Garden Update Aug 31st 2012

My first time having a garden in 10 years...and its not doing so good.

I dont understand it. The only thing that could possibly be wrong is the extreme heat which makes watering inconsistent and possibly over crowding.

Anyways, all the vegetables that I planted have failed.
All the tomatoes had some disease which shriveled the leaves and stems before they died off. They managed to produce some TINY fruits, many with blossom end rot. I found out Roma tomatoes are notorious for blossom end rot. I had an Early Girl hybrid variety too, that just died.

The only one I'm left with is a straggly but still growing Super Sweet 100 vine. It has not suffered so badly from the disease like the other tomatoes. It produced a few fruit, all tasting really bitter. They also got ripe when a terrible heat wave came through in June which I think caused the bitterness. Since then it has not produced anymore fruit...

I will NEVER buy vegetable plants from Walmart again. They all had diseases later on. I will always grown my own from seed.

This includes the Black Beauty Zucchini and Straight Neck Squash plants that I purchased from walmart too. At least the zucchini produced 1 nice sized and tasty zucchini before it wilted into yellow leaves and died. I tried everything, fertilizer, epsom salt water spray, and antifungal sprays, nothing kept it alive.

Anyways, today I pulled the squash plants out and replaced them with some $0.88 each Mums that were on sale at Home Depot. They are perennial in my zone so that is a bargain.

Also pictured are some Gladiolus bulbs that will hopefully bloom soon. They are my favorite summer flowers, along with my Zinnias.

My Zinnias are finally starting produce quite a few flowers. I wish I had bought the Zinnia "Green Envy", and "Queen Red Lime" when I had the chance. Now they are all sold out and I will have to wait until next year.

My California Giant Sweet Peppers are another issue. All the peppers ripen when they are this tiny. I fertilize and spray with Epson salt water which has greatly increased the amount of flowers produced. They taste and smell wonderful, but are way too tiny.

It is hard to see, but there are 4 pepper plants in one 11 gallon bucket. Perhaps over crowding is the culprit for the tiny peppers.

There was a Roma Tomato growing in this upside down planter. It died. But I planted Sweet Mint and Lemon Tyme on the top and they are growing profusely. I love Sweet Mint.

My Sugar Baby watermelons. I harvested one that got to 3 lbs. Still small for this variety of watermelon. The flesh was perfectly pink inside, but it had no flavor. It tasted like water. Anyways, there are 3 more growing so maybe those will turn out better.

This is how I'm growing the watermelons on my tiny apartment balcony. They are doing really good. They had problems with some kind of disease but after removing the diseased leaves and spraying it with an anti-fungal and anti-bacterial spray they are doing great. These were bought at Walmart...will never do that again.

These are green onions that I bought in the grocery store and planted into my garden. Now I have an endless supply of green onions. There us also a yellow Gerbera Daisy which I have harvested lots of seeds from for next summers garden. Also rosemary is growing well and some cilantro seedlings.

Seriously, I had a hard time getting even this small amount of Cilantro to grow. I had lots of seedlings in June, but after the heat wave they all died. I thought Cilantro loved heat... but I found out it doesn't. So I scattered some new seeds among the shade offered by the green onions and they are doing much better. I use lots of cilantro in my cooking so I cant wait for these to grow bigger.

This is my Ginger plant grown from 2 pieces of ginger tubers I bought at the grocery store. I had tons of ginger left over and I didn't want it to go to waste in my fridge. I soaked them over night in water and planted them in this pot back in July. These things grow very fast.

My new seed tray for Fall 2012. Hopefully they will all sprout. They should be ready for transfer into the garden in 2 months.