Our garden last year was a disaster. The tomatoes kept getting eaten by squirrels, if they survived to ripen they got black spots. They didn't grow that large. This year, they're so big I had to prune them. I sprayed a fungicide earlier in the year to see about avoiding that black spot. It worked! I sprayed before it made fruit, with a product marked organic.
So far I've only lost 2 tomatoes to critters. I've eaten 5 myself, and a pile more coming. So good! Did 2 varieties, Mr Stripey (very good on sandwhiches!), one plant I had to pinch some off it was making so many. The other is doing good. The other variety, one hasn't made any yet, the other has a handful of green on it. I think they're a German Queen or something.
The Roma tomatoes out back are attempted to take over the entire bed and are choking out pepper plants. Last year, the only peppers that survived were hot, and only one at a time ripened. All the plants made it this year.
Have a squash ready, already!
Been learning a lot about this gardening thing. Vining tomato types should be pruned to increase the quality and size of the fruit. They should produce fruit until first frost. Stout, non vine varieties don't need to be pruned, and produce the most during a 2 week harvest time.
The lettuce mix we did is chicken food. I didn't like the taste. I picked it in different stages to make sure, got worse as it aged. LOL Chickens LOVE it though. It was some sort of variety mix.
Everything but the tomatoes came from seeds that my husband has been tending since March. I'm excited about the cucumbers, none of them made it last year.
We haven't used any fertilizer at all for anything but some petunia pots, just our own "garden soil" mix out of the compost pile, courtesy of the chickens. Last year I think the soil was too hot, then too much rain, and we got a late start.
Flowers aren't doing that good. Have lost 2 azaleas, 3 of the 4 Dahlia, 1 rose bush, and the rhodedendron doesn't like where I put it. It's been hot and dry. We're focusing the water on things that make food. The hostas look tragic. Though the Boston ferns are doing great, and the petunias in window boxes have made a come back after some 30-30-30. They were like "OMG Yay!" and bloomed all over. They needed pruned badly. Found some fertilizer in the garage from the previous resident.
Apparently, if you want to keep the thickness on potted trailing plants, you must prune them. Those petunias look their best all season for the 2nd time after some food and a good pruning. Yep, learning a lot about this stuff!
Tell me it's normal for my husband to be talking to plants as he waters?
