Countermeasures failed plants got eaten alive—sort of. It was an interesting month of high almost record-breaking temperatures and then cold fronts moving in. A plague of something got in alright and it left a wake of destruction.
Thankfully I did start earlier than I normally do. So many setbacks leave me quite some time to recover. Some things as they have in the past are doing amazing this year so far. While other stuff I’m not quite sure will survive May.
Starter Tray
It’s a good thing I’ve never been reliant on trying to grow my entire garden from seeds. This marks yet another year where I’m starting to feel like I’m trying to grow in a wasteland. As you can see from the tray a big old nothing.
There was something. Very tinny parsley sprout at one point in time. As quick as it showed it up it disappeared overnight. I had several visitors over the month most of which did not stay very long. Just long each to eat what little success I had growing.
I think I’m going to try in May the method of growing seeds out of a wet paper towel to get things started. Trying to grow them in a starter tray with dirt is not working out for me. My local stores do not have much to select from either as everyone must be trying to use gardening as a hobby to keep busy.
Say It’s Not True Tomato
The mighty Beef heart was thrilling and seemed rather happy at one point. Then we had a bit of a cold front which you would think it would have been fine though. It shriveled up shortly afterward. It even had a single tomato growing on it before things took a turn for the worst.
I will say it’s looking a bit better today then it has over the past couple of weeks. Its leaves are not as riddled with holes as some of my other plants are. My secrete weapon tied around its cage. Which is no match for what I think is lurking and going after everything in sight.
Thankfully I’m not dealing with Whiteflies this year. The ants, while they were trying to make a comeback, were sent into the hills ablaze. Even the couple of worms that showed up did not last very long.
Lizards which I don’t normally think of eating plants can be depending on the species. I don’t know enough about them other than every time I catch one inside the area I’m growing out of something going on a midnight feast of the place. They do look at me with those guilty eyes.
As a backup with how dire things were looking I picked up a Beef Steak tomato. I had a lot of success last year with one so I thought why not go for round two. They all were a bit sickly so I’m hoping this one will spring back up and take over the place as it owns it.
Good News On The Parsley
The Curly Parsley I picked up this year has been doing great! I have already been using it in meals and at this rate there no catching up to how quickly it is growing. Nothing seems to be interested in it either. So I just got to keep watering it and it should not have any issues.
Not the best photo ever of it with how shady this area was starting to get at the time of day I found some time to get some photos done. You would almost be mistaken that I was growing a forest out of these things!
I have forgotten a couple of times that I now have fresh parsley and have not been loading it up on everything I can. My dried parsley that I bought needs to be tossed. So here is hoping later on this year I’ll be making my own for storing.
Jalapeno Max
Despite something giving its leaves a good thrashing of bites, this thing has gone wild. I already ate my first jalapeno for the year and there over a dozen growing with another dozen flowers waiting in line. I don’t know why but spicy peppers seem to always be one of my better crops.
I’m not the biggest fan of a lot of hot spicy things in my food. A single Jalapeno could last me a couple of days at the very least. It already looks like I’d be set for the season if the things would not rot by then. Not to mention I’m going be getting so many more. I’m going have to think of something to do with the surplus that is coming my way.
Green And Red Bell Peppers
One pepper is already starting to grow actual peppers and the second one is starting to flower. Things were looking a little dicey early into the month. The battle scar wounds still are showing on all the leaves of my pepper plants. At least it did not slow them down much.
The photo above is the green pepper and as you can see it has some tinny peppers on the top. Hidden beneath its leaves is one half the size of my fist and it’s only getting started. I might have to pick the biggest one early as the plant is not tall enough and it’s almost touching the soil. I don’t want it to rot from resting on the soil. So I got to keep a close eye on that one.
Would you look at the massive craters in those leaves that were left behind by a dine and dasher? The red pepper is a couple of weeks younger than my green pepper so I’m not expecting it to have anything yet. It’s a shame it took me so long to work out what I thought was eating everything. Lizards they are among us!
Final Thoughts
The start of the month was not looking so great. Spiders moved in and so I thought for a while I was about to have a whiteflies outbreak. Turns out no, they were just looking for a home and I told them to get out. They were not slowing down what I think was attacking things either.
I removed over half a dozen lizards that kept getting in. People would leave the doors open to haul stuff out into the yard. They would make a run for it every time the door opened. Normally I would see lizards all the time hanging gout on the outside of the screen. I guess they finally wised up to the operation going on inside!
Another Garden Post
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Photos were taken and content was written by @Enjar.
@Simplymike runs the monthly Community Garden Journal Challenge which you can find here
