The weekly vegetable harvest from our gardens includes:
Tomatoes— 88.77 pounds
Cucumbers— 50.2 pounds
Green Beans—5.72 pounds
Yellow Squash—40.9 pounds
Eggplant—4 pounds
Leeks—4.7 pounds
Sweet Peppers—7.2 pounds
Hot Peppers—2.5 pounds
Beets—0.6 pounds
Carrots—1.3 pounds
These vegetables were donated to the Caring Place this week. A total of 205.89 pounds of produce was harvested this week. To date, the Williamson county master gardeners have donated over 1,241 pounds of demonstration garden produce to local charities!
Measured rainfall: 3.25 inches this week.
Garden activities
The master gardeners limited Tuesday’s work to harvesting as much as possible before the rain arrived. On Friday, the group faced a daunting forest of weeds! Weeds everywhere. Amongst the weed patch, we found a volunteer tomato plant full of ripe fruit. On a positive note, the rains held off on Friday. Irrigation to the pizza garden and keyhole garden was completed. Pre-planting preparation on row 9 was finished, including amending the soil, for sowing southern peas next week. Of course, it wouldn’t be summer without fire ants and they found us before we found them! Our Friday harvest was diverse and plentiful. 
Rain, rain and more rain..
In addition to harvesting a sizable veggie crop, we discovered a feathered visitor near our rain gauge . 
This mourning dove decided to build her nest in between two mailboxes and next to our rain gauge. Mourning doves build their nests from twigs or small branches and lay 1-2 eggs. 
This mom is incubating two eggs and posed for her portrait! In the meantime, we’ve relocated the rain gauge until the eggs hatch and the fledglings leave the nest!
Birds love red ripe tomatoes…and red, hot chili peppers!
This week our gardeners observed large tomato morbidity due to birds sampling our ripe fruit. Birds have a keen sense of smell and somehow know just when they can take a peck or two at our beautiful, on the vine, red tomatoes!
No matter how large or small the fruit, birds have a hankering for ripe tomatoes. Birds will also do the same damage to red hot peppers —the hotter, the better!! Why? Birds lack the receptors for capsaicin, the protein that makes peppers hot. So, it makes no difference to a hungry bird where to feast!
This is a common dilemma for home gardeners: what can I do to prevent bird damage to my tomatoes? There are a variety of options to consider for those who cherish a succulent, fresh summer tomato! To thwart the birds, some folks pick tomatoes just as they begin to turn red and place them in a brown paper bag on the kitchen counter. Then, close the bag with a clip and check the tomato’s ripening progress daily. Ethylene is produced by ripening tomatoes and is contained in the bag. Other gardeners resort to placing a physical barrier such as bird netting or a light-weight row cover over their tomato plants to prevent bird damage. Either way, it’s important not to block the plant’s sunlight with a physical barrier. Aluminum pie pans can be strung together in necklace fashion then attached to a row of tomato stakes. The motion of the plates is thought to deter our feathered friends from attacking the garden. Others dot their garden with plastic snakes, hawk and owl decoys to scare birds away. Be careful not to scare yourself when harvesting those tomatoes!
Come and see us!
Our demonstration garden is located beside the Williamson County Extension Office driveway at 3151 SE Innerloop Road, Georgetown, Texas. Master gardeners are usually at work in the vegetable garden on Tuesday, and Friday mornings from 9:00 to 11:00 weather permitting. Anyone is welcome to stop by to see the garden or to ask questions of the master gardeners.
Click here for location on Google Maps
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