Tag: summer vegetables

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Thank you for your help, Braconid wasps!

It’s my first year on new soil.  I put out the plants in August in the heat.  And then the tomato horn worms descended on my garden.  After plucking a number of the creepy things and feeding them to my delighted chickens, I thought I had eliminated all of the worms.  They are difficult to see, camouflaged as they are with a color nearly identical to tomato vines, but on every trip to the garden I waded among the plants and plucked horn worms.

Tomato plants ravaged by horn worms and heat

This morning, when I was picking peas and other vegetables in preparation for the arrival of the remains of Hurricane Florence this evening, I saw more horn worms but these were covered with eggs laid by the parasitic Braconid wasp.  

I feel a little sorry for the caterpillar, covered as it is by the eggs that are nourishing themselves by removing nutrients they need for survival from it.   Instead of eating my plants, the caterpillar looks sort of sickly and dismayed by its situation.

I will not feed him to the chickens.  Instead, I’ll leave the eggs to complete their life cycle and make dozens more new wasps for next year.  If you find tomato horn worms covered with these eggs in your garden, leave them alone.  They will eat little to nothing else and will soon turn into more wasps to protect your garden for next year.

I hope these survive the hurricane.  We are 100 miles inland, and we are expecting wind and rain.  All day, the wind has been increasing and the clouds are becoming darker as the outer bands of the now tropical storm arrive.  For more information about the Braconid wasp, visit this article.

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It’s Been a Difficult Summer for the Garden

I usually write about what should be going on in the garden
and how to manage the garden properly. 
All garden writers talk about ideal situations most of the time, and blogs usually show photos of gorgeous gardens.   I have never claimed to be an expert gardener,
but I try to talk about how the garden should operate.  This time, I thought I would tell you about
the successes and failures (mostly failures) from this summer in the
garden. 

I started seeds for fall tomatoes back in early July.  Those languished in pots until late August,
when I finally set the tall, spindly things in the garden by laying them in
long trenches so that the stems could sprout roots along their length.  That was easier than digging a hole 10 inches
deep, and the tomatoes figured out which way was up by the next day.  In defense of my laziness, rain certainly
prevented gardening, and I didn’t want to trouble my husband with watering them
while I was gone to Missouri in case the rain stopped.   Some of them are beginning to bloom now, and
perhaps I’ll get some late tomatoes before frost.  I doubt I will get any though; as of today there are a few tiny green tomatoes on the beautiful plants, and we usually get our first frost by the end of October.

I haven’t managed to freeze any lima beans this summer, and
the bunnies have eaten my peas.  It is
the first summer since I began this garden that I haven’t frozen any beans or
peas, and we will miss them in the winter. 
We have had some nice meals of lima beans though.

Although it was still producing some pods, I removed my okra plants last weekend.  I do detest cutting okra because
the leaves make me itch, but in past years, I have managed to keep up with the okra
cutting.

I haven’t even made any pesto because my first several
sowings of basil seeds didn’t germinate, probably because I sowed them in the
garden soil and they washed away.  I
finally sowed some seeds in pots and transplanted them into the garden when I
put in the late tomatoes.  They are growing slowly, and I don’t think they’ll grow large enough to make much pesto before frost blackens them.
  
My perennial border is bedraggled because I allowed the dead
flowers to remain on the plants.  After
the deer attack of early summer, many of the plants look as if a two-year-old
gave them a haircut.  I have weeded,
though, and I am enjoying the benefits of the heavy layer of mulch I put down
last winter. The fall flowers are beautiful. 
I’m looking forward to cool days after frost to neaten the plants.

As for weeding, although I avoid using it, I have put out
chemical herbicide to gain control over the weeds. My y usual
weeding strategy of hoeing out weeds in the morning with the assurance that
they’d be dead and crunchy by the afternoon after a day in the sun failed this
summer, because of the rain.  To kill the weeds, I had to individually remove every weed from the garden.  Herbicide,
and the past month’s dry weather, has enabled me to manage the weeds and put
out mulch, and I am finished using herbicide.  

Many of the plants in my formal garden behind the patio are dead.  Deer attack, bunny nibbles, wet weather, and
perhaps disease have decimated many of them. 
We believe there is an underground spring of some sort under that area
of the yard, and during wet weather, the area turns into nearly constant
mud.  I pulled back the mulch to examine
the plants and saw wet clay instead of soil, and this was several days after
the last rain at the time.   The
perennials I planted in the area were not necessarily able to tolerate “wet
feet,” a gardening term for an area that is wet constantly.  I am not sure what I will do with the site in
the future.

How has your garden grown this summer?

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Preparing Transplants for the Garden

I began the process of hardening off my seedlings, or preparing the plants I started indoors under lights for life outside, last week. The tomato and pepper plants need some time to get used to the wind, variable temperatures, and sunshine before they spend a full day of life in the garden. To harden them off, I put them in an hour or less of morning sun, and watch them carefully to make sure they do not wilt. Each day I expose them to more sun until they sit in the sun most of the day without wilting.

Think of a transplant’s tender leaves as a baby’s skin; a baby sunburns quickly but an adult takes longer to burn because adult skin has had more experience with the sun. The transplants’ leaves need to be tougher, like those of an adult’s, before they will be safe in the garden.

The hardening-off process usually takes about a week. I also leave the transplants outside overnight as long as the temperature does not get below 45 degrees. Make sure to watch the moisture level in the pots; sunlight quickly evaporates the water from the tiny pots.

Buying your transplants at the store is cost-effective if you are only planting a few plants, and is a good way to begin a garden for the first time. I am planting 50 tomato plants, so starting them from seed is the best option for me.

When you buy transplants, look for healthy vegetable transplants that are uniformly green, not yellowed, and not wilted. Compare the plant to its neighbors and choose one of medium size. Plants should not be tall and skinny, but should have many branches and leaves protruding off the stem. Do not buy plants with blossoms or fruit on them; stress causes small plants to produce fruit.

Gradually expose your transplants to direct sun for a few days as described above before setting them out in the garden for a day of full sun. Try to avoid buying transplants whose roots are tightly wrapped in the shape of the container, or “root-bound.” If you have no other choices, gently tear the roots apart when you plant them to encourage the roots to explore the surrounding soil. Water and mulch them well after you plant them.

Garden centers sell transplants of almost all the summer vegetables, but our long growing season enables us to plant seeds of cucumbers, squash, zucchini, beans, okra, and any other summer vegetables besides tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant directly in the ground; this is both cost-effective and will produce the strongest seedlings. Plants would really rather grow in the same place in which they are sown instead of having to move around as they do when we transplant them.

The average date for the last frost in the Midlands of SC is around April 15. However, temperatures below 40 degrees can damage tomato plants, so to be safe, I have not set out mine, although I have begun sowing seeds of corn, beans, and squash. In my garden journal, I noted that we had a frost on April 15, 2008, which damaged the tomato plants I set out too early. We have such a long growing season here that I try to wait until late April to set out the plants. However, if you have set yours out, they will probably be fine, just watch the weather forecast, and cover them if frost is predicted.