This month began and ended with a couple of bad events. The first "Worst" of my garden is the death of my potato patch. It pains me so much to write this. For the first few weeks the potatoes seemed to be doing well and growing strong. One afternoon, as we were tending the garden before heading off to my father-in-laws for a couple of nights, we noticed a few brown leaves on some of the plants. When we came back two days later, the entire patch was brown and dead, decimated by some beetle. I was frustrated, angry, sad, and felt bad for my husband who put so much time and effort into building me the box to grow them in. That was not a good way to start the month.
Mortgage Lifter, smacked around and almost knocked out of the pot
Carnival mix bell pepper plant, ripped in half and gone too young
Marglobe tomato stem, cut open and traumatized by the vicious storm
The next "Worst" is courtesy of the violent storm that blew through my area last night. The storm came through hard and fast with heavy rain and wind. When I woke up this morning, a few tomato and pepper plants had been knocked off a table and others were ripped in half. My Mortgage Lifter (top) was blown over, but thankfully, not broken. The pepper and Marglobe tomatoes didn't do as well. The tops were ripped off the pepper plants-- along with a lot of pepper buds!-- and the stem of my Marglobe tomatoes is cracked.
This isn't devastating though. Some people in my neighborhood lost trees, and there are others without power in our county. Thankfully nothing like that happened to us. I'll give up a few vegetable plants if it means no trees fall on us and we keep our electricity on a day that's supposed to get beyond 100 degrees.
As for the "Best" of my garden, there isn't a whole lot going on. Everything seems to be growing slowly, and the squirrels and birds are taking fruit and plant stems. We've managed to harvest some squash--about 2 1/2 pounds so far.
There's also the promise of good things to come. The vegetable plants that survived the storms are flowering, like these bean plants, and I hope July brings a good harvest.
The storm smashed my tomato, too, but I have power and none of our trees went down. Do you think a potato beetle at your plants? If you cut your tomato back, it will sprout more branches from the stem. :o)
ReplyDeleteThanks Tammy! Glad to hear you didn't lose power or trees, it could have been much worse.
Deleteso sorry to read about your worsts, the potato beetle sounds horrid and the storm scary, glad you had no serious damage but it is upsetting when our plants are damaged,
ReplyDeletelast month I saw your post too late to join in so made a note to join this month I hope that is alright but you don't say this month,
love your yummy food, Frances
Thanks, Frances. I did forget to include the linky widget in my haste yesterday, but thanks for linking up. Your garden is beautiful!
Deletei'm so sorry about your potatoes! how awful, all that devastation from a little beetle? and to have it happen that fast...huge bummer. if it makes you feel any better i've been having tons of "worsts" lately due to bugs--earwigs ate literally ALL of my gourd, watermelon and pumpkin seedlings. everything gone.
ReplyDeletethose squash look delicious though!
Agh, that stinks!!! The thought of all that lost watermelon...it's painful!! Hope your other crops are OK.
DeleteSorry about your plants. I had cucumber bugs eating the leaves of my zuchinni and cuke plants. They've blooming, so I hope they will produce. Groundhogs managed to get through a weak area in my fencing, and eat a few of bush bean plants. Hopefully they will recover. We had a storm come through Friday night, and I believe it was the worst lightning and thunder that I've witnessed. Thankfully no damage.
ReplyDeleteoh no! I've never seen groundhogs around here. I'm sorry to heard bout your bush beans. I hope yours recover, and I'm glad to hear that there was no major damage to your home from the storm.
DeleteOh dear you are not having a very good time of it are you? But you remain optimistic that is the main thing. Veg growing brings its own problems every year - but we still stick at it.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Elaine! Yes, I can't give up hope! Every time something goes wrong, I'm rewarded with a bloom or small fruit or something that keeps me going. :)
DeleteSorry to hear you were hit with that awful storm that blew across the Ohio Valley and east....something at all the leaves off of 3 peppers but they are coming back...they are amazing plants in all this heat..sorry to hear about the potatoes...gone so quickly too....good to see some wonderful veggies...i'll be joining in tomorrow!
ReplyDeleteThanks Donna! Yes, the peppers do thrive while the rest of us wilt away. Hope you weren't in the path of the storm.
DeleteSorry for the plants that didn't make it but isn't it funny that through all the destruction you can usually find something to be positive about - and beautiful bean flowers they are too.
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