The tomato beds have been cleared out so these are definitely the last of the tomatoes for the year. It's still been in the mid 90's all last week (35 degrees Celsius), so peppers still aren't setting much fruit. It's supposed to cool down now but I'll probably start pulling pepper plants up since it's late in the season for them to be putting on fruit.
It's mid-September and the loofah plants are finally covered in blossoms. Summer Cross is one of the varieties we're growing that's supposed to be day length neutral, even so they didn't start blossoming till August.
I had to pull out all the Brussels sprout and broccoli plants, they were dead or dying and covered in harlequin bugs. Harlequin bugs are kind of pretty compared to squash bugs, but they quickly overwhelmed the two beds and sucked the life out of all the brassica plants. Next year I'll be covering the plants.
Today is set to finish cleaning out the garden and maybe do some direct seeding of turnips, fennel, and radishes and then I'll start a few seeds for greens.
I hope everyone in the northern hemisphere is starting to enjoy the cooler weather and the coming of fall. Please join us at Harvest Monday where gardeners come together to share the joys and trials of gardening.
12 comments:
Before I read your blog posts I did not know loofahs were edible!
That Cambodian Green Giant sounds interesting. I've never met a seedless eggplant! We've had a long string of 90 degree weather too and supposedly cooler weather is coming. I also had a lot of harlequin bugs this year. They are pretty, but not very nice to Brassicas.
That's too bad about the Harlequin bugs but that's the way they did my plants a couple of years ago. I have not seen any this year, and I am thankful for that. They just seem to suck the life out of the plants. I got some radish seeds sown today too, though I have turnips up already.
Hi Eight Gate,
Angled loofah is deliciously scrumptious. Sautéed up with garlic and olive oil, yum.
Hi Julie,
During good years the plants are ginormous and so are the eggplants they grow! I'd never seen harlequin bugs before and thought they were a mutated squash bug. So funny.
It's been way too hot this year, I'm actually looking forward to autumn and winter.
Hi Dave,
It's amazing how fast they overwhelm the plants and kill them off. I'm going to try to be more diligent about keeping plants covered next year.
What a shame about your brassicas. We don't have harlequin bugs, but we do have cabbage white butterflies (Urgh!) so always cover our cabbages etc of the leaves become lacework very quickly!
I admire you growing in those temperatures. The highest here (UK) is the occasional low 30C)for perhaps a day or two
Kathy
We complain about the pests we get but you seem to have it much worse.
Oh, it's too bad about the tomatoes and peppers. I'm starting to clear out some of the beds as well. I actually quite enjoy it as all of those disease/pest ridden plants are taken out and the bed looks so clean and pristine...ready for a fresh start next year.
And we are DEFINITLY enjoying the cool down we've been having over the past week. But with nighty lows dipping below 10C/50F, I don't think our peppers are very impressed :)
Hi Kathy,
Sorry it took so long to reply, we had company come in for a visit. A lot of people don't garden here even though it's a tomato paradise because it gets so hot and muggy. Cabbage white fly definitely does quick work of brassica leaves, I've tried using B. thuringiensis for them but it might be temperature sensitive.
Hi Sue,
You are really good about keeping your plants covered, especially the ones more troubled by critters. I've gotten lazy about using floating row covers or garden fleece, even though the best year we ever had involved the use of them.
Hi Margaret,
Oh wow, it's gotten a lot cooler in your neck of the woods. It sounds like you're not putting in a large fall garden this year. We've had one thing after another happen, so I haven't even started planting yet.
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