Growing Gardens

For all of you dying to know how my garden is doing, here is a quick update:-) The squash, zucchini, and cucumbers are thriving... Or were at least in these pictures. As of a week ago, the temperature has spiked to a good 95-100 degrees daily and has taken its toll on the squash. (far left). The cucumbers and zucchini seem to be doing alright still, but I'm afraid the squash has given up the ghost.

Here is my awesome tomato plant which is doing great... Also up until a week ago:-) Instead of the heat giving us trouble this time, it seems to be worms! Army stripe worms to be specific, and they keep eating my stinking tomatoes! Well, I had Seth spray them with some wicked bug killer, and we shall see if they persist....

While I like my vegetables, the soft spot in my heart belongs to my flowers. Here they are looking so beautiful! But, like the rest of the items in my garden, the last week proved to be the harbinger of death for a lot of my plants. The pink petunias to the left of the plant suddenly died last week with no symptoms whatsoever, and now two more of my alyssum plants have been turning brown. While I believe the petunias succumbed to Southern Blight, a nasty bacterial infection for plants, I think the alyssum are just being fried by their location in the planter.

While the tags I did plant my flowers with boasted "full sun", I don't think these particular flowers were designed for heat this intense. I have watered, fertilized, and sprayed for bugs to no avail. A majority of my front garden is still doing well, but I have learned that even the best care cannot always protect your flowers from nasties like Southern Blight.

Overall, it has been very rewarding having my own little gardens. I loved watching my small little plants fill out and grow so bright and beautiful. Even though it is painful to pull a dead plant that you worked so hard for, you learn how to avoid that problem in the future and move on. Next year will be even more fun now that I know what I am doing, (kinda:-), and I know what I like. And as a side note, I would like to say thank you to Pam/Mom for all her help with my gardening questions and her great advice:-) Hopefully the next photos of my garden are as pretty as these!