Mid-July Update

The garden has produced fairly well this year. We still have our normal problems with the corn and I'm beginning to tear it out today. The temp today will be near 90 and the humidity is high, so it's going to be off-and-on work today in the garden. Finally we've overcome our bitter cucumbers this year, but the crabgrass is relentless!!! There isn't any possible way to keep up with it out there. I'm trying to keep it away from the plants themselves and just let it fill in the gaps to walk on. Incredible!

Here are some highlights of where we're at:

• Strawberries - Japanese Beetles took over. Luckily they waited until the fruit was harvested. They seem to be gone now, but they left their ugly trail of brown leaves behind.
• Yellow Squash - Harvested MANY of these. They are ending their growing season since we put them in the ground so early. A few runners are trying to re-root and have blooms. We may see a few more.
• Spaghetti Squash - Vines have died. We didn't get as many this year as next. This may be something to make sure to buy new seed packets for yearly.
• Zucchini - Plants have wilted. Didn't get too many this year.
• Corn - Looks terrible. Today I'm pulling the stalks and picking the tiny ears that are salvageable. It looks as though the raccoons had quite a feast over the past few days.
• Tomatoes - FINALLY RIPENING! There's nothing like a garden-fresh tomato!
• Green Beans - Outstanding as usual. Still picking twice a week and getting a plastic grocery sack full each time.
• Hot Peppers - Starting to form. So far I see Jalapenos and Chili's from the hot pepper mix.
• Watermelon - 1 large one and another few medium ones. I don't know how to tell when they're ripe! I keep "thumping" the big one, but that tells me nothing!
• Cantaloupe - 4 or 5 pretty good sized ones starting to develop their outer rind. This variety we planted is larger than what we've had in the past.
• Broccoli - Never formed, but I left the plants to hopefully keep pests on those and not my other veggies.
• Cucumbers - Finally... a good crop! I've been waiting for about 4 years to eat a non-bitter cucumber from my garden.

And that's my update. Now, I'm off to fight some more crabgrass!