This has been, to state the obvious, a highly unusual year in my garden. According to my previous posts--which is the only way I ever remember anything anymore--this is the time of year I would have quantities of tomatoes, green beans, and calabacitas.
However, thanks to the hail, grasshoppers and other insects, excess rain, and then drought, all of those are quite a bit behind.
I have a couple of green bean plants that are producing a few green beans, but not enough for a side dish.
The remaining tomato plants actually have a lot of flowers on them right now:
Floral arrangement.
And even quite a few actual tomatoes:
These are Stupice, which are typically my First Tomato.
We had two winter squash plants that survived the storm and cucumber beetles. They have half a dozen little squash on them.
This is the biggest one. It's about the size of a soup bowl.
The calabazas I replanted have a few tiny calabacitas on them, too. This is the biggest one of those:
It's about four inches long.
The random watermelon plants A. put in also have some watermelons of the vines.
Two of which decided to grow right next to each other.
This would all be very appropriate and hopeful if it were the beginning of August. But it's not. It's the middle of September. Our nights are already getting cooler. Our days are getting shorter. We can have a frost anytime in October, and none of these plants are cold hardy in the least.
So will we make it? I'm gonna say, barring a reeeeally long and warm Indian summer this fall . . . probably not.
I will certainly get some calabacitas, but I doubt we'll get a fully mature calabaza to store for winter. That one biggest squash might have time to mature, but I don't think any of the others on the plants will. We've already passed the really hot weather that the watermelons need to grow well.
That leaves the tomatoes. I will get some tomatoes this year. I will probably not get as many as the plants would produce, because I think it will get too cool, if not downright cold, for them to grow quickly and ripen well.
We'll see, though. All I can do is wait, because in this situation, as in so many others in gardening, it's all down to nature.
1 comment:
It's been a rough season here, too, but nothing near the troubles you're encountering. My new mantra, to keep me sane, is "There's always the Farmers' Market." I don't know what your backup is; the market it mine.
And asking for "seconds." I got a whole crate of bruised peaches for free just for asking. I now have a shelf full of canned peaches from that encounter!
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