Dog days

I just got done tearing out most of the cucumber vines from the trellis. They didn't even grow halfway up, and were mostly decimated by powdery mildew and probably 5 other unnamed and exotic maladies. Also threw out 6 "gigante" kolrabi that had begun to elongate and therefore were past their prime. Tomorrow probably will be the melon trellis' turn, they look almost as bad as the cucumbers, and the pole bean trellis, which are being mercilessly shredded by bean beatles. Probably 50% of the sweet peppers we pick have pepper maggots. Mainly the Tequila Sunrise, which are thin-walled and not very tasty at all anyway, and the chocolate pepper, which makes me kind of sad. Purple bells, Giant Aconcagua and sweet cream peppers seem less affected. Every turnip, beet and radish I pull has little brown tunnels in it. The tomatoes, overall, are doing fairly well, all things considered. We have way more than we can eat, but that's mostly because after it rains I have to pluck the most badly cracked ones before they rot on the vine, and there have been alot of those. Lots of crackd half-ripe toms this year. The first round of corn was exciting, and pretty good, but a small harvest considering the 50 plants. The "2nd tier" ears that were left on the stalks to continue maturing are small, misshapen and now bugs have discovered them. Okras are finally producing, about a dozen pods every other day...the only problem with them is minor aphid infestation.

Ah, August. Time for the gardener to shift gears for the first time in the season, away from planting and weeding and nurturing, to pause and take stock of the overall situation, and begin making judgements, adjustments and plans for next year. I have already decided not to even try to grow broccoli, cauliflower or brussels sprouts. On the other hand, an entire 3x8 box dedicated to nothing but carrots is looking mighty appealing. I never will grow Coyote tomatoes again even if somebody paid me to. Sucrine is the only lettuce variety I have grown so far that is not rendered inedible by my summer heat. And the list goes on...

No pictures this time, just picture in your mind's eye diseased plants being thrown into one of those brown paper yard-waste bags.