One of the things I love in the summer is my garden. In the spring I cannot wait until it's time to plant. The anticipation just about drives me crazy. I usually plant the same items every year. Those items are: zucchini, tomatoes, bush beans, cucumbers, broccoli and green peppers. I also have a separate potato patch where I always plant red potatoes and Yukon Gold potatoes. I periodically try pumpkins and other veggies.
This year was no different. I waited and waited with the unseasonably nice weather late last winter to plant my garden. I did plant a little earlier than usual and all was going well. This year I was persuaded to try another tomato variety besides my beloved beefsteak. I was told if I tried an heirloom variety that I would never go back. I planted some brandywine tomatoes along with a couple beefsteak plants (I had to in case the brandywine were horrible). After a whole season picking, eating and canning, I have to say that I love both of them. The beefsteak are medium to large tomatoes with dark red insides that taste amazing and work well for canning tomato juice. The brandywine tomatoes got amazingly huge. The color on the outside is a lighter/different color of red, but the insides were equally dark red and amazing to eat. The brandywine also were a little sweeter. They reminded me of the tomatoes from grandma's garden when I was a kid. I used both for canning juice and what we have had so far has been great. Next year I may plant both again!
In June we started having some very hot/dry weather. My zucchini, cucumbers and melons started to turn brown after having a great start and looking amazing in the beginning. I assumed it was the heat and lack of rain that was causing this. There were some insects I noticed in the garden, so I applied the seven dust as usual when I have this problem. I started watering the garden more than usual and while all the other plants were doing great these continued to look worse and worse. By mid-July all of them were dead. I attributed it to the heat and thought "next year I will do better at watering". Only recently did I begin to research this problem that has bothered me since my plants died. I have never had a problem keeping the garden alive! Especially the cukes and zucchini -usually I have more than I know what to do with.
What I found in my research was that my bugs were squash bugs that can wreak holy havoc on young plants. They have a hard shell and are gray and flat. They are hard to kill and harder to get rid of completely. They winter under plant debris and rocks. Pesticides don't kill them very well. I have never had a problem with these before and hopefully can get rid of them before next spring.
If anyone knows of a way to get rid of these things please comment to this post.
HAVE A GREAT DAY!
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