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July 28, 2011

Vegetable Garden Update for Late July

Currently, my vegetable garden continues to do well despite the stress.


Or rather the plants are making it through despite being stressed.  A few problems are affecting the tomatoes such as powdery mildew and scale.


However, they're still producing just at a much slower rate.  Given that I haven't fertilized them except when I planted them back in March and that I still water them twice a week, I think they're doing pretty darn well.

The lemongrass and variegated basil are doing swimmingly.


If you haven't grown variegated basil, I HIGHLY recommend it.  It doesn't bolt (or at least I've never seen it bolt), and it makes for a wonderful dried basil.  It's very strong when it's fresh which might explain why it has so few bug problems.

I have a volunteer squash/melon/mystery vine.


As you can see it wilts horribly during the hottest part of the day, but it perks back up by 5 pm or so.  This is one I'm willing myself to not water when it wilts.

Despite the aphids, the okra is growing quite nicely, but the fruit isn't red as in "Hill Country Red"...


It looks nice, but I wasn't expecting to get green okra.

To end on a high note, I've never grown marigolds so successfully.


My faith in them has been renewed.



4 comments:

  1. Never heard of variegated basil, new to me. So does it taste pretty much like normal basil? We have made pesto three times already. With these temps we are watering daily to get tomatoes.

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  2. Great looking okra there!!! Amazing garden in all the heat. I water twice a day here...I have to...but you know what...I had planted a bunch of marigolds and all died but one, and suddenly in the last 3 days it has grown and is flowering profusely! Strange how things do!!!

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  3. Randy - It tastes like a spicy basil. I use it like the Genovese but only in smaller doses.

    Julye - Twice a day sounds like a nightmare!

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  4. Love the okra! We have so much that I am tempted to break into neighboring houses and leave some in the kitchens!

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