The summer bug has sure got a good hold of me this year. Most summers I waste it indoors this time around I been enjoying it when I can. As such content has been a bit slower to make on my end which I’m fine with. I’m still around just enjoying what free time I have outside of my cave.

It has been quite a hot summer with lots of rain which is great for knocking down the chances of wildfires here. With that, there also been so many different pests attacking my different plants. It’s almost like everything has its own issue. There is a bit of fun trying to troubleshoot if it’s something I’m not doing correctly or if I’m missing signs of something else going on.

That is why I have been enjoying gardening so much. I always do it more from a trial and error method to see how things go. Only researching information if I feel stumped and I’ve been unable to solve the issue for a while.

Beefsteak Tomato

This is the first year I’m now concerned about highest restrictions from where I’m growing everything. I’m also now committed since it’s too big to get it out of the door. I’ve taken a second tomato cage flipped it upside down and connected it to the other one.

There also comes a point where I’ll need to get a ladder to even get any of the tomatoes if this keeps up as it has been. I might have to resort to pruning the top off. Really not much left I can do. Hopefully I’m quite near how tall it’s supposed to grow. If not maybe I’ve got a beanstalk on my hands and I’ll be crawling up it into the sky!

As far as trying to move it outdoors before it got to this point so many different things would have just eaten and attacked it. For my area, this is my best solution. Maybe another year I’ll consider building out an actual area to expand into. With a proper fence around it and other stuff.

The whitefly infestation that I have been battling since late spring I have finally feel like I’ve gotten under control. I’m not finding eggs anymore in the soil and very few if any these days flying around when I give it a gentle shake after a heavy rainstorm to help it try out.

A number of them have split from all the rain we have gotten. I just cut around that part just in case there is any mold or other stuff. I did have to toss one out due to that being the case. Otherwise, I’ve enjoyed about a dozen Beefsteak tomatoes now.

Tobacco Pepper And Jalapeno

This is the one that kicked my butt a few nights ago. A number of them are starting to turn red and so I gave one a try. For whatever reason, it swelled up my lips and was worse than a jalapeno. According to its own tag it’s just supposed to be “medium” heat. I’m going to try waiting for them to mature more before trying another one and being more careful when preparing it.

It was great on a homemade pizza. I still have plans to turn it into some kind of hot sauce at some point. Perhaps that will be a better former I can consume it in. While I like a little heat I’m more of a medium less or kind of person. This was not that.

If all else fails there got to be 50 of these pepper by now and I’ll just trade it locally with others for something I can use. It’s always nice to get out into the community anyways and see what others are doing.

As far as my jalapeno plant itself since it’s outside of the area I’m keeping everything else in. Something came up and took a giant bite out of it. It has not recovered since and it’s been dead looking for weeks now. It is its second year so if I got anything out of it I would be happy. Something else enjoyed the single jalapeno growing on it. Best of luck whatever it was I’m sure it was hot!

Scallion Onion

Overnight it went from being a perfect and healthy plant to caterpillars eating the entire thing. The thing was so fat it could not even move and it was no longer green. This happened a couple of weeks back and sadly I’m not seeing any new growth coming out of this plant.

Caterpillars have been massive issues this season for me. I have no clue how they getting in and they seem to have a taste for all my different herbs. Every time I find one it gets sent for a trip to the landfill. So I at least know it’s not the same one over and over. There is an entire frost for them to eat. Get out of my garden!!!!

I had plans to use it in a dip with some sour cream and other ingredients. I’m not sure if I’m going to replace it or just count my losses. I do have a least a bunching onion that seems to be getting close to me transplanting it out of my starting tray. I’ve had some failure on them even getting that far. Perhaps I’ll see the full damage of the other onion and replace it with that one.

Red And Green Bell Peppers

These have not grown much in height from the start. I thought it was all kinds of different issues. I thought at first I had overcrowding issues so I removed some of the flowers. After that, I kept finding caterpillars so I thought I finally found the culprit. I was wrong.

ANTS!!!! If I recall one of my followers said it looked like one of my plants was suffering from ants. Well, it turns out my pepper has an entire colony that now crawls all over my bell pepper. I have been waging war with these invaders and they seem quite resilient in wanting to stick around.

On the plus side, I’ve pulled 3 small bell peppers from these two plants. Over the weekend another one will get consumed in some Hamburger Hobo cooked on the grill. I just hope when I cut one open I don’t find a reason to toss it out. I hate seeing these very fresh and amazing tasting things not get used.

Parsley

While I have quite a few herbs growing parsley has been the one I’ve been using the most. I have just been trimming from the outside moving inward first. I frankly can’t keep up with it. It has just been nice to toss it onto whatever. Not to mention it smell is amazing.

For whatever reason Black Widow spiders seem to also love my parsley as well trying to make a home near the plant and creating a web to it. As close as I’ve looked at this herb I have no idea why they want this and a couple of others.

I’ve had about two weeks being free of them and last night I noticed a new web forming. I can only suspect another one is back to do who knows what to the parsley! The caterpillars and all other stuff I can get used to dealing with. These things I’m not a fan of.

Final Thoughts

I hope everyone’s gardens are going great. I have other herbs, starting trays and whatnot going even this far into the season. These where just the ones I felt like including this time around. Over the weekend I should be getting more planters and maybe picking up a starter or two at a discount if anything catches my eyes.

Despite the entire thing that seems to be attack everything I’m growing I’ve had a lot of fun. Having more space to grow a thing, in general, is going be on my list of things I want the next time I relocate. It’s just nice knowing I’m eating stuff I was able to grow. I would like to grow more of it and hopefully not have an entire forest of stuff try and eat it.

I still have not found a mortar and pestle I liked for preparing a few of my herbs into dressing, oils, and pesto. This is still on my plans to get around to. Some of the herbs I know are getting a bit out of control.

Have a great weekend! That final photo is of a plant I’ve not seen bloom in two years. Forget what it’s called I shard it the other week on twitter. Cheer.

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Photos were taken and content was written by @Enjar.