Saw an extra large doe in the garden today, didn't eat the sunflower, the sorghum, or those horribly amazon marigolds that grew to 4 feet high, assuming it got the potato greens again, from the window it looked like no damage. I haven't looked because my garden is already ruined.

You know, all my neighbors and I have had no luck with peppers this year. Nor has my sister who lives rather far away from me.

Peppers are the one thing I could always count on. Everything else: flowers, cabbage, carrots, etc. are doing great this year. The peppers are alive and look healthy... except they look like it's May and they were just planted. Strange.

I started most of my plants from seed for the first time (probably a month late), then we never really had a spring, now we're not having much of a summer! It's in the mid 70s rather than the mid 80s. I JUST got my first cherry tomato today! I had a few squash 1 cuke, I saw a couple of green beans today.
Normally I would be happily freezing/drying/cooking etc etc etc during my time off for the summer. It looks like I'll get it all (if I get ANY)starting in Aug and Sept when I go back to work!
CRAZY YEAR!
I think next year I'll start some from seed and buy some plants. That way I'll have things spread out a bit. NT

I think its the cold spring we had here in California. I'm hoping for a nice warm autumn, though not too far ahead so it doesn't interfere with skiing...

I'm going to do some research on what to plant now for fall.

Strange year indeed. Here in San Diego it is normal for May and early June to be cloudy all day. We call it May Gray and June Gloom but here we are almost into August and there are still few really sunny days. In spite of this however I am having the best garden year in a long time with almost no failures except for some powdery mildew due to lack of sun.

The San Jose Mercury News had an article the other day that this is the coolest Summer in the Bay Area in 40 years.

I am getting way above average fungal disease on the tomatoes and have had to take 6 plants out, but corn, cukes and peppers have done great.

Raybo

Out here in NC a huge chunk of the state just had our hottest June in recorded history.

Go figure.

It's currently 99F with 50% humidity. This is silly. This isn't Florida. Hehe...

Just checked the 10 day forecast here in San Jose, and it will be 78 for the highs next 7 days, nights about 55. 0% chance of rain.

Mon
Jul 26

Partly Cloudy

76°
55°

0%

76°F

Tue
Jul 27

Sunny

76°
55°

10%

76°F

Wed
Jul 28

Sunny

77°
55°

0%

77°F

Thu
Jul 29

Sunny

77°
55°

0%

77°F

Fri
Jul 30

Sunny

78°
57°

0%

78°F

Sat
Jul 31

Sunny

80°
57°

0%

80°F

Sun
Aug 1

Sunny

79°
58°

Raybo

I'm having a bad year too - despite advance planting and all. Beds went up late due to fence construction delay, purchased soil turned out to be horrible and clay filled.

Even the cukes I planted away from the delayed beds - only 1 cuke form two plants. Zuchini - direct seeded in april I think - not one zuke.

carrots, beets and chard came through for me though......

Sigh!

Got about 25 tomato plants in, same with peppers....mulching with mushroom compost - hopefully - they will take off at some point....

Thanks for listening, I am an avid, obsessive gardener (read gardening books for fun all winter) who had a disappointing year.

I can so relate to this. I did everything the "right way" this year. I read and read, started from seed, yadda, yadda. Still, for what I put into this garden, I would not have expected so much fungus and disease and and wilt and little crawly things...

I have had some good crops but almost everything has sucumbed before its time, IMO. It has been kinda weird and an almost daily discouragement. I have to keep reminding myself of all the good veggies that have come out of the garden...lettuce, some beets, lovely peas before they got the black spots. I am also trying for some Fall crops. Snow peas, more beets, broccoli, lettuces. We'll see.

Just like in life, I have to keep reminding myself to look for the good.

Yes, I will keep going, too. Not gardening is never an option. What I do try to do is limit the amount of money I put in. Then if I lose plants/fruit gets eaten/plants don't bear, I haven't lost much money...only time...and time spent with your hands in the dirt is never wasted.

So I buy seeds, and this year I'm putting in cover crops so that I don't buy compost or deal with potting soil. A few dollars here, a few dollars there and that's it.

It's been unseasonably cool here, which my heat loving plants don't seem to be, um, loving. I don't think it's broken 90 degrees here in weeks, and that's really unusual for July. I read somewhere, though, that we've been in an unseasonably hot weather pattern for many decades, and now our weather pattern is switching into a cooler one that'll also last for several decades, so I guess this is what I'll have to look forward to for a while, unless I decide to move.

This year has been bad with the psyllids infesting my tomatoes, but thankfully it happened later than last year, which means that my plants got off to a better start and were more established by the time the bugs really started kicking into gear. I've already gotten some nice tomatoes, and that's an improvement on last year, where basically every tomato I picked was awful - stunted, not tasty, not sweet, and either waterlogged or just gross. My zucchini and squash aren't doing great, and I always expect them to go gangbusters, so that's always sort of weird for me. Beans haven't put on very many flowers, but then again, they haven't put on all that much foliage either. I've been hesitant to fertilize because everything I've read says not to feed them, but they did get a small bit since they share a bed with the zukes and squash and I've fed them to see if that helps with production and overall vigor of the plants.

My eggplants are doing pretty well though, as far as I can tell, since this is the first year I've grown them. Peppers are still short, but all but the habanero are putting out a fair amount of fruit, so I'm excited about that. I don't know what the hab's problem is. It was the runt of the litter for a while, then it shot up and caught up with the rest of the peppers, but it's much bushier with smaller, more abundant foliage, and I think only 1 pepper has set. I've been meaning to keep up with the crazy 3x fertilizing experiment that was mentioned in another thread, but I've been too busy to do much in the garden lately, so that's fallen by the wayside. At least they've gotten some fertilizer, and it doesn't seem to have affected them negatively whatsoever (in terms of excess foliage/plant growth while impairing flower production). In fact, they look greener, better, and healthier, and they're still flowering and setting fruit at a normal rate (well, "normal" compared to last year, since it's the only thing I have to reference).

This weird weather is probably going to become the norm until I'm old and gray, so I guess I'd better start adapting my gardening now!

Well,

I've been getting some nice tomatoes in spite of the cool weather. As you, the Psyllids are causing havoc on my plants this Season, so I need to enjoy them while they last.

Here is a Brandywine Cowlicks on the left, and Brandywine Sudduth on the right:

{{gwi:94925}}

Sliced:

{{gwi:94926}}

Corn has been good:

{{gwi:1262}}

And have been picking Peppers and Cukes.

Raybo

Unusually cold winter followed by unusually warm dry summer here. Runner beans need rain but French beans loving the dry and warmth - the best ever. Haven't needed to cut the grass for 2 weeks. Normally twice a week in summer. I actually have green tomatoes! No blight yet, which is a first in at least 10 years. Have had to water several times. Last year never watered once. Luckily very few pests. The aphids are being polished off by a horde of ladybirds and there's nothing else at all, apart from the usual snails and the dreaded bindweed.

Yummy brandywines. They look great, as does your corn.

My brandywines are late. Healthy, flowering, and just starting to fruit; too late in the season.

My corn's just getting going, still small cobs.

Did you start everything in a greenhouse?

All my toms in the ground just sort of sat there all summer, doing nothing.

All my toms in containers went crazy! So I'm picking tomatoes out of containers. Just little ones though.

My plants in Idaho also seem to be off to another slow start. Hot weather finally kicked in, so they're making up for lost time. I gathered some potatoes. The corn SHOT up in about 10 days time, now in silk and tassels. But now we're getting rain. Not the norm for Idaho.