End of July Garden Update
Wow, so much has changed since my last garden update! I wish I had more amazing good news, but the truth is the Texas heat is killing my garden. It’s ironic that everything looks super lush and green, but isn’t growing and more importantly not producing any fruit.
I had a friend on Instagram mention that I might have too much nitrogen in my soil… which could explain all the foliage and no fruit.
THE Square foot garden PORTION
We still have 3 square foot garden boxes. Let me provide a quick summary of what’s in each box and what’s changed since my last post. Again, I’ll go from left to right…
SQUARE FOOT GARDEN BOX 1 UPDATE:
- We still have 3 tomato plants, these are looking okay, but not producing fruit yet. I went ahead and pruned them back in hopes that it helps with fruit production. You can read about that experience, here. I purchased really affordable cages/trellises for them and I’m pleased with how they are doing.
- The green onions I planted on June 5th never did anything! Not even a few green stems of hope… so that square foot space is blank.
- My dill is dead… it grew very skinny and very tall. However just in this past week it turned completely brown.
- My watermelon in the box is growing with nice green leaves and even a few small yellow flowers. It continues to take up 2 square foot spaces.
- And last but not least we have a couple of jalapenos that I have kind of given up hope that they will produce. First, they are only about 5” tall!! Can you believe that’s it? Remember these were started from seed on May 5th… so it’s been more than enough time to reach their maturity and produce peppers.
SQUARE FOOT GARDEN BOX 2 UPDATE
This box continues to be the golden child, it’s always looked the strongest!
- We still have 3 very healthy, very big tomato plants across the back 3 spots. Unlike the other boxes, these are actually taller than the cages. I’m starting to see 3 little baby tomatoes sprouting from them! I am so happy 😊 The tomatoes are tiny and green and definitely need more time to cook… but it gives me hope that it’s actually starting!
- The basil is my pride and joy! It’s so wonderful. I have 4 healthy, lush basil plants that we use on a daily basis in our cooking.
- The dill in the box is looking better than box 1, but it’s NOT doing anything amazing to where we could pick and use in our kitchen. It’s also growing really tall and looks like it’s developing white flowers.
- The orange carrots have sprouted green bushy tops, but don’t look like they are growing that well. I’m confused about why… we will continue to water and wait
- Radishes have been harvested. We plucked those out about mid-month. You can learn more about that, here.
- The two jalapeno plants in this box are also dwarf-sized… no bigger than 4” or so. Then to top if off, my oldest daughter thought it was a radish and literally pulled it out of the ground! Roots and everything (ahhh)… so to be determined on whether this one makes it. Instead of planting it back in its own spot, I joined it with my other little jalapeno to make space for new things.
SQUARE FOOT GARDEN BOX 3 UPDATE
- Tomatoes look similar to Box 1 – they are starting to grow yellow flowers but not producing fruit yet.
- Basil in this box is also doing fantastic! We are actually planning to propagate our basil, since it’s growing so well.
- The dill is again, very skinny, very tall. It doesn’t really look like the dill you buy in the grocery store…
- The two jalapenos are TINY – again not sure what’s going on.
- The colored carrots have sprouted green leaves (larger than the orange carrots) but still look far from ready.
- The radishes have all been harvested (yay!) so there’s another empty plot.
yarn problems
We’ve had some issues with the yarn coming down. I’m not sure if it’s animals damaging it during the night or if it’s just weather wear and tear. But either way, it’s not too big of an inconvenience to cut off more yarn and recreate the grids. I still think this is a good solution to marking off your square foot garden. You can read more about that here.
ADDING EGGSHELLS & ORGANIC FERTILIZERS
3 weeks ago, I wanted to give the square foot garden a boost! I put some organic tomato food and made homemade eggshell fertilizer for the tomatoes. I think that it helped. You can learn more about that experience, here.
THE GROUND PORTION
THE WATERMELON
Okay, so this is the elephant in the room. Our watermelon plants are insane!! Right now, we have 5 plants in the ground and 1 in the square foot garden bed. Holy moly these babies are BIG! I’m tempted to measure them right now, but I want to say that they are almost 8’ long! Definitely much taller than me.
- They look nice, green, and healthy. In fact, they look longer every single day.
- They are growing cute little yellow flowers.
- They are NOT producing any watermelon.
The seed packet I have quotes, “90 days until harvest”… we are on Day 88 with nothing to show for it except for a big lawn octopus monster! My husband begs me to pull it every other day (sigh) but I just can’t say goodbye. Part of me is optimistic that it will somehow pollinate and produce a tiny baby watermelon.
I’ve looked into hand pollinating in hopes of speeding up the process. We do have a few bees but I woudn’t say a lot. The problem with this route is that all my watermelons seem to be males! Either that, or I do not know HOW to distinguish between a male and female plant correctly.
This is homework I’m assigning to myself this week!! I hope to have a better update next month and fingers crossed we don’t end up giving up.
THE AVOCADO TREE
The avocado tree is going strong and I have to say that putting it under an umbrella in the afternoons has really helped. I stopped seeing holes in its leaves, which tells me that the sun was hurting it before our DIY afternoon cabana.
THE CONTAINER PORTION
THE MINT & PEPPER CONTAINER
The mint and pepper container looks great! This pepper continues to be the “strongest jalapeno” in the garden but is not showing signs of producing… The mint is doing great, no complaints here. I plan to start harvesting this and adding it to my water.
THE TERRA COTTA CONTAINERS
The container section has really changed since June! The biggest shift was moving the containers to a shadier spot of my backyard. I moved everything over to a place that gets morning sun, but afternoon shade. I think this was the reason why my green onion and cilantro failed.
- The 2 pots of cilantro were doing great, but they bolted.
- The tiny jalapeno is still hanging in there but not growing…
- The bunching onions still look green but not ready, I think I’m about to give up on these and repurpose the pot for the next round of planting seedlings.
- The 2 pots of dill are long gone (sigh).
- The pineapple never successfully propagated so it was actually the first plant to die on me.
- We harvested all the radishes and beets, so those are empty now.
- And finally we have added 2 sunflower plants. These are the only pots sitting in full sun, everything else has been moved into a shadier spot.
that's a wrap
So that’s our little end of month (July) garden tots update! I am looking forward to cooler weather; the afternoon heat is probably my biggest problem right now ☹
I am confident in the soil I’m using and I believe everything is getting watered enough. Read my post on watering your garden here. I’m excited to keep on gardening with my kids and for us to plant our second round of crops very soon. We’ve already started seeds to grow cucumbers, radishes, serrano peppers, and sunflowers.
If you have any hot-weather vegetable suggestions to add to our fall list, please let me know in the comments below.