In June, I planted a variety of tomato and pepper seeds in small pots and kept a close eye on them on the upper deck.
By July, they'd gotten big enough to transplant to large containers, and also into the garden plot.
Now that it's August, many of the plants have begun making small fruit, and I'm getting very excited to harvest it in the next few weeks.
Here's a still-green Mini Red Bell Pepper.
And here are some nice heirloom Tommy Toe Tomatoes.
The main enemies facing my tomato gardening efforts have been the evil, squishy green caterpillars known as tomato hornworms. They grow very large very quickly and gobble up tomato leaves like crazy. They also take bites out of the fruit I have been waiting for months to enjoy. I hate these caterpillars, and I plan to get rid of them all. Here's a particularly nasty one I pulled off a plant last night. This guy was about 3 inches long!
Tomato hornworms are really good at hiding, so it's pretty difficult to find them, even when you know they are there. And they are really gross to the touch. But, I have to find and pick them off in order to save my beloved tomatoes from destruction. Then, according to the experts, I must drown them in a bucket of soapy water! I kind of think they deserve it.
So, that's the current summer garden status. I hope to harvest some ripe fruit in the next couple of weeks.
Currently growing:
- Italian tomatoes
- Hungarian Heart tomatoes
- Tommy Toe tomatoes
- Yellow Pear tomatoes
- Red Thai Peppers
- Aurora Peppers
- Mini Red Bell Peppers
- Cyclon Peppers
- Santa Fe Grande Peppers
All from seed from the Seed Savers catalog.
Hornworms...Hornworms...whatcha gonna do...whatcha gonna do when audrey comes for you...
-autumn