A Weekly Gardening Diary
June 24
A very hot but breezy day in the garden today; sunny, and temperatures remained in the mid to upper eighties and lower nineties. Once again, the rain gauge was dry. Today we harvested 316 pounds of produce consisting of onions, yellow squash, zucchini, potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, corn, and cucumbers. We planted another row of zucchini squash where we removed old zucchini plants that were no longer producing. We completed our harvest of onions and potatoes today and it was a great year for both crops. We harvested a total of 767 pounds of onions, almost doubling last year’s total and we harvested 1102 pounds of potatoes, about 150 pounds more than last year. We transplanted some of our okra plants that needed more space between the plants. We had great success transplanting okra plants last year, but it was earlier in the year and temperatures weren’t hovering in the 100’s. More to follow next week.
June 17
A very hot and humid day in the garden today; sunny, and temperatures remained in the mid to upper eighties and lower nineties; and humidity was equally as high. Today we harvested 273 pounds of produce consisting of onions, yellow squash, zucchini, potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, corn and tatume squash. The rain gauge had about 1/8 of inch of rain from the storms that passed through Friday evening. The various ornamental beds were blooming and attracting butterflies and other pollinators. Many of the annual flowers, such as the cosmos and zinnia received a good deadheading to help encourage new flower growth. For more information on the selection, planting and care of annual flowers, check out this helpful reference. We planted another row of yellow squash where the potatoes were grown since the harvest was completed today on that row. Supplemental water was added to many of the raised beds to combat the high temperatures. We also hosted our first garden “open house” and 16 visitors braved the heat to join us. There were lots of questions and answers and we made some new gardening friends.
June 10
A very warm day in the garden today; sunny, and temperatures remained in the mid to upper eighties. Today we harvested 329 pounds of produce consisting of onions, yellow squash, zucchini, potatoes, tomatoes, and tatume squash. The rain gauge was dry this week. The powdery mildew that was treated last week with potassium bicarbonate and a non-detergent soap mixture worked very well. Additional treatments will continue with other rows of squash in the coming weeks. The cosmos flowers and Vitex bush continue to bloom and add much color to the garden. The Gregg’s mist flower is blooming nicely and attracting a kaleidoscope of queen butterflies. The three sister’s garden; corn, squash, and green pole beans is growing nicely. The corn is starting to form silk (female) and the male tassels are dropping pollen; and the green beans are producing blossoms and traveling up the corn stalks. The Genista caterpillars have found here way to our mountain laurel and signs of minor defoliation are beginning to
emerge. The easiest way to remove the caterpillars is to put on a pair of leather gloves and just squeeze the branches in your hands dislodging the caterpillars and breaking the caterpillar netting apart. Sprays of bacillus thuringiensis and neem work, but only when the caterpillars are small and more vulnerable. A pyrethroid based insecticide will kill the larger caterpillars, but it always difficult to control sprays, so you never know what beneficial insect you might be killing. Just remember, the foliage will grow back, rarely is their damage permanent.
June 3
A warm and pleasant day in the garden today; sunny, and temperatures remained in the upper seventies and lower eighties. Today we harvested 528 pounds of produce consisting of onions, yellow squash, zucchini, potatoes, garlic, tomatoes, and tatume squash. According to our rain gauge at the garden we received no rain for the week, hopefully next week is more promising. We continued to find caches of squash bug eggs on both our yellow squash and zucchini, and they were immediately disposed of. Our okra continues to emerge and grow and continues to set more and more leaves. The powdery mildew was treated with potassium bicarbonate and a non-detergent soap mixture. This combination is a contact spray, so it should control the powdery mildew immediately. If temperatures continue to hover around 90 degrees and above, we will switch to using a milk and soap mixture, since that combination won’t burn the leaves. The potatoes we dug today had evidence of lenticels, a raised white bump on the surface, due to excessive moisture. This condition does not harm the potato or degrade the taste, just looks bad. The cosmos flowers and vitex bush are in full bloom and add much color to the garden.
May 27
A very humid day in the garden today; slightly overcast with the temperatures hovering in the upper seventies. Today we harvested 423 pounds of produce consisting of onions, yellow squash, zucchini, potatoes, garlic, and tatume squash. According to our rain gauge at the garden we received just over an inch of rain earlier in the week. We found several caches of squash vine borer eggs on both our yellow squash and zucchini. We dispatched several squash vine borer moths, squash bugs, stink bugs, and spotted cucumber beetles throughout the garden. Our okra continues to emerge in the interplanted onion rows, and we saw several plants with their first set of true leaves. The rain and humid conditions are great for the garden, but it is also causing powdery mildew to attack our zucchini plants. For now, we are pulling infected leaves, but will probably treat the foliage with potassium bicarbonate mixed with a non-detergent soap next week. Wettable sulfur is also a great option and provides fast and effective results. The chemical chlorothalonil, sold by several brand names, is very effective at controlling powdery mildew as well. Neem oil is also an option, but results are minimal and if temperature heat up, neem oil can degrade leaf structure.
May 20
A beautiful day to work in the garden today; overcast with the temperatures hovering in the mid-seventies all morning. Today we harvested 404 pounds of produce consisting of onions, yellow squash, zucchini, potatoes, and tatume squash. This was our first harvest of potatoes for the season and today we harvested Kennebec potatoes, a firm white potato good for cooking using a variety of methods. We needed to get them harvested, since they were competing for space with our tomatoes. According to our rain gauge at the garden we received .25 inches of rain late last night. We conducted another thorough inspection of all the squash plant leaves for squash vine borer eggs and fortunately we did not find any eggs again today. We continued to harvest onions in a specific order again concentrating on one row, so we could interplant another row of okra. Last week’s planted okra is just beginning to emerge from the soil with their first set of seed leaves or cotyledon.
May 13
Today we harvested 263 pounds of produce consisting of onions, yellow squash, zucchini, and tatume squash. The morning was damp from the rain during the night and luckily the rain held off this morning so we could complete our harvest and basic maintenance. According to our rain gauge at the gardens we received 1.25 inches of rain, once again, very appreciative of the rain. Our cucumber and spaghetti squash seeds planted last week have started to emerge and it looks like we have great germination rates for both crops. We conducted another thorough inspection of all the squash plant leaves for squash vine borer eggs and fortunately did not find any eggs today. Today we harvested onions in a specific order and concentrated on one row. We harvested onions at approximately one-foot intervals so we could interplant okra within the row. We will continue to harvest the surrounding onions as the okra seeds begin to germinate. The vitex bush adjacent to the shed is blooming nicely and will begin to attract butterflies and hummingbirds once the weather clears. The plants damaged by the hail several weeks ago continue to recover and should be fully recovered by the end of next week.
May 5
Today we harvested 144 pounds of produce consisting of onions, yellow squash, zucchini, beets, swiss chard, and tatume squash. The morning was windy, but as the morning progressed the wind was replaced by humidity making for a sticky morning. According to our rain gauge at the gardens we received 1.75 inches of rain, so we feel very fortunate for the rain received, since many neighboring locales missed out entirely. We replanted our beet and swiss chard raised bed and carrot raised bed with Ashley Long Cucumbers today; and replanted our cabbage row with spaghetti squash. All the newly replanted areas were amended with fresh compost and the compost was thoroughly worked into the ground using a flat-tine fork. After a thorough inspection of all the squash plant leaves, we only found one cache of squash vine borer eggs on the underside of one yellow squash plant. We noticed significant improvement to our pear tree leaves this week, so the granular iron supplement seems to be working. Unfortunately, the winds were still too strong to apply the water-soluble iron supplement directly on the leaves, so we will wait another week. The plants damaged by the hail the week before last appear to be recovering nicely and should be fully recovered in another week, maybe two.
April 29
A windy, but warm day at the garden; it started windy and continued to be windy all morning long, but the sun was out and the temperatures were mild. Today we harvested 159.7 82 pounds of produce consisting of cabbage, carrots, beets, onions, yellow squash, and turnips. We completed our spring harvest of carrots, turnips, and cabbage and will not plant those vegetables until fall once the weather cools after the summer heat. The squash vine borer (SVB) moths were busy this past week because we found several caches of eggs on the underside of our tatume squash. We noticed several of our pear trees had yellow leaves and upon closer inspection the leaves were yellow, but the leaf veins were green, indicating the trees were suffering an iron deficiency, commonly called iron chlorosis. We treated the tree with a granular iron supplement along the outer tree root line. If the winds subside next week, we will spray the trees with a water-soluble iron supplement for direct leave contact. Unfortunately, the hailstorms on Friday evening caused considerable damage to many of the crops in the garden; squash and tomato leaves were torn and tattered, and the corn plants took a severe beating as well. We did a lot of trimming to remove broken and damaged stems and shoots with the hope of stimulating new growth.
April 22
A beautiful day in the garden today; it started off mild and continued to warm up as the morning progressed. Today we harvested 82 pounds of produce consisting of cabbage, carrots, beets, onions, and turnips. The Harlequin bugs found our turnips and were snacking on the greens relentlessly. We hand-picked several hundred to reduce their numbers hoping to control the infestation. The squash vine borer (SVB) moths continue to hover over the potatoes, but luckily, a thorough inspection of all our squash leaves didn’t produce any evidence of eggs, at least yet. Aphids continue to enjoy our Brussel sprouts, so we continued our counterattack with neem oil. We thinned our Henry Duelberg salvia (a Texas Superstar plant) in the monarch waystation again, attempting to make room for the milkweed and lantana to spread and grow. The Cherry Sage continues to bloom attracting pipevine swallowtails and red admiral butterflies. The Gregg’s mistflower is forming heads, so it should be in bloom sometime next week, depending on the weather.
April 15
A beautiful day in the garden today; it started off pleasantly and warmed up progressively as the morning wore on. Today we harvested 205 pounds of produce consisting of cabbage, carrots, swiss chard, onions, and turnips. The row of yellow squash planted last week is beginning to emerge from the ground with its first set of seed leaves or cotyledons. We found several species of bugs today; striped potato beetles were enjoying themselves on the potato plants and we manually picked them off. Typically, potato beetles don’t impede potato crop yield significantly if the foliage loss is less than 15%. We also found two squash vine borer (SVB) moths hovering over the potatoes and both were disposed of quickly. Our zucchini and yellow squash have leafed out nicely, so next week we will conduct a thorough inspection for SVB eggs. We also found chrysanthemum lace bugs on our fall asters, and they were treated with neem oil. Additionally, many aphids were disposed of that infested the lower leaves of the remaining cabbage plants. Hopefully we can keep the aphids in check until we complete the cabbage harvest. The cherry Greggii and Henry Duelberg salvia continues to bloom and attract butterflies, bees, and hummingbirds.
April 8
The morning started off cool and damp, but warmed up nicely once we started moving. We only received one inch of rain at the gardens over the last few days, but one inch is better than nothing. Today we harvested seventy-five pounds of produce and it consisted of cabbage, carrots, and turnips. We also planted our final row in the garden, and it was another row of bush style yellow squash. Weeding continued to be a priority in both the vegetable garden and flower beds and with the recent rains, weeding will continue to be a priority. The green cabbage was treated with Bt for the cabbage loopers and also treated with neem oil for the aphids. The cherry Greggii salvia continues to bloom and was visited by hummingbirds for most of the morning. The Henry Duelberg salvia continues to flourish in the monarch waystation and the green milkweed (asclepias virdiflora) is filling in nicely, as well. A water faucet was added to the herb bed which will be a welcome addition in the coming summer months.
April 1
A beautiful day at the gardens. The highlight of the day was completing the planting of tomatoes which were all started from seed in December. The tomato varieties planted were Celebrity and Primo Red (both determinate, early pick varieties) and Estiva, Verona, and Sweet 100 (all indeterminate varieties). Bell style peppers California Wonder and Red Knight were also planted. Both the peppers and tomatoes were fertilized using a 13-13-13 fertilizer as recommended by Texas A&M AgriLife Easy Gardening Tomatoes and Easy Gardening Peppers publications. Some carrots and turnips were harvested. All the radishes were harvest to prepare the way for summer vegetables. Weeding continued to be a priority in both the vegetable garden and flower beds. The Henry Duelberg salvia is beginning to show its blue flowers and already attracting hummingbirds and butterflies. The green milkweed (asclepias viridiflora) was sprouting nicely in the Monarch Waystation bed, however, there were no signs of monarch eggs. The Cherry Salvia greggii was in full bloom in an adjacent perennial bed and had the attention of many bees.
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