawna! Thanks for the link to see your pictures! Your tomatoes are HUGE! I love how you took a picture of a tomato on the scale! Where do you live? I can see that you have had definite success with your tomatoes – so jealous and happy for you!
Thanks! I live in southeast Iowa. This is only my second year gardening. I put in two raised beds in our backyard last year, and this year added two more. I only wish we had a bigger yard so I could add more. 🙂
It must be deer eating our tomatoes. Last week there must have been 100-150 small green ones on the 26 plants we have in our country garden. Now there are none up to 4 feet above the ground. Hornworm damage is minimal and there are no tomatoes left on plants with leaves undamaged by hornworms.
The garden is 100 feet from the house. I’ll have to start shining a flashlight out there at night to see what’s going on. Sigh.
I agree with Selena, those tomato worms are butt-ugly. I had two full weeks of pulling 3-5 off each and every day, and all I have are eight plants in huge patio pots! They munch like crazy.
I can sympathize with your zucchini plight. Some years I have great luck; others, not so much. This year I had three plants that thrived and have bloomed like crazy. I guess I might as well eat the blossoms because there have been no zucchinis. Dang.
Best of luck with your peppers (the one thing doing great here as well).
Your garden looks so good and healthy!Congratulations on it!
Lovely peppers you got. You can use the pepper extract to spray on your tomatoes to stop the worms from eating its branches. Good Luck!
Liza, a while back there was a sample offered for “Tomato Thrive” (www.usethrive.com The onyl one of my tomato plants that is still kicking I used this on. It’s a liquid “soil drench”. Supposedly it improves the rooting of the plants. I don’t really know what it does. I do know that I will purchase this next year. I was going to try to do a “fall garden” but it is just SOOO hot that I’m not even sure where to begin in FL with a fall garden. 🙁 I’m like you, my peppers are WONDERFUL. The rest.. not so much. Hopefully we will do better next time. 🙂