August, Oops, September Garden Update

A while back I thought I was getting caught up, but then sending twins off to college this fall proved to be quite a time consuming effort! So the garden has been a bit on auto pilot for a little while now. Thank goodness it got off to such a good start this spring. Here’s some tidbits on what I would have written about, if I had had the time 🙂

There was a family of chickadees that must have nested and fledged near my feeders. For weeks, I was so entertained by the hilarious antics of the 3 young chickadees that truly behaved like little kids.

I got a lot more green peppers and Mariachi hot peppers as the summer went on. Unfortunately, Daisy was not at all dissuaded by munching on the hot peppers and continued to eat almost all this year’s pepper harvest (Little White Pepper Thief).

Surveying the garden for her latest snack…

A couple of years ago this patch of creeping thyme was a disaster. I wrote about it in my earlier post, “Creeping Thyme Problems“. I was skeptical that the severe pruning was going to help, but it has. It looks gorgeous and lush, and smells awesome when I walk on it to get to the garden hose. So if in doubt, cut away, it’ll be better for it!

I didn’t get many sunflowers this year thanks to the bunnies. But I did get this one, beautiful Evening Sun Sunflower. Made me smile.

Thankfully Daisy doesn’t seem have found the tomatoes or basil. I don’t ever seem to tire of fresh tomato salads.

The raspberries I planted in the spring flourished over the summer. I even got a few tasty raspberries in the late summer. Looking forward to having the plants mature and getting lots of berries. What did I plant? See my previous post “My Raspberries and Strawberry Plants Are Here!”

Two of my clematis plants got a terrible case of Clematis Stem Wilt earlier this spring (What’s Wrong With the Clematis and Clematis Stem Wilt). I was hopeful that the plants would survive and I think they did. Both plants put up a couple of new, healthy looking stems that looked good until the last few days when something has decided to munch on the leaves. We’ll see in the spring how they look. At least there’s hope.

The petunias were home to lots of pollinators. This bumblebee was fun to watch as he dove deep into each flower. He seemed to really prefer the dark pink over light pink. While I have no decent pictures, I had hummingbirds also visit my yard late this summer. I don’t always get them, so it has been a treat the last few weeks to have them visit.

How was your garden this year?

(BTW Go Hokies! Go Blue!)

Little White Pepper Thief

Now that I had replanted my peppers after a “failure to thrive” issue (Not a Great Year for Sweet Peppers), I was all set to harvest bushels of sweet green and red peppers.

But the new plants just didn’t seem to be putting out many peppers. I thought I saw peppers growing, but then they’d be gone. It wasn’t the rabbits, none of the leaves were ever touched. It was very puzzling.

Until we were out barbequing one night, and Daisy went exploring around the yard like she always does.

Right in front of us, she went over to the garden and popped a pepper right off the plant, laid down and munched happily away!

Now I have to add dogs to the list of garden pests!

May Vegetable Garden

I’ve been so busy in the garden, I haven’t had much time to write about it. Hopefully I can catch up in the next few days. Everything is in that wonderful, lush spring phase. Well, almost everything, but more on that another day.

My raised vegetable beds are looking great. I got my first harvest yesterday and we enjoyed a fresh vegetable side dish and a few small treats. Most of the early seeds I planted in the side raised bed didn’t come up, but the spinach and a few stragglers survived the harsh spring.

In that bed, while the few early things are finishing up, I’ve planted tomatoes, onion starts, sugar snap peas, lots of squash, zucchini and cucumbers. All the “messy” garden characters are nicely hidden on the side of the house with plenty of space to grow. All seem to be getting started nicely.

The new beds are also flourishing with vegetables, herbs and even some flowers.

The “left” garden has swiss chard, kale, spinach, lettuce, bush beans, cabbage, green peppers, sunflowers and nasturtiums in it. I expect it’ll get a little more shade as the summer goes on, so maybe the cool weather plants will have a bit of an extended life.

The “right” garden is chock full of more lettuce, radishes, cabbage, green peppers, bush beans, basil, sunflowers and zinnias. In front are marigolds, potted herbs and snapdragons to give the beds some color. I like my herbs in pots to keep them tidy and in place. On the side of the house I have more herbs, including mint. Mint should always be in some type of corralled container to prevent it from taking over.

So far, no complaints on the appearance of the gardens. I’m really trying hard to not let it get unruly. Hopefully the flowers add a burst of color. To further help that, in the background of the gardens I’ve added cosmos and daylilys. This project may turn out to be even nicer than we expected.

Even the strawberry pot is looking great. Nothing like fresh from the vine fruit to remind you of what fruit is supposed to taste like.

Tag: green peppers

August, Oops, September Garden Update

Little White Pepper Thief

May Vegetable Garden

stephigardens