It's a jungle out there!

Dan and I spent all day outside today. I already had a bit of a sinus headache, and ended up having to lay down with a wet towel on my face and neck because I overheated a bit after all the work I did - that didn't help the headache. Dan fixed the springs on the boat trailer and I did some yard work. I transplanted the creeping phlox into pots and put it on the front porch. I weeded and remulched the palm tree, and then I edged the entire front yard. Here's a photo of the day's work:

Dan working hard!

Our garden has turned into a jungle!

After the infestation, the beans are coming back strong. I pulled off all the infested leaves and as you can see the plants are recovering.

The eggplant is already as big as it was at the end of the season last year. We've eaten a bunch off this plant. You can see the ginormous zucchini in the foreground. It just keeps on growing! It has powdery mildew right now, and in my search of organic remedies, I came across an article that recommended using a milk and water mixture on the leaves. You dilute the (skim) milk 9:1 (9 parts water to 1 part milk), put it in a spray bottle and spray away! I am excited to check tomorrow and see if there is an improvement. The cucumber isn't looking too great, but it's still putting out fruit, so I'm going with it until it gives up. I haven't seen any cucumber beetles this week, and I haven't been able to find any larvae, either. I am going to have to think of a way to plant this differently next year.




Yes, I really am this dorky. I am sweaty, red-faced and gross in the pictures from today, but it was the end of the day, and I really wanted to get into the photo to give you a reference of size. These tomatoes are pretty big! This is the husky cherry tomato.

Check out how big it was when I planted it!

I actually got my first red tomato off of this plant! Doesn't it look scrumptious? Well, before you get too jealous, see the next photo...




That's right! Someone got to it before I did! I can't express how MAD I was. This meant WAR. I immediately started hunting down the culprit. It only took me a little while to find holes in several leaves of the plant, and a trail of poop! But it took me much longer to find the perpetrator, who was snoozing in a rolled-up leaf. That little bastard.

And here he is. I am pretty sure he's a cutworm of some sort. I am really thankful though that he left the plant standing and just took a tomato. Right after this photo I squished him. I felt bad, but I can't be sharing tomatoes with bugs.

Me again, this time with the peppers. In front of me are the bell pepper and jalapeno. Next to me, the pimientos, and next to them the cayennes. I can't believe these runts have gotten so tall.



The bell pepper (in front here) has about 10 peppers on it. Wow, can you say stir-fry?





Here I am modeling with the roma tomato plant. If you look at the lower middle part of the plant you can see the green tomatoes!

A few more views of the jungle - bring your safari hat!

Can you believe it looked like this two months ago? Looks like there is plenty of room for everything, but now I'm thinking I need to expand even more!

And speaking of things that grow fast, the muscadine is finally growing over the top of the arbor! AND I found another volunteer seedling in the front yard - thanks birds who poop off the roof! The seedling is currently sitting in a vase of water, I am thinking about where I want to plant it.

We have been having garden veggies almost every night. Here's just a sample of what we're having: eggplant, squash, zucchini, beans, jalapeno, cilantro and basil. Tonight I made zucchini/chicken casserole from a recipe that I made up on my own. It was delicious!

My goal for next week: EAT A HOME-GROWN TOMATO! If I fail at accomplishing this goal, there will probably be some more cutworms swimming with the fishes. That's right pests, be warned!