My Veggie Garden Update 7-15-26

My established Peppers (Jalapeno/Bell) still doing good and producing fruit....The 2 new Jalapeno plants I started(to see if they would make larger peppers), also growing well, getting wide stalks and healthy leaves, one starting to flower....My 4 Okra plants doing very well and stalks thickening, one even shooting out a "flower" recently...That's the "winners" so far....Sadly, my Cucumber and Squash plants have ended up being the "losers" this year....Cucumbers started out so well, as you can tell from this June 5th Pic:BUT they ended up being victims of what looks to be "massive SunScald", even though I had them "shaded" daily during times of direct sunlight on them....Here's a recent pic of them now:They are the same seeds, planted in the same place, and utilizing the same trellis as last year's cucumber crop which did very well...Can't figure this one out, SMH...And then there's my "Squash" plants....Did at least 12 this year...2 years ago they were devastated by an infestation of "squash vine borer" worms, literally destroying them from the inside out...Last year, it was the excessive heat and/or "sun-scorch"...This year I decided to grow them in the "shadier" garden I call the "misfits" garden...Everything started out well...But then the rains and extreme humidity came and what I believe to be fungus, which thrives in that environment, started to attack the squash leaves....I pruned many off, but it eventually "won"....Only have 2 plants left that look like they would stand a chance, and both aren't even close to the "producing" stage...So it looks like no squash or cucumbers this year for me....I'm gonna start a new batch of cucumber seeds tomorrow in hopes of catching the tail end of the season...Not gonna do the same for the Squash as I need the planter pots they're in for all those Mustard Greens I'll start in Sept, which is only about 6 weeks away!....

In our garden this year, we moved our tomato plants to a sunnier location to see if that's why they failed last season. So far this year, a few tiny tomatoes that disappeared off the vine. Not a trace, no partial fruits, just nothing. * heavy sigh *

@KathyMarshall : Probably the high temps last year....My cherry tomato plants grew nice and large last year, but never produced until sometime in October....So I ordered seeds of a "heat tolerant" variety this spring....But for some reason they have a poor germination rate and the ones that did spout are taking their sweet time growing....Well, I did accidentally kill a few with that vinegar spray watering incident too so....I currently have 3 growing slowly....Funny thing is, by the time they get big enough to produce it will be cool enough that I didn't need the heat tolerant ones in the first place...I think next year, I'll just wait until July to start a regular variety....By Oct they should be big enough to start producing with temps they like....Maybe....

Meanwhile...I really really hate figs. 😬Ill take some of @EddyFree 's peppers!!

@EddyFree : I didn't even know squash could grow here. Yes, please!

@brightlights : Yep, it does....A couple years ago I had a nice little crop going until it got infested with vine-borer worms....By the time I found out what was happening it was too late to save the plants....And some of them were producing....Last year it was the heat....This year, it's a fungus or bacterial issue rotting the leaves....

@EddyFree: Yeah. So much of what and how we grow in our gardens is trial and error, with the Error being Mother Nature's yearly changes and challenges! Thanks for sharing your experience and ideas.

My dream is to eventually have a full vegetable garden...to be able to walk outside, pick whatever lettuces/greens/veggies I want in a salad that day. Heaven!The natural soil in this area sucks. Either that, or it's a user error. 🤭

Here's my garden:

Operation "Start Dem Seeds" is now complete....12 cuke seeds and 12 cherry tomato seeds now in seed-starting trays...

@CarolS : From one of my responses I wrote on the KDC thread I made about this topic:"You can either buy the plants already healthy and growing good or start from seed....Now I start from seed....Mainly because I want the full experience....I don't really do the garden for the fruit it provides, that's just a "bonus"....I do it for the experience/challenge and giving me something else to do outside instead of sitting on my desktop computer for hours inside...."

Another quick update:Looky here, looky here....The first Okra bud of the season:It'n it cute?....As I leaned in to get a good look, I could have sworn I heard the plant whisper "Eddy, this bud's for you!"....

And less than a week later, I'll introduce y'all to a few "new members" of the garden, to be joining it soon:Them's all cucumbers....Nothing from the tomatoes yet....Tomato seeds I've planted the last few years are notorious for slow germination...Sometimes up to a month!....

And less than a week later my first "harvestable" Okra: