It looks like it’s been about three weeks since my last gardening post. I suppose that is because I just haven’t been doing anything with the garden. It’s sort of been left to do its own thing. We’ve had a lot of rain so I haven’t really even watered much. As you can imagine, this hands-off gardening plan has not produced positive results.
Before I go through the entire inventory, I’m going to ask again if anyone has ever grown rutabagas. This is my first time, and I planted them in a spot I don’t normally plant so they are the most neglected of my wildly overgrown garden. So it was just the other day that I noticed something has eaten holes in all of the leaves to the point that the leaves are pretty much gone. I can see the tops of some of the actual rutabagas though, so I wonder if they are still going to be alright.
I have two tomato plants in large pots. One is the cheat plant, a hybrid of some sort that was a mature plant when I bought it. This is the first plant I buy every year. It’s a cheat plant because it generally is already flowering or bearing fruit when I buy it, and because the hybrid plants have been cross bred to be a lot harder to kill. It’s like a safety plant. It’s also almost dead. It is essentially two green sticks with leaves at the top, and amazingly a few flowers. So fingers crossed there. In the other pot is some sort of orange pear. It is half dead also but appears to be dying of a different issue than its neighbor. It looks like hasn’t been water ever. Even after it rains it looks super dehydrated. I have never killed a plant in precisely this way before. I have had one ripened fruit and there has been a cluster of green ones for weeks. They don’t seem to be ripening. This plant is in some sort of purgatory where it neither grows nor completely dies. It just is.
I have two, maybe three (I should probably notice them more) that are growning in the grown between my driveway and the shack. The came from the same place as the purgatory tomato. They too, are spindly, fragile things. I believe they now finally have a couple of blooms. I did not that the yellow bottom leaf thing is starting to happen. They are fighting for space in what is essentially a mint garden. When it finally dawned on me that I could be making my own organic green tea with mint and honey rather than paying for the premade kind, I started actually using my mint. It was then I noticed the bottom leaves of some of the mint are yellow as well. And so it begins.
Something is eating leave leaves of my hot peppers there as well. The peppers planted in pots on my stoop are doing okay. I actually had one fruit that was off to a great start then Banjo was so excited to be walked for the first time since The Great Walk of 1989 that the pepper got tangled in the leash and was plucked. I am not expecting to have an abundance of peppers.
As for the herbs and miscellany, the lettuce thing is going pretty well. I have discovered that my dislike of washing myself or other things definitely extends to lettuce. Also if you like your lettuce crispy you have to wash it, dry it and put it in a container in the fridge for a while before using. Planning is right up there with washing on the list of things I no longer care for. The oregano is the only success story. You have to try really hard to kill oregano. I am not someone who tries really hard to do anything. Fun fact, it is harder to kill curly parsley than flat parsley. I did an experiment to discover that. Cilantro never stood a chance.
That’s pretty much all there is to report. It may appear that the garden is a failure, but that’s not true. You have to try to do something in order to fail. I’ve just been leaving the garden to fend for itself in the world. And the world seems to be winning for now.
Now make me jealous with your gardening stories.
I need all of your green tomatoes! I didn’t plant a garden this year. Happy eating.
In the spirit of horticultural oddities, the love kitten’s catnip plant stash in the porch pots sent seeds against the prevailing westerlies, across the street, over the neighbor’s fence, and germinated nicely in her yard. I removed and planted them in the porch pots and I guess the circle of life begins again. In other news, another neighbor planted hot peppers and the rabbits took out everyone of them. The local raccoon has diarrhea from the superabundance of mulberries this week. Even the squirrels are looking bloated.
This gave me a chuckle. Hehe
Thanks for the laugh also.
I have no story to make you jealous, I’m afraid. My tomato put on quite a bit of fruit, only to get blossom end rot. I think it’s ready for the trash can. My basil also croaked. The other herbs are doing well, but no homegrown cypress salads for me this summer.
**Caprese salad** darn spellcheck
Spell check makes me crazy. For some reason my brother thinks I told him to go duck himself and, as usual, he’s confused. Oh well, he only emails when he needs something, which is about every 3 years so I guess he can go get plucked and everything will go back to normal.
My garden are doing very well right now. I’m involved in a bit of a watering nightmare because we’ve had no rain and none in the forecast but my well is deep and the water is good so I just keep moving sprinklers around the gardens. I found the most amazing thing ever on Amazon. I loved it so much I ordered a 2nd one. It’s a motion detector, sprinkler. This is great fun. I set it up next to my hostas on my patio and waited. Sure enough the goats came around and as soon as they got close enough a huge spray of water came straight at them. It was hysterical. My other one should be coming today and I’m going to put it near the woods at the edge of my garden to deter the rabbits and deer that like to graze on my pepper and tomato plants. If all goes well I’m going to get two more – one for each door to the house for when the grandkids come over. I’m going to have a blast this summer.
I have five tomato plants in containers this year. Four are about 8″ tall and one is about 4″ tall. I started them from seed and then kinda forgot about them so they should be bigger, but now that they’re outside and I’m fertilizing the daylights out of them, they’re coming around.
I have a Black Krim, Sweet 100, Orange Slice, Yellow Pear and maybe a Big Boy or something equally boring. In two smaller pots I have a curly parsley and sweet basil, both from seeds and both tiny.
This is the extent of my garden this year. Keeping two children, husband and dog alive is proving to be challenging enough without throwing fucking plants into the mix.
Do you have aphids in your area? I had them one year when I lived at the beach and they are nasty. But, same thing, they ate tiny little holes in the leaves.
My husband is growing little cucumbers and tomatoes and they are growing like weeds. All in pots. Cause apartment living. He planted them from seeds and I’m wondering if they’re cheat seeds or something. They came in tiny little white plastic pots and sprouted so fast I couldn’t believe it. Maybe you know? He also has a little orange tree that he planted with the seeds straight from an orange. Peeled the seeds, wrapped them in wet paper, all that. It’s doing ok. Nowhere near the others though. Tried the same with lemon seeds but, they kept dying. Anyway, those are our adventures in city gardening.
If you were in the right location, I’d say it sounds like you have a horde of horned or banana slugs taking over your edibles. They only come out at night and when they did this to my potted garden, I had to go out, catch them and toss them over the property line. But I doubt you’ve got slugs, even with all the rain.
After a couple years of battling leaf curl and mildew, I opted for a pressed-paper pot to plant the tomato in this year. Its working great so far, in that the soil dries out well btw waterings and didn’t come with last years fungus attached. But have to watch that it doesn’t dry out.
Trying hybrid strawberries this year. If they fruit, it will be me, in battle with the squirrels.
Pressed paper pots are a great idea. I just learned this year that you’re supposed to wash your pots with bleach water each year to kill and fungus and disease. And that sometimes you even have to change out your soil of diseases are really taking over. As in dig out the first couple of feet of topsoil and replace it with new. Especially if you’re planting things like potatoes, onions, garlic that develop underground.
Unrelated: does anyone watch Gardeners’ World with Monty Don? It’s a BBC show and there are a few seasons up on YouTube. I’m addicted, love it so much and have learned a lot.
Right, I heard that too. And that you can clean your old pots with mouthwash of all things, to rid it of the fungal carryover from last year. And replace soil. But I got a late start and just went for the paper pot. So cheap and compostable. Will have to look up the Monty Don gardening show, love BBC!
Spent the weekend pruning and tying up tomatoes, peppers and eggplants. I have some critters eating my tomatoes so put out some Irish spring. I read somewhere critters hate Irish spring. I will let you all know if it works.
Tamara it sounds like your plants may be getting too much water or aphids. You can pick up ladybugs at pikes. They will eat take care of the nasty aphids.
Ladybugs for aphids?! That’s amazing!
My daughter and her BF have a nice sunny place to grow things- so they have peppers and tomatoes and cucumbers and lots of herbs. She is very excited about the basil as it was one that is a lemon basil that can be used in a margarita mix! Happy to see her becoming a planting lover!
One of my four tomato plants has a fruit, one has a ton of flowers and there there two haven’t done anything spectacular yet. I put them next to the coop that gets full sun so fingers crossed. I also am trying potato’s this year. Anyone try them? They look good but what do I know. I am super stoked that my yellow squash and zucchini’s have fruit. Oh, and I am trying carrots and radishes from seed. I heard they are foolproof ?
Has anyone tried tomatillos before? I’d love to grow some of those. Happy gardening ya’ll
Yes last year I tried tomatillos and the critters got the berries before I could harvest.
Do you do tomato stakes for them then wrap it in deer mesh?
Hi! I did potatoes one year in laundry baskets (line with burlap, plant, mound when they start to grow) and it worked AMAZING! We got so many potatoes, my boys loved dumping the baskets in a wheelbarrow and finding the potatoes! Never done them in the ground though. I’m a container gardener.
Aww, good to hear! I’m super excited about them!
My reply about potatoes didn’t show up where it was supposed to, look a bit further down.
I have the black thumb of death, so I do right by plants by never ever touching them unless I’m eating them. However, I love reading about your garden. It reminds me of learning how to grow things with my father. He always had a garden wherever we lived. So I read your tomato talk pieces with a warm flow of nostalgia lighting me up. My parents have been gone for over a decade now, and it feels almost like a visit from him, reading about your garden. Be well, and thank you for sharing this with us.
That was so sweet!
So I have a fruit fly or gnat problem in my kitchen. I have been trying everything. Finally googled and it appears that they likely come in the back door on Banjo and apparently BREED IN THE DRAIN of the kitchen sink. This explains why once I think I have them all 20 more are back the next day,
So I’ve filled the sink up on both sides with bleachy soapy water to try to flush out any eggs in there. EW. I’ve set a new kind of merlot trap and laid some duct tape sticky side up on the counter.
I am at my wits end with this.
apple cider vinegar, put it around the kitchen, esp in shallow areas like a jar lid. The house smells a little like salad, but they are drawn to it, fall in and die.
A combination of vinegar and baking soda is great for cleaning out drains and fun to watch, too. It’s the stuff that kids use in their science fair volcanoes—it foams up to get the whole drain. It works for minor clogs too.
Tamara, do you live in close proximity to other people? We had this problem for three full years, and I was vigilant about not letting any fruit over-ripen, cleaned the countertops, cabinets, floors, and refrigerator again and again….only to learn that the problem was in the 3rd floor flat, where the slob that lived there never took his garbage out-we’re talking several years of accumulation of garbage in his flat. The people on both sides were infested with the flies, too, all stemming from the guy on the 3rd floor. Steps Were Taken, his garbage was removed….and the flies went away. The problem could well be coming from someone else’s house.
Regarding the mint: all I could think of, is Oh dear God, she’s gone and planted mint in the ground. A neighbor planted mint on her side of the fence, and every couple of years I had to dig up my daylilies and other perennials-every plant- pick as much mint out of the roots as I could, and sift the soul to try to get rid of it. It’s a life’s work, to get rid of mint…..many times I cursed her bitterly. Such a relief to move and leave the third floor slob and the mint infested garden.
Sift the soil. I’m afraid my soul is too black to be cleansed by mere sifting.
/giggles
I am probably the house with the source. LOL. Actually a guy died in the house on one side and was left to fester for quite a while along with the kitchen. On the other side, I have a hoarder and a peeping tom who probably spends more time surveilling me than anything else. He has been telling my yard workers he is dying of one thing or another for years, but so far no luck there.
The merlot traps work okay, but when they manage not to drown and you squat them the ooze merlot that looks like blood on the window. EW. The cider vinegar traps do not work. I have reduced the population by about 90% so far and my housekeeping, at least in the kitchen has gotten A LOT BETTER.
I can be very lax about housekeeping right up to the point that some critters think they can move in. The only critter allowed to do that is Banjo. And he is the asshole that brings them in from the back yard that hasn’t been mowed since last summer. Because NO ONE CAN FIND A YARD MAN THIS YEAR. We are all searching. And partly because it never stops raining.
Conditions in either of those places sure sound ripe for breeding those horrible flies. Seems like you’re doing all the right things; they’d be gone if the problem originated in your house. I was living in the first floor of a 3-flat. The flies were not in just my building, but all 6 flats in the houses on either side, and, like I said, they disappeared when the garbage was removed from the top floor. One of your neighbors has a lot of food waste in his house.
I just do flowers (lots), in a yard that is pure sand (South Carolina), so getting rain every couple of days is perfect. Other than the weeds going crazy.
Well I have always has an open trash can that I take out once a week. Thats not a good idea. For the past several days I have just been using a plastic grocery bag taking out the bag every night and making sure there are no dirty dishes and dry counter tops. This is kind of the opposite of how it has been, so the issue likely lies with my lack of proper cleaning during the crazy. As long as it is not rats (again) I’m cool.
Citronella candles are good for repelling insects. I had been swatting fruit flys for weeks (almost ninja like moves).
As for my tomatoes, I left my neighbour in charge of my tomatoes while I was in Crete for two weeks. My plane landed back in the U.K. today to a text that they have been battered by the wind and rain and some won’t make it :(. All plans for tomorrow are on hold so I can attempt to rescue them. There is no way I’m starting from scratch or buying plants. Last year the bastard slugs got 50% of them, so I’m hell bent on getting tomatoes this year.
Oh I didn’t even think about a citronella candle. That’s a great idea. I just got finished with the nightly scrub down.Today the ants outnumbered the fruit flies. The tinest drop of anything sends the teeny tiny ants in swarms. I have dishpan hands that are starting to permanently smell like bleach.
That sucks about your tomatoes. I usually take a vacay in late June, that is when the tomatoes all ripen and the day liles and other flowers bloom. I’ll be home all month this year, so at I will be here and probably not have tomatoes. sigh.
Three tomato plants in containers this year. Late start, but they are responding to all the rain. We tried something a farmer friend told us – we stuck a raw egg in the dirt beneath each plant.
Now I’m reading that boiling egg shells and using the water from that to water the plants will give them the same boost of calcium – with less stink.
Powered milk also helps.
I keep my eggshells from every egg I crack, rinse the slime out and let dry. Then Ninja them to a powder and use as fertilizer for my tomatoes. Some I put right in the hole, some I mix with water in jugs and some I sprinkle on the top of the soil. It’s supposed to help with blossom rot, something about the calcium? It seems to work.
Sometimes caterpillars are the cause of leaves being eaten and looking like lace. But it could be some other type of insect as well. As someone else posted, ladybugs and other beneficial insects like wasps and beetles will eat the problem bugs. Do you have any flowers to draw in these beneficial insects? But houses are good too. Rotten logs, a pile is sticks, anywhere where bugs can hide and live. I’ve heard that the best way to deal with illness in plants is to have healthy, robust plants that can fight off diseases. Do you use compost or fertilizer for your tomatoes? Tomatoes are hungry plants that take a lot of feed. So are peppers.
Bug houses* autocorrect fail
Anyone had luck with sweet peas from seed (the flower)? The beer just attracts more it seems and now I’m trying coffee grounds that are supposed to repel them? I must have drowned 200 snails in. See but they just keep coming
I plant mine in a raised garden bed. Maybe that’s why I never have issues with bugs? They grew beautifully, I attached some bamboo stakes to the sides and wound twine around for them to climb. I swear, I’ll plant ANYTHING in a container, lol!
Sounds amazeballs, I’m trying it!
I’ve never grown rutabagas. My grandmother did and I’m pretty sure it was a fall crop – it’s better after a frost, like collards. Not sure how it will thrive without leaves, but if the root is that large maybe you’ll luck out.
No plants this year. I want a greenhouse and plan to get one when I move to the sticks. I hope that will magically give me a green thumb. With practice.
I love how many posts you get regarding your garden. Inspires me to maybe have my own garden soon.
Ha, every growing season I post my ridiculous tomato posts. I used to go all TOMATO NAZI and tell everyone they had to have a tomato plant to comment here. It’s not to late to stick a tomato plant in a pot and conform, Heathbutts. 🙂
Remember the dad in My Big Greek Wedding? Spray ants with Windex. It may be just as effective and cheaper to use ammonia mixed with water. But I like Windex, it smells nice. A spritz of Windex here and there smells like you’ve actually cleaned something.
I’m not a cleaning fool, I only play one on Tamaratattles. My ex was a landlord and he had to deal with all kinds of pests-insect, animal and human.
thanks for the tip! the ants make me excited for Big Brother. They always have ants. Plus it is a “green” house will all organic cleaning supplies which do NOTHING to help the ant situation.