Thunderstorms and Spiders

Today within 2 hours we received over 2 inches of rain and we're expecting even more rain. I'm hoping this translates to greener leaves and better tomatoes in the garden. In the last couple of days there has been an increase in the variety of insects in the garden. Some red mites on the Brandywine tomato leaves one day was followed by the appearance of cobwebs and spiders the next. I'm thinking the straw provides a good home for predator (beneficial) insects. The swallowtail caterpillar is missing from his favorite dill plant and to my relief he is not on the adjacent collard greens; I didn't want to have to touch him, it's kinda gross.

Harvested today: Salad Bowl Lettuce, Baby Butterhead Lettuce, 2 Kohlrabi bulbs (which are now pickling in the fridge) and enough Kohlrabi leaves and Collard Green leaves for omelets.

Flea Beetles and a Swallowtail Caterpillar

In the garden this week, I came across two types of bad insects. One is the swallowtail caterpillar that will one day become a butterfly so I left him alone to eat this dill plant. The other is a horde of black flea beetles that poked a bunch of holes in all of my eggplants (five). I'm not really sure what to do at this point; I've used diatomaceous earth & neem oil spray. Maybe the eggplants are way too damaged. I tried plucking the bugs off today and am applying neem oil to the surrounding plants (sweet potato in particular). Hoping at least one of my eggplants survives.

Today I planted a Best Boy Tomato and a Beefsteak tomato in containers using layers of straw and gravel for drainage at the bottom. The soil is a mix of compost and perlite. I used the Neptune Fish Emulsion to feed my plants today (maybe the nasturtium leaves were turning yellow from not giving them enough nitrogen).

Swallowtail Caterpillar on a Dill plant

Flea Beetles and/or Aphids have been eating my eggplant seedlings.

Best Boy & Beefsteak tomatoes are planted in pots with straw, compost, perlite and gravel.

Garden Pics

Kohlrabi are about 2 to 3 inches wide now

Roma Tomato has leaves that I think are being eaten by insects

I think this is fennel (front) and in the back a zucchini decided to start growing finally

Swiss Chard (red version in front and yellow in back)

Collard Greens were being eaten but now seem to be recovering.

Chamomile seedling starting out. I have three growing currently.

Salad Bowl Lettuce (left) Butterhead Lettuce (center) and Broccoli Raab (right)

Cucumber plant at the base of the teepee

A cilantro plant that began from seed and behind it is a shallot plant

The sad looking plant in the back is a sweet potato and the plants in the front right are eggplants.

Danielle's Jalapeno plant growing happy new leaves

The New Mexico Chile plant is doing fine

Nasturtium plants are growing. I have about five of them.

Bay (left) and Lemon Verbena (right)

 The weather has been nice and we're expecting beautiful weather all this week (highs in the 70s and 80s).

Rain & growing garden

Weather reports have been promising rain for many days now; finally, the weather delivered us some rain last night. The picture shows my giant measuring cup (which I use for gardening and garage stuff) full of rain water that fell overnight; four cups.

Overnight rain water from the storm

The garden is growing. Everyday I visit, it seems like something new is popping up: sage, thai basil, regular basil, chamomile, American Flag leeks, parsley, zucchini and of course weeds (mint, grasses, corn speedwell). Marigolds have yet to make an appearance. I wish the scallions were growing more vigorously. The cilantro seems to have grown more aggressively after these last humid hot days and acidifying the soil nearby. Nasturtiums, shallots and spinach seem to be growing better now. Danielle's Jalapeno plant is growing new leaves (it's gotten over the transplant shock). My other transplants (eggplant, peppers, tomatoes, calendula) haven't grown or look sickly.

The Porto Rico Sweet Potatoes came by mail and are now sitting in some water rehydrating. I plan to plant two this afternoon in the empty spaces above and below the eggplants.

Planted more seeds: Lettuce, Parsley, Marigold, Spinach & Calendula. Planted two sweet potatoes.

Broccoli Raab harvested

The high today was 87F. The Broccoli Raab is supposed to grow in cooler temperatures than what it has been recently. It seems like we skipped spring and went straight from winter to summer. The Broccoli Raab unfortunately sent up shoots when it was only 2 inches tall and very thin. Next time I'll have to plant it way earlier or grow it over winter. The top little rounded pieces are the shoots and you have to catch them before they flower (My Vegetable Gardener's Bible book says you have 24 hours after they send up shoots). I'll try planting them again in the fall (hoping for better results then).

Also in the picture you can see little holes in the leaves of the Broccoli Raab. These holes are appearing everywhere: my pepper plants, tomato leaves, collard greens and kohlrabi. I sprinkled some diatomaceous earth over the weekend over the trouble areas. I have heard from other gardeners that this could be slugs and things I read online seem to confirm it too.

I am looking forward to harvesting the Kholrabi soon so I can plant some more tomatoes.

Radishes and Lettuce are ready

I have been digging around the radishes and noticed these two were ready. The lettuces that grew from the previous people who had the garden were spaced way too close together so we are going to eat some of the trimmings in a salad with store-bought Basil. I really really hope the basil we planted will turn out.

Butterhead Lettuce (left) Pink Beauty Radishes (center) and Salad Bowl Lettuce (right)

Yesterday I acquired a Southern Night Heirloom tomato and a Best Boy Determinate tomato from a fellow gardener in exchange for one of the Anaheim peppers I had grown. I still don't know where to plant these. I am tempted to plant them in containers in the garden.

Tomatoes are finally planted

Yesterday and today I planted tomatoes, eggplants, peppers and cucumbers. Efrain and I enjoyed our first radish yesterday.

I planted Bell Peppers next to the Collard Greens. The pepper seedlings were outgrowing their plastic egg containers. I had planted their seeds March 11. I had two extra for the seedling exchange tomorrow.

Cucumber (planted seed April 7 & late April) and bell peppers planted near the cucumber teepee

Honey Yellow tomatoes, Brandywine tomatoes with Anaheim and Jalapeno pepper. To the planting hole for tomatoes and cucumbers I added about a tbsp of Gypsum which adds Calcium but should not alter PH. My measurements for PH are everywhere at this point. Originally I measured a neutral 7. Now, I get some 6.5 then I get a 5.5 and once a 5. I must be hitting chunks of things when I take the test. At this point I'm leaving it alone and let the worms work it out.

Eggplants planted after application of an Espoma Soil Acidifier.The PH readings here range between 5.8 and 7 after the application. I hope the PH will resolve itself in time for when the sweet potatoes arrive.

I decided to give up some of my swiss chard and collard green space to plant more chile and bell peppers.

PH READINGS - ROW1(Eggplants & Sweet Potatoes): 5.8 thru 7 ROW2(Tomatoes & Cucumbers): 5 thru 7 ROW3 (Zuchini & Roma): 6.5 thru 7 ROW4(Collard Greens & Herbs): 6.5 thru 7

Trellises & Hot Peppers

Yesterday and today were pretty warm days between 65 and 75F. I planted hot peppers in the garden and put up two trellises. One for the honey and brandywine tomatoes and the other for my cucumbers. I took pictures of the various veggies growing in my garden.
Link to newest plant:
Barkers New Mexican Chile (Bonnie Plants/Lowes)

Here is the newest member of my collection. A New Mexican hot chile. Bonnie Plants promises a spicy pepper.

Trellises at center of photo with my new Barnes and Noble bag.

Tomato trellis (left) & Cucumber trellis (right). The tomatoe trellis uses some untreated stakes from Lowe's vertically and the two horizontal pieces are 1" thick hollow bamboo. The one on right is assembled with branches that have fallen off the trees from our rental home and some untreated short stakes from Lowe's.

This is the Jalapeno plant Danielle gave to me. He is tied to the tomato trellis with Jute rope for the moment.

We think it's a strawberry plant. I chopped it's flowers off today so it can focus on growing roots and hopefully fruit later in the year.

Spinach

Baby Butterhead Lettuce

Baby Butterhead Lettuce

We think it's Salad Bowl Lettuce

Broccoli Raab

Collard Greens (they are tiny; the picture is deceiving)

Kohlrabi is growing pretty well.

Mostly Radishes with some Carrots sprinkled here and there

I fed my plants fish emulsion (Espoma) yesterday.