September 12 Update

Late Summer in the Cabal Garden

Today is a beautiful day here in N. Texas.  Low 80's and dry weather makes being outside wonderful, and I am writing this sitting outside, on my chromebook.

After a very wet early summer, and very dry mid-summer,  we've had a days of rain recently, and lowering temperatures means the garden is kicking it into high gear again.   Even through the heat of the summer, the garden has remained very productive.   The main things this summer have been the cucumbers, yellow squash, okra, and the peppers, along with the maturing birdhouse gourds.

typical harvest, from late August

From early Sept 5th  including the variety of peppers.

I have been really surprised how well the cucumbers have done.  They have been incredible producers, and we've picked, eaten, and given away tons of them...  all from 4 plants!  The plants are pretty much done now, and I have started cutting them back to make space for the incoming pumpkin vines.

The okra plants are really now okra trees!  They are probably  about 7 ft tall now.

our okra trees

These also produce like crazy, and I've had to give away lots of okra too, in addition to eating it, and freezing some of it.  Our favorite is fried okra, although sometimes we will sautee it, although some of the kids don't really like the sliminess.  The frozen stuff will be good for soups like gumbo, in the winter.

Below is a picture of the pepper plants, mixed in there are 5 kinds of peppers, but the poblano-looking pepper is tallest variety, towering over the other ones.  

pepper plants

The yellow crookneck squash plants are looking pretty raggedy now, but I am hoping they might be able to push out a few more fruit.  The squash vine borers have affected them, but with some additional rooting along the ground, it has helped them.  They have done really well. I estimate around 25 squash from 3 plants.  There are 3 remaining growing tips, with some looking like they might start producing some more.

remnant of the yellow crookneck squash.

I've pulled up some wilted portions of the plant, and they have had some SVB grubs, which have become chicken snacks.  I'm not surprised cause I haven't been doing much to stop them the last month.

But their successors are almost ready to go now.  I planted some "cymlings" (patty-pan type squash).  I read about "cymlings" in an old book about gardening (that's what they called them back in the early 1900s) , and now for fun, I call them cymlings too.  Well I planted 3 hills of cymlings, and one hill of yellow crookneck.  I made a large frame for netting, out of PVC, to protect them from SVB and squash bugs.  Aphids have shown up, but I stuck some lady bug larva and adult lady bugs in there with them  (more on them later..)

more summer squash on the way

On the picture above you can see the cucumber plants They are just about dead.

I haven't mentioned these much, but I've had three big basil plants pretty much all summer.  They are great because they are constantly blooming and draw in lots of bees and other good bugs.  These seeded themselves from last year.

Basil plants, with Hubbard squash growing underneath.

The birdhouse gourds are doing great.  The plants have been severely infested with aphids, but there have been lady bugs among them, and they also have reproduced, so now I have lots of them too.  I've even put some of them under my netting to help with the aphids in my summer squash.  They have also been hit with powdery mildew pretty badly.  But they have produced lots of gourds.  Here are a few:

at the bottom of the picture you can see a leaf infested with powdery mildew.

Portions of the vines are starting to die off too, but other portions are now spreading along the ground.  

For the fall...

My main winter squash now growing is the Hubbard Squash, the sugar pie pumpkins, and spaghetti squash.  Below is the Hubbard squash.  It started close to the birdhouse gourds, and is spreading back towards the main part of the garden, now reaching the basil plants.  I've been burying the vines are they grow,but in the cramped space that becomes tricky.  The SVB moths are still flying around (just killed one today with a badminton racket.) but the egg laying has slowed down.  I do see some eggs here and there but nowhere as bad as it was earlier in the summer.   Next to the vines, growing up on tomato cages, are pole beans, Kentucky wonder.  I hope these get producing well before the cold weather comes.  Last year I started these too late, and they didnt get to produce much before the cold killed them.  This year I seeded them a few weeks earlier.

pole beans.

The plan is to let the Hubbard squash grow all underneath the beans, which are growing up the cages, and onto the fence.  

I think once again I got too ambitious with the sugar pie and spaghetti squash.  They have already taken over the whole area, and are almost impossible to reach for burying vines are removing SVB eggs, so I have really not done much there.   Hopefully the vines are established enough that any damage they cause will just have the effect of "pruning" the vines.

I also enlisted the help of "trichogramma wasps".  I had read that they are effective at parasitizing the eggs of Squash Vine borers.  So I bought some wasp eggs, for about $8 online.  I released them a few weeks ago, and am hopeful they are out there working.  They are very tiny, so it would be impossible for me to see them in action.  My hope is that they get established in my garden as natural pest control.

The vines have reached the pepper plants, and I am trying to train them to grow underneath, so they done cover the plants.

August 1st Update

Its August 1st, and it been really hot but today we are getting a break, and its going to be in the upper 90's instead of 100 like its been the past few days.  (yesterday it officially hit 104).

Despite the heat all the plants are doing well, probably because I keep them well watered.  Its hasn't rained a drop in about 4 weeks, but with all the rain we got this late spring/early summer, the lakes are still full and there aren't any watering restrictions.

Cucumbers ,Okra, Beans

The cucumbers are doing great.  These are actually called "Eureka Hybrid Cucumbers", and I read that they are very disease resistant.  I believe it, because by this time usually my cucumbers collapse and die, but these are still going strong.  The kids wanted to help in the garden, so I assigned Andrew to be in charge of picking the okra every day, and Michelle to be in charge of picking the cucumbers.

A day's harvest. Andrew picked about 12 okra pods, and Michelle picked 10 cucumbers.

The vines are now starting to sprawl along the ground too.

Here are the okra plants.  The are getting very big, taller than me now, and they are starting to produce a lot now.  These are the same "emerald" okra I've been growing the past few years.  I am out of seed so hopefully I'll remember to let a few pods mature and save the seeds for next year.

In the picture below between the okra and cucumbers are some bush bean plants.   After initially fighting spider mites, they are gone now, and the plants are pretty pest free.  I think the neem oil and soap applications helped.  But now their greatest enemy is the heat.  They have not been producing much, except a few very small pods every day.  Occasionally I'll get a few good pods.  I might pull them up soon and start planting pole beans there for a fall harvest.    

Birdhouse Gourd and Milo

Here is the gourd arbor I made with the birdhouse gourds, and the milo plants below.  I had scattered some seed around the area in the late spring, and now they are close to being ready for picking.  I have grown these mainly for the chickens to eat.  

A closeup of the milo seed heads.

The birdhouse gourds are still doing well.  Last time I mentioned their wilting, and that I was concerned it was bacterial wilt because of the cucumber beetles, and how they can transmit disease.  Thankfully, I don't think it is.  I think it was just the heat and dryness.  Since I have been watering more, the wilting has not been as pronounced, but it still happens.  I think these plants just don't like the dry heat, and are just surviving until the heat lets up.  By the end of the afternoon, they look pretty droopy, but they recover pretty well.

The birdhouse gourds.  These have not really grown in a while. This might be as big as they get.
(probably due to the heat)

Pumpkins and Squash

The lone pumpkin plant which was a volunteer has now become huge,and has now reached past the yellow squash, to where the bush beans are.  At first I was not sure if I was going to pull it out because I had this spot reserved for Hubbard squash to be planted later, but I've grown fond of it, and have taken care of it by removing squash vine borer (SVB) and squash bug eggs.  The squash bugs have arrived, and I have found some egg clusters and have crushed them.  I have crushed about 6 squash bugs too.  If I keep checking for them every few days I can keep them under control. But as the plant gets bigger, it gets harder.  The SVB have actually slowed down a lot recently.  I think we are now between the generations of them (there are supposed to be 2 generations in the summer) and I expect them to show up strong again later in mid-August. I have only seen a few eggs this past week.   I have also been burying some of the newer vines to let them take root.  So this plant is now pretty well established, and now  just waiting for the female flowers to start appearing. So far only males.

Pumpkin vine has gotten huge. Amazing this is just 1 plant.

The yellow squash outgrew their tulle covers, so I removed them earlier this week.  So far I have gotten about 8 squash from them.  When I removed the covers, I piled new dirt and mulch over the base of the plant and parts of the vine laying on the ground, to protect from SVB, and to encourage more rooting.  I will begin monitoring the vine, and injecting with BT when I see they are showing signs of SVB damage... but that shouldn't be happening for at least 3 more week, so I should have plenty of time to get lots of squash from these.  When I planted them I was worried about the timing,and the heat of July and August affecting their fruit setting.  But they have done fine.  Despite the 100 degree weather, I have more squash on the way!

Yellow Crookneck Squash

Small squashes developing

I still want to pursue growing Hubbard squash again this fall.  So I went ahead and started them, and here are the seedlings now.  I have them covered to protect from bugs.  I am hoping by the time these get bigger and start sprawling around, the pumpkin vine will begin dying off around the base, and these can just grow over and take over that area.  If not, its going to be hard to find space to train these vines. These plants are enormous.   I need a bigger yard!!

Blue Hubbard Squash seedlings.

I am also trying spaghetti squash for the first time this year. I got the seeds from a squash my wife bought from the store last year.  There are 4 hills here, two spaghetti squash and 2 sugar pie pumpkin hills.  This is at the opposite end of the garden area, where the tomatoes were growing earlier this year.  I also have these covered with tulle to protect from bugs (SVB, squash bugs, cucumber beetles, the big Three...Boo! ).  The seeds just came out a couple days ago.  

spaghetti squash and sugar pie pumpkin seedlings

Peppers

My peppers, which had such a slow start, are doing real well.  I can definitely see a difference in the plants, not just in the fruit, but in the size of them and their leaf size.  Some have gotten top-heavy and I have had to stake up. But otherwise no problems, no bugs bothering them.  Pretty easy!

They all now have fruit developing on them, at various stages.

The Costa Rican Sweet Pepper

small skinny pepper, maybe a Cayenne?

Looks like a jalapeno or similar hot pepper

Basil

Growing among my pumpkin plant is basil. I have three big plants. These become like woody bushes when they are big, and are pretty tall enough to stand out among the pumpkin leaves.  They produce tons of flowers, which the bees love!  Also every time I go into the patch and rub against the leaves, they produce a wonderful smell.  I see some black carpenter bees, and some real small other type of bees buzzing like crazy every morning.   These were all volunteers.  Last year the plants dropped seeds like crazy, and when I saw them come up this year, I let them grow.   

July 24th Update

Its almost the end of July, and its starting to get pretty hot.  Officially I don't think we hit 100 yet, we've been at 99 the last few days, but we might the next few days.  After a very wet early summer, we have dried up pretty good. It hasn't rained in about three or more weeks, and I've having to water pretty often now.

Cucumbers

The cucumber have done amazing this year.  These are the dual-purpose slicer/pickling cukes I got last year from Gurney's. I've had tons of cucumbers and have had to give many way to friends and family, plus have pickled some.  I've had to water these quite a bit to keep them producing.  The A-shaped trellis I made has worked really good.  Its been real easy to see and pick the cucumbers.

Unfortunately the cucumber beetles are showing up in good numbers, both striped and spotted. These are very hard to deal with organically.  I try and catch and kill them whenever I get a chance but there are so many.

typical day's harvest of cucumbers

Squash/Pumpkins

My previous post I talked about the yellow crookneck squash started under the tulle netting to keep out squash vine borers (SVB) and squash bugs.  They are doing very well now. I had to put a bigger piece of tulle on them, and they are about to outgrow that.  Fortunately the aphids have not been a problem yet, so they are pretty much pest free.

yellow crookneck squash under tulle netting

The female flower are coming in good now.  Since I have them under covers, I need to hand-pollinate them. The past few days every morning when I get up I go out and pollinate them by lifting the cover, and then tucking in the cover when I am done.  Despite the heat, they are producing now! Here is  the first one, a siamese twin one...one side grew more than the other, so its looks kinda funny.  I have another siamese twin one growing that should be ready to pick soon, and there are more on the way.

my first crookneck squash of the year.

I had also mentioned before a volunteer pumpkin plant.  That plant has grown like crazy.  Its definitely a C. Pepo variety, but not sure if its a sugar pie pumpkin.  The SVB are definitely around now. They have been laying eggs like crazy on this lone plant.  Every other day I will check for eggs, and pick them off, and I have also been burying the vines.  The plant has forked into about 5 growing tips, and just started blooming male flowers.  I also just started preventative BT injections into the older leaf stalks, just in case I missed an egg.

Peppers

Last post I discussed the peppers I had planted.  The plants are doing very well now and starting to produce.  Like I said, since the hot peppers were a mixture I am not sure what I have exactly. But the plants do look different.  The CostaRican sweet pepper plants have bigger leaves.   Here are some of the hot peppers that are now producing.

this looks like a cayenne pepper

not sure what this is, looks like a small jalapeno.

I did see one pepper on the CostaRican sweet pepper.  They do have a lot of flowers otherwise. Looking forward to see how these do.

Birdhouse Gourd

The birdhouse gourd plants have grown quite a bit now and have started covering the top of the trellis I made.  They have also been producing fruit.  I have about 3 good size gourds, and about 4 smaller ones now.

I've noticed as they have started producing fruit, they have really slower down their growth.  They have beautiful flowers that open at night, and in the late morning are pretty much gone.  Since its been so dry and hot lately I have had no problems with powdery mildew yet on them.  One problem is the cucumber beetles. I have quite a bit on them.  Today I noticed the leaves were very wilted on part of it.  I am really hoping its not bacterial wilt.  I checked the soil underneath and it was very dry so I watered the plant a lot this evening. I pray its just that the plant needed more water.

Summer 2015

Been a long time since I blogged on my garden!   Better late than never I guess.

After one of wettest Mays in history for us, and a fairly wet early June, we are now officially in Summer.  Its been nice so far, with us being mostly in the low to mid 90's the past few weeks.

Cool Weather Crops

Here is a quick summary of how my earlier spring garden did, and lessons learned. 

• spinach - Planted lots of transplants from pots which I had started from seed over the winter, but they never did really as well as I had hoped. Some died off, and some bolted too soon.  My garden soil was just full of huge grubs this spring, so I suspect these damaged many of their roots.  I  think next year I will direct seed more, and do some direct seeding  this fall too, so they grow through the winter.  Not sure what do do about the grubs, except maybe turn over the soils and get the chickens to help me take them out.  Despite the difficulties,  we did have a harvest, and enjoyed a few weeks of fresh spinach.   
• brocolli - Started late winter from seedlings... it was a bust. Plants produced very little, and died off. Had to fight off lots of aphids too.   I think a late snow and ice really set them back, but not completely sure what happened, so I pulled them out. 
• peas -  started from transplants I grew from seed.  Didn't do very well from transplant, as it set them back a lot.  When the finally started growing again, it had started getting pretty warm, and red spider mites started getting them.  I had a small harvest... Didn't plant enough plants.  Lesson:  plant more, protect early from cold, and direct seed instead of transplant.  Try fall too.  
• cabbage: (Golden Acres) Planted a bunch from transplants I started from seed in late winter. As soon as I planted them, got some bad ice and snow, then got hit by aphids.  So they got  a very slow start, and I was worried they wouldn't yield anything. But they did pretty well eventually.  I've been harvesting a couple of heads weekly for the past month and a half.  They are fairly small, so it takes about 2 heads for a meal.  BT and the wasps have kept the cabbage worms at bay.  As of today, I still have them out there, despite the hot weather, but they are almost done. I probably have 4 or 6 more heads to pick.   Below you can see them right behind the large catnip plant that  I also planted earlier in the spring. 
• turnips, mustard - did pretty good, although got hit by aphids again.  I left my mustard to go to seed and its still hanging around.  Its served as a good trap crop for harlequin bugs which seem to prefer the mustard to the cabbage fortunately, and are easier  to pick off and kill on their long flower stalks.  So my cabbage plants have been spared from them.

large catnip plant, and cabbages right behind

• leaf lettuce - direct seeded a few, and like most of the time, they did very well.  Obviously since its June, they are done, and bolted now (you can see them above the cabbage in the picture above)

Okra, Beans

I'm growing Emerald Okra again.  Seeded these late May, and they are really growing fast now, despite the usual aphid infestation I always get with these.  Emerald is an excellent variety because the pods can grow fairly large before they get woody, so I don't have to keep them picked as often as other varieties such as Clemson spineless, which get woody very quickly.

Emerald Okra

Right next to the Okra, I had sown some Bush beans.  Here they are, doing OK despite dealing with spider mites, which are the bane of my existence! Seems that every time I plant beans, either pole or bush, they come down with spider mites.  I have been spraying them with water and occasionally with neem oil, and I think I have them slightly under control.  But I think due to the hot weather they are just not producing a lot.  We've just had one meal from them so far.

Bird House Gourd (Lagenaria siceraria)

Decided to try something completely new this year, Birdhouse Gourd.  I planted a hill with 4 seeds back in the beginning of June. Three plants came up,  and almost a month later its incredible how much these plant have grown.   I made this trellis structure that is attached to my fence, and my plan is to train the vines to grow over it like an arbor.
 I first started with a large tomato cage to protect them. Here is what they looked like just 10 days ago:

Then I  used two of my previously made trellis' to help train them up, and now one of the vines has reached the top.  Looking forward to be able to get under that canopy soon!  Here are pictures I took this morning. 

Peppers

Something I have not planted in a  few years is peppers. The previous time I had planted pepper was Anaheim a few years back, and I had gotten tons of pepper, many of which I froze and lasted me a long time.  But this year I decided to try and grow some more.  I started them from seed directly sown into the ground back in late April, but its taken them a very long time to start growing well, maybe due to the incredibly wet spring we've been having.  I also had something chew off some of the early leaves off, so that set some of these back, but they have recovered. 

 

mixture of costa rican sweet pepper and hot peppers.

Here are the two seed packets I got these seeds from:

Funny thing is that I forgot which is which.  I believe 1/3 of these are from the Costa Rican, and the rest from the hot pepper mix, so it will be interesting to see what I get from these.  Now that its getting hotter and not as wet, I think these will start doing a lot better.  

Cucumbers  

I had some cucumber seed from last year's Gurney's order, the dual purpose pickling/slicing cucumbers.  I planted these back in late May, and they are doing great... they seem more healthy and vigorous than last year's and I see many small cukes starting to form.  I think we're going to have tons of cucumbers soon!

Here they are, growing on a makeshift trellis, and next to the bolted mustard plants I am keeping around for seed.  

Squash 

I wanted to try and upset the life cycle of the Squash vine borer and squash bugs this year a little by not planting any sort of squash until the late summer, so that any spring SVB moths would fly away to different places in search of food. I do have plans to grow various squash this fall.     But I sure miss growing them, so couldn't wait any longer, and a couple weeks ago decided to plant 3 yellow squash seeds, all which came up:  

Hill of 3 young yellow crook-neck squash

Its pretty late in the season to start growing these, especially due to the coming extreme heat of July and August, but we'll see if I can get any fruit from these.  I have them covered with tulle to protect them from any SVB or squash bugs that may wander in my garden (haven't seen any yet!).
I do have a small volunteer pumpkin seedling closeby that I have not pulled out, to serve as an indicator if they start laying eggs on it.  So far have not seen any.  My plan is to hand pollinate this and keep it covered as long as I can.

Later this summer I have plans to start a hill of Benning's Green tint patty-pan squash, Hubbard Squash, and  sugar pie pumpkins. But those I am timing so they will produce in early fall, when the SVBs are mostly done with. 

Coming Fall '15 !

Wow! Early Winter :(

Winter has made a very early arrival this year.   Last week on Monday it was nice and warm but extremely windy.  I knew a strong cold front was coming, with temperatures going down to 31 that next morning, and then upper 20s the next few days.  So we had to pick all the pumpkins... fortunately they were all pretty much ready.  Here is my daughter with 3 of them.  The big one she is holding is the biggest one we got.  Interestingly, it never did get the deep orange color.  Its more of a "rainbow" of green, yellow, and pale orange, even though it sat on the vine  just like that for at least 3 weeks.

Here are all the Rouge Vif d'Etampes pumpkins we got, except one, that was picked and made into pie a few weeks ago, because I discovered a small hole in it, and didn't want it to rot.

We got 9 Rouge if d'Etampes pumkins of various shapes and sized. One got eaten earlier and is not shown.

So overall, it was very successful, compared to last year, where I only got 2 of these.  If I try again with C. Maxima varieties, I think I will try maybe a week earlier, and completely avoid that part of the garden that gets shaded in the fall.  

The sad thing is that my poor pole beans had just started producing very well.  I had been picking nice sized bean pods the past week, and there were tons of flowers and tiny pods forming.

before the freeze, the pumpkin vines, okra, and pole beans

  I tried covering the bean vines with a large plastic cover, but could not get the whole plant covered easily, plus it was just too cold.  Today here is how they looked, all dead :(

dead pole beans killed by freeze

Lesson for next year... start pole beans earlier!  I should have started them at least 2 week earlier than I did, maybe in mid August.   You can see the broccoli, peas, lettuce, and spinach too.  These were pretty much unaffected.  

dead okra and pumpkin vines, but brussell sprouts unaffected.

So fall growing season has pretty much come to an early close.  Its been in the 30's and 40's for highs this week, and pretty much freezing every night, for the last few days.   The cool weather plants will keep growing, and I have some spinach and lettuce in pots I might transplant as soon as this particular cold snap is over.  Hopefully we'll get some milder weather the next few weeks, and those can grow well.

Were is what remains in the garden:

• cabbage - should take cold down to lower 20s
• broccoli - should take cold down to lower 20s
• lettuce - as long as we don't get too much below freezing they'll do OK, otherwise I need to cover them.
• snap peas - just hoping we don't get lower 20s anytime soon. If its in the upper 20s and above these do fine.
• spinach - going good, they can take a lot of cold, so I expect these do to well 
• brussels sprouts - from early spring... survived the summer but not sure if it will ever give us any sprouts?

 But much of the rest of the garden I started clearing out,and bringing in the chickens to work the area.

Area where I had cherry tomatoes, basil, and pumpkin vines growing... being cleared out.