End of July Garden Update
Here we are almost at the end of July and by some miracle my garden is still plugging right along. It still isn't producing anything yet, but nothing has really died, so that is a win in my book!
As you can see here there are finally a few tomatoes coming in on my Campari planet. There is also handful of other blooms, so I have a bit of faith that I will be enjoying some fresh tomatoes at some point in the near future.
The dahlias are also doing pretty well. I might have underestimated those flowers at first. It seems they are going to be flowering all summer. Hopefully they draw in the bees like I hoped they would.
I've gotta be the only guy in the world who hasn't pulled a single zucchini from his plant more than halfway through the summer. Pretty pathetic if you ask me. As you can see though I do have some flowers deep down there. I have my fingers crossed that I will eventually be able to pull some out of the garden.
I don't know if you can see it from the picture, but my flowers seem to be closed. It makes me wonder how a bee would get in there to pollinate. Is it possible that my plants simply don't want to produce fruit? This is the same issue I had last year and I had to go around and pollinate the flowers myself.
Please let me know if this is normal and I am just worrying too much...
Sadly, it only gets worse from there. You can see a bit of my purple flowers at the top that are still doing well, but this zucchini plant is barely hanging on for dear life. I still feel like maybe I should just pull it and put it out of its misery.
Here is my other tomato plant with more of the purple flowers showing through the leaves. There are no buds or blooms on this one yet, so I am a bit skeptical that I will be able to pull any fruit from it this summer. Perhaps it is just a late bloomer and I will find myself pulling tomatoes out well into October!
This zucchini plant is fairing a bit better than the second one I showed. It still isn't quite as bit as the first one though. I have a good feeling about this one. I think that pretty soon some flowers will start popping out and eventually I will be pulling zucchini from this plant as well.
Finally, there is my second dahlia, my jalapeno peppers and a bunch of weeds. It looks like I need to get in there and cut off some of the old dahlia blooms that are dead and just wasting precious resources that could go to the healthy ones. I also need to do a better job of weeding the beds. Next year I plan on putting landscape fabric down and hopefully that will help keep things cleaner.
The pepper plants are a lost cause at this point and I will likely pull them out when the temperatures get a little cooler. Right now it is just too hot to be doing too much work outside. I think we have a cold snap coming in the next day or two, so I might be able to get out and clean things up.
I know my garden is horribly pathetic and I apologize for that. Next year I will do better, I promise (I feel like I say that every year though).
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All pictures taken by myself or @mrsbozz
I have 4 vegetable pots! It is enough for my needs and I give some to my neighbors! Your garden will give you great produce for sure! Watch the zucchinis!
Yeah, I am going to have to keep an eye on them. I have a feeling once they start going they are going to be nuts!
Hehehe... and if you leave the fruits long enough in the plant, the zucchinis become monsters!!!
My wife likes them smaller so she can slice them up and bake them :)
Good luck with them tomato plants, right now my tomato plants are taking a real beating with this heat that has been slowing down the growth and dropping the flowers. Also, the Zucchini plants look very healthy! I bet you're excited to eat those!
Yes, I used to hate zucchini and tomatoes when I was a kid but they have really started to grow on me now that I am an adult. When I am home I have been watering every night.
Oh, that's pretty interesting. I'm not really a big fan of tomatoes, unless they're mixed in a sauce or in a burger (but it has to be a thin slice. lol). As for Zucchini, I didn't really know what it was until I first tried it at a Hibachi Grill called Kobe's Steakhouse. They would serve it with the other vegetables and it's always pretty damn good.
Yes, that is how we typically prepare our zucchini. Sometimes we make bread out of it, but that isn't too common. More often than not we just eat it as a savory side for dinner. I think one of the main reasons I really started to eat more tomatoes is because they are supposed to be good for your prostate. As a man it just seemed like a smart move to add them into my diet.
I have similar problems with my zucchini. Even if I hand pollinate, a hot day and they all stop growing and fall off. Are you in a hot, dry climate? I can never figure these things out. Your plants look good as well, so I wonder why they aren't producing much.
It reminds me of these shared in our gardening group:
Haha, yeah, that about sums it up right there! That is too funny! It has been a bit dry this year. More than usual I guess. I try to do a good job of getting out and watering them though.
You're not the only one who hasn't picked any zucchini yet this year. My plants have enormous leaves, but only a few tiny zucchini so far. My yellow summer squash are way ahead this year, a couple of those are almost ready to pick.
I've never had much luck with tomato plants in 5 gallon buckets. All of my tomato plants in containers are in 15 gallon nursery pots. They need a lot of root space to do well in dirt. 5 gallon pots work fine for hydroponics, but not so well for dirt.
I actually have the bottom cut out of the buckets so they can reach down into the main soil of the garden bed. I just put them in buckets so I don't have to bend over as far plus I figured it gives the roots another two feet to grow or so. My biggest issue is I stared from seeds in late May which is honestly quite a bit too late. I have a feeling if I had started the seeds inside earlier and transplanted the plants I would be up to my eyeballs in tomatoes by now. I hope both of our zucchini comes around eventually!
I didn't realize the buckets were bottomless, that's actually a pretty good idea!