Gardening with Julia – Update 14 and Fall Plans

Hello there and thanks for joining me. Today’s update video is in two parts, one in which I talk about what I’ve learned so far and plans for the fall, and the other in which I give you the plant updates.

Lessons Learned:

For now, I’m not sure I’ll be trying to grow onions again unless I have enough room to get a sizable/lengthy harvest.

My plants are doing SO MUCH BETTER since I moved them into the shady(ish) area.

I’m not sure if the deep watering system is making any difference, mostly because I also water on top of them, too. Oops. But those systems are designed to keep the water off of the foliage, and with the containers and cages, most of the foliage is off the ground anyway.

I definitely need to make sure when to start seeds and not do it late again like I did this year. Possibilities include winter sowing and trying the indoor seeds again, although I’m not really sure starting the seeds like I did this year was worth it. I may try transplants next year, but I’m trying not to get ahead of myself.

The cherry tomato plant quickly outgrowing its original cage, I’m going to have to stake it soon. The bottom branches have also yellowed/fallen off, I’m not sure what this means, but the rest of the plant still seems healthy.

I found what’s been eating the marigolds! I caught a caterpillar in action, chomping away.

Again I say that homegrown strawberries are the very best thing ever. EVER.

I’ve been figuring out how to  harvest seeds from my wildflowers and plant them again.

Old wildflower bloom. Inside are the seeds that I’m trying to grow into new flowers!

Plans for the fall:

My new Smart Pot fabric container

I started watermelon and cantaloupe when I found out there was a second potential growing season. I’m still determining how/if I’m going to trellis them, but there was a horizontal platform thing I saw on Youtube that I liked the look of and can somewhat imitate for close to nothing.

In same fabric container, I plan on planting spinach and lettuce, planted in two week intervals for longer harvest time.

In smaller fabric containers that I got in a deal from Amazon, I plan on trying to grow sugar snap peas, bush green beans, carrots, and possibly beets.

I will continue to care and grow for summer crops, which I think will last until frost

I definitely want to build a strawberry planter (or two). I’m just not sure exactly how or when yet.

Plant updates

• watermelon/cantaloupe – seedlings seem to be doing well.
• cucumber – since recording the video, I’ve lost one of my cucumber plants. I think it was the heat.
• lemon cucumber – climbing on up! But I haven’t seen any evidence that the flowers are getting pollinated.
• zucchini – growing and green, a few blossoms, nothing pollinated
• tomatoes – harvested my first super sweet 100! They all seem to be growing well, and even the one with the yellowed branches seems ok for now.
• strawberries – too hot for them to flower, but they are growing well. Both runners that I tried to propogate have successfully taken root and been disconnected from the mother plant.
• pinot noir pepper – doing very well. I’ve harvested several peppers from it and there is a new one growing in the footsteps of the previous ones–upside down.
• poblano pepper – doing well in the shade. Has peppers and blossoms on it.
• jalepeno pepper – doing well, growing bushier and making peppers.
• carnival bell pepper – growing well (I think). This is the only pepper plant from seed that I have, the rest were transplants, so I really don’t know how to judge its progress.
• flowers/herbs – seem ok. The only two herbs I have right now are sage and oregano, both seem to be doing well. My wildflowers have slowed down in the heat, but they are still blooming!

PESTS!

I’ve had a great time observing all the critters my garden seems to have attracted. Of course, it’s also attracted some less-than-desirable visitors.

A while back, I had noticed one of the stalks of my flowers had turned hard and brown, and I thought that was odd, and nothing more about it. Turns out the “stick”-like formation was a line of squash bug eggs. I have since dealt with two sets of squash bug hatchlings. At least I know what I’m on the lookout for.

Squash Bugs

 

Squash Bug eggs along the stalk of a cornflower plant

Squash Bug hatchlings

Not necessarily a pest (I don’t think), I had noticed what I thought was a huge bee one day. When I saw it several days later, eating a wasp, I took a picture and with the help of my hubby took to Google and Twitter. Turns out that “huge bee” is a robber fly. Ick.

Thanks for sticking around for all that wordiness! Have you ever planted a fall garden? How did it go?