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July 14, 2022
One of the many joys of gardening is that we are unchangingly learning.
We study and visualize issues as weightier we can but each garden and season has its own lessons to teach us. Learning by trial and error, otherwise known as the nonflexible way, seems inevitable.
Here we are with our lima stone harvest and I do midpoint bean, singular.
This season our beans bloomed and bloomed but never got virtually to setting fruit. Blooms may waif due to inadequate water and stone set may moreover be limited by upper temperatures.
We had spanking-new production from our cantaloupes but the seedlings were planted a bit too closely together. We created a wonderful resort, spa, and restaurant from the rat and squirrel perspective. The accommodations had privacy and shade with user-friendly wangle to supplies and water.
When the creatures began to chew into the metal mesh vole cages that were protecting the fruit, we conceded defeat and removed the vines. Fortunately there were only well-nigh 35 pounds of fruit left. We are giving it some time to see if it will ripen indoors. Meanwhile, we trust we have removed our support of the rodent population.
I was looking forward to trying a pepper variety that is new to us tabbed Ashe County Pimento. The plants were loaded with immature peppers when I checked them one afternoon. By the next morning the peppers were gone except for what appeared to be neatly diced salsa ingredients on the ground.
Thinking that rabbits had ripened a taste for peppers, we placed cages made of rabbit fencing virtually all of the pepper plants. The devastation unfurled on to the aji dulce peppers despite the cages. The plan now is to try hardware reticulum as a windbreak versus smaller rodents.
Our strategy for preventing the animals from taking the tomatoes (harvesting at full size and 10-30% of color) was not as successful this year as last. Judging by the half eaten unripened tomatoes scattered virtually the garden, the animals are saying, “No worries, we will eat them green.”
It is well-spoken we must stay zestful considering other creatures are learning too!
Beverly Allen, Dallas County Master Gardener Class of 2018
Picture by Don Heaberlin, Dallas County Master Gardener Class of 2021
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