I hate my garden now, I am so tired of those EVIL potato beetles.
But I’ll try to ignore that for now.... the rest of it is doing well. I have some tomatoes and peppers that I’ve been postponing transplanting until the potato beetles are gone but they have been thriving in Seven, some other powder the farm supply place sold us, and now a neonicotinoid that was our last chance. The potato plants are about gone...
Cilantro is producing coriander now, but the romaine, butter lettuce, and spinach hasn’t bolted yet.
Speaking of which, how did a salad of lettuce, tomatoes, and cucumbers become the norm? By the time I have tomatoes and cucumbers, my lettuces are hopelessly bolted.
I have often wondered the same thing! My solution has been on occasion to grow indeterminate cherry tomatoes, lettuce, and spinach indoors during the winter and hottest months.
I have also had success growing spinach and lettuce during the heat of summer in a raised bed or containers that are shaded during the hottest period of the day.
Just buy your lettuce from the farmer’s market. It takes up way too much space unless you’re Tubebender, anyway, and insects hone in on it first.
Pole beans - Kentucky Wonder - going nuts. Bush Contender bean flushed, harvested, waiting for new flush.
I think I might have mentioned I made the mistake of accidentally planting African marigolds among the tomatoes. They’re as tall and half as wide as the tomatoes. The blooms are so huge and cheery, I can’t just snip them dead. Their roots exude chemicals that kill nematodes.
Recommend SugarCube personal cantaloupe (muskmelon, actually). Very enthusiastic, you can loop it back on itself until you have a coil of melon vine.
My neighbor just happened to give me a short, stunted, totally purple tomato plant for me to revive the day Prince died. Named the tomato Prince but now he’s big, green, producing heirloom San Marzano Roma tomatoes 8wks later.
Snipping long, beautiful, elegant Burgundy okra.. eggplant (Whopper) getting marauded by some invisible bug, but can’t spray as it’s next to a tangle of heavily fruiting Muncher cukes. Need ma’ bees. Heirloom yellow and white Patty-pan squash harvest underway. Cherokee Purple tomato re-blooming after the hot spike shut blooming down a month ago.
My mixed radish perimeter is taking all the insect damage: what we hire Trap Crops to do. Surprisingly, I’m still organic.
>>Speaking of which, how did a salad of lettuce, tomatoes, and cucumbers become the norm? By the time I have tomatoes and cucumbers, my lettuces are hopelessly bolted.<<
Kroger’s!