On Thursday, July 10, 2014 9:02:01 AM UTC-4, George Shirley wrote:
On 7/10/2014 7:35 AM, wrote:

This is the worst gardening year I have ever had. The peppers have been a disaster since I started them in January, the voles were a huge problem early on, it stayed cold forever and then it instantly got hot ruining the cabbage and broccoli. As of today the cucumbers are all yellow and there are no more flowers and the squash has borers. Guess it is going to be an expensive winter.

MJ



And exactly the opposite here in Houston area. Gardens are going nuts

with the exception of squash, we have a problem with squash borers. Lots

of eggplant, both Ichiban and Black Beauty, sweet chiles are producing

like crazy, Hopi red limas doing the same, crowder peas are a little

slow but my lovely wife planted tomatoes in front of them and very thick

at that. Naturally the stink bugs got into the tomatoes but we thinned

the plants and the bugs moved out.



Our very small fig tree has produced about a quart of figs, where we

lived before the fifteen year old fig produced dozens of quarts, we miss

that tree. The kumquat is covered with blossoms so there might be a

small crop of kumquat fruit this fall. Swiss chard is still going crazy,

harvest a batch every other day. Cukes also going crazy, giving them to

the neighbors as we have a pantry full of pickles from last year.



Getting just enough rain to only have to water the raised beds every

other week, supposed to be a bit of rain today according to the wx heads.

That is great, you have a much bigger variety of things than I do. I have been thinking about a fall crop but honestly I am not sure I could take the disappointment. I have never really had any luck with a second round of squash. SO I may just wait until later and re plant some cabbage, lettuce and sugar peas.
Question? Will the borers stick around? The plants will all come out and I will re-till the dirt but is that enough? Do I need to rotate? The other thing that has confused me is that I have done more to enrich the soil than I ever have. I have a bunch of black cow and used lots of coffee grounds. I use Epsom for the peppers and 10.10.10 for everything else, always have. I was told the coffee grounds would get rid of the fire ants and well as be good for the dirt but the ants are still around and then I was told un-composted coffee grounds are bad. I even kept things well weeded, geesh
MJ