Saturday garden update

It's been a few weeks since I've posted a garden update.  Being out of town for most of the last 2 weeks meant that I spent little time in the garden. Thankfully some helpful neighbors watered for us while we were in Philadelphia during that crazy heat wave, and this past week it rained every day so I returned to a lush green garden that's still bearing nicely.  

Most of my potted herbs are still growing strong.

Both the cilantro and dill bolted in the last couple of weeks, but I pulled them up and replanted just in time for the cool rain over the last week.  Hopefully I'll get another good crop of both before the end of the summer.

My poor tomatoes just fell apart while I was gone though.  Almost all of the stakes and plants  completely toppled over.  I tried repair the situation, but they really didn't want to stand up anymore.  I need to either keep the plants shorter or find a new system before growing tomatoes again next year.

Fortunately, very few branches broke, so I'm still getting plenty of tomatoes, even if I have to pick through the wreckage to find them.  I picked 8 lbs of heirloom tomatoes and 3 lbs of cherry tomatoes just this morning.

My winter squashes are growing nicely.  I'm not exactly sure when to start harvesting them, but they look very healthy and seem to be ripening.

There are probably 10-12 good sized acorn squashes and about the same number of butternut squashes waiting to fully ripen.  I can't wait to freeze them for winter meals!

We returned from Philadelphia to find that the garden peas were completely ravaged by aphids.  I picked the last few healthy peas then pulled up all of those plants and replanted just before the cool rains began.  They seemed to appreciate the moisture, and they sprouted nicely in the last few days. I hope to keep the aphids away with neem oil or garlic oil this time to see if I can get a better crop this time around.

The beets are completely swamped by the continuing crop of zucchini.  I'm not sure I'll get much now, but I intend to replant in the autumn garden.  The sweet peppers suffered the same fate at the hands of the tomatoes.

The tomatoes from our garden sure look lovely canned into salsa.  I'm thrilled we'll be able to enjoy our bounty all winter long!