Caterpillars & Changes In The Garden

A lot has happened in the garden – some good, some bad of course. Still lots of tasks to do, especially to prepare for Fall and Winter. I’m excited though! I’m so ready for this heat to be over with, and I think the plants are too.

It’s actually been in the 80’s this week, with lows of high 60’s – which has been amazing! The rain is suppose to be gone until the end of the week too, so maybe we’ll have time to finally get some things done outside.

Harvested Delights

I picked our very first cucumber and peppers! Along with a shirt full of Gobstopper Cherry Tomatoes (and a couple Bumblebee Cherry Tomatoes).

The few peppers I picked are Pumpkin Spice Jalapeno and Mild Jalapenos. Although, I think the two green ones I picked were actually Pumpkin Spice because the peppers on the plant I picked them from are turning orange now 😅

I also harvested some leaves from our Dwarf Blue Curled Kale, which has grown back pretty fast from the last cutting. This variety has done amazing for us, and I plan on sowing some more this Fall. The cherry tomatoes were turned into a roasted side for dinner with some olive oil, salt and pepper.

The Gobstopper Tomatoes have a tangy, almost sour taste to them (citrus-y). They’re good though, and seemed more meaty than the Large Red Cherry Tomatoes I’ve grown and eaten in the past.

Caterpillars Are Taking Over

Unfortunately, we have A LOT of caterpillars taking over the garden right now. I dealt with a few Hornworms at the beginning of the season, then it switched to smaller brown ones (Tomato Moths I believe). Now, Hornworms are back, but worse.

The little caterpillars have been eating the tomatoes up like crazy, looks like shotgun blasts. I’d pick them off every morning (when I finally found them, they’ve been so tiny – except one), and they were usually grouped together (about 6 in one spot).

They’ve been munching on the actual tomatoes on the plants as well. Resulting in having to pick them off because they were too far gone. The Hornworms devoured the tops of a lot of our tomato plants overnight.. Not enough to kill the plants, but still did a lot of damage.

Another plant that has been getting butchered is our lovely Dwarf Sunspot Sunflowers. I don’t think they’ll last much longer, but at least we got to enjoy their delightfulness for a while.

Seedlings In The Greenstalk

Everything in our new Leaf 7 Tier Greenstalk Planter is doing good. The hydrophobic soil has officially been fixed! Between the loads of rain we’ve had and adding Fox Farm Grow Big Liquid Fertilizer to it (with a spray bottle), it’s been revived.

Everything seemed to have germinated very well, except maybe one pocket of carrots? I still need to put the other planter together so we can get more root veggies sown and leafy greens.

There’s Little Finger Carrots, Watermelon Radish, French Breakfast Radish, and White Icicle Radishes sown.

Then there’s Royal Burgundy Bush, Golden Wax Bush, and Provider Bush Beans sown. The first two varieties germinated good, the other germinated but some look kinda rough. At the bottom of the planter we have Sugar Daddy Snap Peas.

Peppers!

I’m so excited about our peppers y’all! Our Habanada Sweets are FINALLY turning orange (along with our Pumpkin Spice Jalapenos)!! I didn’t know this until I visited Baker Creek Seed’s page on this variety, that they’re slow to mature.

Although, they’re slow to mature, I’ll still grow them next year. They’ve formed several fruit on each plant, and survived our heat wave.

The Pumpkin Spice Jalapenos survived the heat wave as well, and didn’t even lose their fruit when they looked pitiful. I’m also happy that I have more of these plants than I thought I did lol I only have one or two regular, Mild Jalapenos underneath them.

Our Buena Mutala Hot Peppers are covered in blossoms and baby peppers again, yay! Two others that are forming nicely are the Italian Sunset and Gatherer’s Gold Sweet Peppers.

Pippin’s Golden Honey Sweet Peppers and another variety (Purple Beauty or King of the North Pepper) are doing good.

Propagating Basil

I’ve seen videos of people propagating their basil plants by cutting a stem off and placing it in water. Then roots will form eventually and you have a brand new basil plant.

Not sure how it will go, but we love basil and figured why not give it a try! We only have two Dark Opal Basil plants right now, and would love to have more before the season is over. I did transfer the two into their own pots so I have more space in the Greenstalk planter for Fall sowings.

Tomatoes

Aside from the caterpillar problem, our tomatoes have gotten big. Still not sure if the big varieties are Black Krim, German Green, or Cherokee Purple lol

Raised Row

The first raised row is filled with 4 Golden Zucchini and 2 Prolific Straightneck Squash at the front. We lost our others last month due to the heat wave and vine borers. The two Boston Pickling Cucumber plants have grown like crazy!

Between those are some Cascadia Peas and Blue Shelling Snow Peas. I’ve made another tall t-pee trellis for the BSSP’s. Just have to add twine once they’re taller.

I’m definitely ready for cooler weather, and to see how the Fall garden turns out! I’ve tried to focus on planting varieties with quick sow-to-harvest times. There are some things that just take time though, and that’s fine of course.

🍄 Are you ready for Fall too? What do you plan on planting? 🍄