vegetable garden produce

by

Cucumber Death Retraction

In my last post, I accused or I like to think, simply stated that my husband was the reason behind the death of two of my cucumber plants. I thought the vertical way he trained the plants made them weak and unsturdy. It turns out I was incorrect.

Cucumber wilt

Cucumber wilt

I came across something called bacterial cucumber wilt last week. It’s caused by a striped cucumber beetle who likes to feed on the leaves. The bug spreads bacteria on the plant which damages the leaves, causing the plant to wilt.

Ironically, once the plant is infected, beetles become even more attracted to the plant and feed even more, resulting in a death spiral.

So my husband, more than happy to point out when I’ve been wrong, wanted me to make a public retraction that he was not the cause of the dying cucumber plants. Even though I can tease him for many things such as his love of Jean-Claude Van Dam and Steven Seagal movies, killing my plants is not one of them.

 

 

 

 

by

Veggie Garden All-Stars and Poor Performers

I can’t believe it’s nearly been three months since I prepped the garden and planted strawberries and vegetables for the summer. Since it’s about halfway through the growing season; I thought I would pause and reflect on successes and non-successes, like Major League Baseball does with its mid-season All-Star Break. Much like MLB teams at the halfway point, there are clear winners and losers.

IMG_1293All-Star Performers

The tomatoes are the clear winners at this point in the growing season. I purchased four plants and all have produced nicely. I’ve enjoyed the flavorful tomatoes in sandwiches and salads. There are many more unripened tomatoes on the plants so they should keep producing into the fall.

Haven’t Reached Full Potential

IMG_1289Just like my Cubs team, the cucumbers took a little longer than expected to come in, are in various stages of growth and doing well. The cucumbers will be used in cuc and tom salads, perfect for summer

Peaked Early

The lettuce came in as planned. I pulled the leaves off four plants and they were delicious. Since then, the leaves have been slow to grow back and it’s been a waiting game for more.

I was excited when the strawberries first sprouted. Due to battles with slugs, I lost quite a few but I picked the equivalent of a couple handfuls. In the last couple of weeks, nothing has come off the vines.

Poor Performers

The peppers and carrots in this category are because they didn’t bother to show. Not in the athlete didn’t even make a decent effort, but in the literally never showed up sense. I’m not sure what happened, but I never saw a hint of the carrots and peppers I was looking forward to.

I’ve got some things to work on, so we’ll see how the rest of the summer goes.