It’s been far too long since I last blogged!! I went on vacation and I never came back!! With everything going on in the world right now, even logging onto FB brings information overload that easily leads to hours and hours of news and articles to read. But don’t forget, the garden is a welcome escape when things get hectic, a serene place to reboot and gather thoughts. I forgot that recently, but I am back at it, to show what madness has ensued when I left plants to their own devices.
First things first, it’s definitely been a few weeks since I was in the garden for more than about a half an hour. It is a mess. Many weeds to pull, many plants to prune, tomato suckers everywhere. Some things died completely. We have had a good amount of rain, so Mother Nature helped me out. But I did definitely need to get to ground level and start with weeds.
The big leaf is a zucchini. The smaller heart-shaped leaf is a morning glory vine. They are terrible, beastly plants who want to bring death and destruction to everything. They must die!! Oh, you think they have pretty flowers? This is not the blog for you 🤣🤣Weeds are everywhere, I am ashamed of myself. You know it’s bad when you planted a few exotic varieties of plants and can’t tell if this is one of them or an overgrown weed. This will be my first year trying to get watermelons to climb a trellis. Green peppers!! I was very worried about peppers, but at least one plant is thriving!!Carrots – dead. Little pepper plants, all thriving!! Even the weird Black Russian ones!! This is shameful….I am ashamed of myself that I let them completely bust loose!! But no worries, I will fix this!! Look over all your plants for any branches that show damage, they must be chopped off immediately. They will not fix themselves. Shriveled up, dead branches must also go immediately. Any yellow leaves, growth that looks unhealthy….all must be snipped. Yellow = snipped.Clean up any weeds around the bottom of the plants. Make sure your watering tubes are facing in the general direction of the plant, but not at the root itself. Yellow leaves, weeds, shriveled vines = all snipped. Even if they have grown outside of the cage, just redirect them back in. Do not try to bend them downward like they are in some vegetable game of limbo….they will snap. Being gentle is key. This is the plants all cleaned up, encouraged to grow in the proper direction and suckers all pinched off. I have a few baby tomatoes, but I usually don’t celebrate them until they turn red. This is what happens when morning glory vines aren’t dealt with….they choked my potatoes to death. They wrapped up the vines and strangled them like a murder scene in Unsolved Mysteries. Treacherous!!
So I hope you have learned what not to do….the plants can go a few days, but not too long. They need love, need attention at least every few days. I have been neglectful to them. I pay the price with dead plants. But it’s not a total loss, I may be able to salvage some of this mess. But that’s next blog….in the meantime, keep on growing 🌱💜🌱
Let’s Grow Together 