Gardenitis Gangbusterus

The cucumbers are coming hot and heavy, so I don't know where the "cool as a cucumber" thing fits in!  Well, of course, I do: after you get them in the fridge and it's too hot to eat anything but frozen grapes and cucumbers!

Speaking off hot, what a great year for peppers!  My hot peppers are gangbusters, too.  Trying to find fun things to do with them, but they are SO hot, that's it's challenging.  Give 'em away and freeze them is about the only thing I can do.

I don't even want to think about the beans I have to go out there and pick...RIGHT NOW!!!  It'd be a shame to waste them and I will be wasted if I don't beat the heat.  I already hear the cicadas and katydids, so I better get out there pronto.  I just wanted to let you know that if your tomato plants are looking terrible, that's perfectly normal for this time of year, especially if you planted them early, like April.  Plus, the heat is hard on them.  Any temperatures over 95 and they're irritated little campers.

A warning, too, about a new pest for tomatoes: our friend the Stink Bug.  Yep, they are crawling all over those last little fighting fruits and leaving little white spots on the skin.  I'm looking into finding out exactly what they're doing, so I will be back on that.

If you have any seeds left over, plant them now!  Especially broccoli, cabbage, brussel sprouts, beets, and any other cole crop.  That's cole, not cold.  I always thought it was cold, too, but it's actually cole:

“Cole crops” is a general term used to describe several vegetables in the mustard family, including broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, collards, kale, and kohlrabi. All cole crops are cultivated varieties of the species Brassica oleracea. They are cool-season vegetables that prefer 60° to 70°F temperatures for optimal growth and can withstand light frosts without injury.

So there you go.  It's kind-of like: "a hard row to hoe".  Most people mistakenly say, "a hard road to hoe" which actually combines two idioms.  "It will be a hard road ahead" and "a hard row to  hoe".  Of course you cant hoe a road!  Silly.  But most people have never had a garden, so they don't know what that refers to and they only know the word "hoe" in one illicit context with a different spelling.  So there ya go!

It just so happens that cole crops are also "cold" crops in that they do well in cold weather.  Cooler weather also makes them sweeter, so that's something you got going for you.  But beware the harlequin beetle!  He is so pretty, but when my broccoli was dying off, they were covered with tons of them "Getting down" if you know what I mean (kind-of like "hoeing") and then when I dug my potatoes, I saw millions of leeeetle baby ones all over the place.  They're going to have a field day when they see my little broccoli coming up.  So just be aware and get that Spinosid ready.  And remember spray spinosid only after all the bees and butterflies have bedded down for the night and are no longer feeding.  Spray the leaves of the plant only.

So plant your cole crops, your spinach, lettuce, arugula, etc. and enjoy veggies straight into October.  With our long Indian Summers, you're really not limited very much by growing seasons.  Pick up some old sheets and you can cover them when there are frost warnings.  I'll have more information on this stuff as it gets closer, but for now, enjoy those cukes, squash, eggplants, beans, whatever you have coming in and check the Farmer's Market for anything you need.   Buy local, eat seasonally for better taste and better health!!! (And it's a whole lot cheaper, too!)

Happy gardening!