This past July was one for the records- hot days and very warm nights. I watered a lot (thankful it wasn’t a drought year) and at first the plants simply grew like crazy! Then I think it started to catch up with them. They also didn’t really flower as much. I thought they might need some nitrogen (fertilizer) but I know that the heat of summer is not a great time to fertilize.
Now it is August- I fertilized as soon as the nights went below 70F , continued watering a lot, cut off all the $**$#@! mold and rust growing on everything and we had a wonderful rebound flower extravaganza! The only plants that aren’t really recovering are the purple green beans. The rust got them pretty bad. I went ahead and planted last years pole green beans and we will see if they can get to producing. It feels like it could be a drier fall which will help them.
I also planted a red bell pepper after harvesting all the onions, and it is growing, flowering and….has a pepper set. Again, it may or may not ripen but it is fun to watch. Plus, it is August in Sacramento so it is in the high 80s during the day so more hope. Taking down the trees around the garden really helped the plants this year. And so many tomatoes, both cherry and full sized. I’m getting 2 or 3 zucchini a week which is perfect, and we have some pie pumpkins that are growing and might be big enough to ripen after all. We’ve only had one cucumber and one butternut (on three plants!) but I just remind myself all the time of all the photosynthesis going on out there and the carbon capture etc. The plants themselves are beautiful!
It is weird planning out the fall garden because I know we’ll be here still but I want something that looks good when we try to sell next spring.
