i just noticed that one of my figs is starting to get purple stripes, I better either pick it or wrap a bag around it. Something ripped right through a couple of bags last year, I haven’t seen any squirrels in a few years, but this didn’t look like a bird attack. Looked like something with tiny hands.
Is it just birds that lust after your crops?
1 Like
Love those black tomatoes, they have so much flavor
1 Like
Sounds like my crops. Except for the Mexican limes, they go gangbusters- usually.
1 Like
I got mine from Temu- the quality’s good and they were ridiculously cheap if they still have them
1 Like
Cat faced?
We’ve had a real issue with possums in one of our strawberry beds this year, and are beginning to suspect they were also responsible for tearing into our bagged grapes the last two years. Have you seen any around?
2 Likes
I’m told there are a few around, but I’ve never seen one and neither has anybody I know that lives here. Raccoons and squirrels, yes, but not possums, although I don’t think I’d mind them. Easy for me to say…
1 Like
I snagged that first fig earlier this week.
Not quite ripe, but I ate it!
After @ewsflash mentioned figs, I picked another. Probably also not ready, but I got excited!
Some of the larger tomatoes are getting a little color
…and the little cherries have little hornworms!
The big tomatoes have a worm that bites the stem; maybe “fruitworms”. I’m writing an article about “bug detective work”.
Some new-to-me peppers are bigger than expected
I’ve mislabeled a few, but hope the colors (red, yellow, orange) all represent.
Sad pluots, in containers.
I ditched two stonefruit in containers this year. I think I will ditch these as well. They are too hard to keep watered and fed.
3 Likes
Pea picking time. My goal is to freeze 4 quarts of shelled peas this season. I’ll get about 75% of the way there with this crop. It’s looking like I’ll be planting peas for fall in a couple of weeks.
3 Likes
Also picking carrots, scallions, strawberries, cabbage, zucchini, the last of the asparagus, kale, and lettuce, and the first of the sour cherries. Crazy times ATM.
3 Likes
Here’s our latest move in the war on possums in our garden.
This is the fenced-in area where we grow Himrod grapes. We fenced it in to keep the deer out, but we failed to consider smaller critters. For two years now our grapes, despite bagging, have been decimated.
Note the new bird spikes around the perimeter of the top of the cage, as well as “razor” strips up the trunk of each plant. We’ve renamed this area of the garden “Alcatraz”.
We’ll find out in the fall if we’ve won the battle, and will remove the razor strips after harvest.
2 Likes
Wow! 
You don’t mess around!
4 Likes
A few from my miserable garden this year:
2 Likes
Anyone else pick tomatoes at the breaker stage? I did some of that today, for a number of reasons, probably including having gone quite “mad”.
Here’s Craig Lehoullier’s take on it. On the tomatoes, not on me being “quite mad”.
1 Like
Upstate, the cukes are getting started. Could be a good year! Fingers crossed!
Downstate, some tomato action.
Basil and sage, little gem lettuce.
The balcony-scape.
And a couple of freeloaders.
5 Likes
Your crops look great- did a vine borer get that tomato stem?
The itty bitty @%#&(+ ants got my first fig. They manage to climb right in through the bag opening. I need to hunt down some ant bait now. I hate doing that, but they try to take over the back yard
2 Likes
Thank you! I have determined it was a tomato fruit worm or tomato fruit borer ( as opposed to a tomato horn worm. helicoverpa zea and manduca quinquemaculata.
TMI? 
I am open to suggestions.
I am working on a short blog submission like I’m a DCIS on “Line Of Duty”!
2 Likes
Interesting- I hadn’t heard of them before. They look to be just as damaging,though
Helicoverpa zea (Heliothis zea) ravages corn, tomatoes and peppers here. It’s not too picky about what it eats, usually fruits instead of leaves. The Latin “zea” refers to corn, but the common names Corn Earworm and Tomato Fruitworm indicate what a common pest it is. I don’t remember if Bacillus thringiensis (Dipel) kills it.
To garden is to battle pests! Voles killed two sweet potato plants; those rodents are now snake food and their tunnels caved-in. Squirrels are stealing green peaches, (I won’t get into their control.) Since groundhogs love sweet potato foliage, I’m trying my blend of 50/50 cayenne powder & black pepper powder as a dusting on the plants. The dust can enter sinuses and the eyes, causing irritation. The black pepper, even if washed off by rain, leaves a odor. It has worked to repel rabbits, but groundhogs may be different.
BTW: The above blend is good on pizza!
2 Likes
