August Garden Report

I can’t let the tomatoes get too red on the vine or the birds will start pecking at them.
The squirrels, I have decided, are stealing my and my neighbor’s tomatoes because their old food source is gone. There was a huge mulberry tree in the alley, but the people who owned it chopped it down. It was a big producer, and now it is gone and the squirrels need to eat. I have let fruit get ripe on the cherry tomato vine in hopes that the rodents go for the smaller tomatoes and leave the big ones alone.
It has been a rough year for the tomatoes.
The chard is fine. Growing, looking good, tasting good.
The beans are ok too. Unfortunately, I haven’t been much in the mood for beans.
The impatiens that I grew from seed are exploding. They are taken over the hanging basket that holds a dying pansy.
The squash is a loss. I am losing them to squash borers, again. I don’t think I will grew them again.
Although it is hot, there is a salad that is still working for me after all the others have bolted and are inedible, arugula. A handful of arugula, chopped up, throw in some tuna and avocado with a lime garlic dressing, good stuff. When it cools down again, I may use some left over seed to grow more salad.
The edible lawn is so-so. The Greek oregano spreads out nicely and suffered mowing well. I can’t say the same for some thymes. The tarragon did not like foot traffic and died. The mint, the weed that it is, is of course flourishing and wandering into parts it should not. The mini-mint expands but then dies back on its own, so I am not too concern with it getting out of control.

4 thoughts on “August Garden Report”

  1. Sorry to hear about the loss of your squash. Are you using any kind of insecticide? There are some good commercially available “organic” insecticides available these days.

    Glad to read that your oregano is doing well. Did you start it from seed or from a seedling? Mine really got fried and died back during that hot spell of 100 degree days. I don’t know what variety I have.

  2. I’ve recently used Pyrola (I’m not sure how to spell it) that is supposed to be made from chrysanthemums. Maybe I didn’t mix it right.

  3. A lot of people lost their tomatoes to the squirrels and rats. I don’t even bother planting them anymore because of it. Every year I was winding up with stalks and nothing to bear.

  4. I have gotten some tomatoes. But this year has just been a bad year. Last year was so wonderful I was giving tomatoes away left and right. I tried some new things and some things are not working out. Like next year, I may have to rotate the tomato crop. I have a lot of flowers on one in the ground and maybe they will actually give me some fruit.
    I wish the squirrels liked beans, ’cause they are too many.

    Oh and Katherine, I bought oregano plants.

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