Ah, relief....

I went to Renfrow's today. For two things. Number one: Pumpkin plant. Check. Number Two: Tomato Blight. As I mentioned, I removed the infected leaves. Well, much to my dismay, the blight is just showing up at the bottom of the plant. It continues. WELL, as I've been celebrating all the rain that we've had in Charlotte because I haven't had to water in three weeks, the rain is the cause. It's too much and it's causing the blight to appear. The soil is way too moist and hasn't had enough time to dry out between rain storms. Can you believe it? It's nothing I've done.....something completely out of my control. The lady helping me said that everyone else is having the same problem. She also said (and I quote), "This has been a really tough year for gardening". Is it wrong that I wanted to kiss her? I naturally chalked up all my gardening issues to my inexperience. As usual, I was being too hard on myself. This is a tough year for gardening. Since then, I've been walking around with a smile on my face.


I also spoke to her about planting more cabbage and broccoli in the Fall. What, come again? I know, I know. With all the looper issues, I said I was done with the brassica family. Well.......I had to harvest the cabbage head at the end of last week. I went out one morning and found a MASS (and I mean large MASS!) of green, gobby, gooey, LARGE eggs of some type. It was DISGUSTING. I hadn't seen anything like it before. I don't know about you but I had no interest in finding out what was going to hatch out of those suckers. So, like any brave woman, I had my husband harvest the cabbage head and remove the plant and put it directly into the garbage. Shew. Crisis averted! I knew there were loopers in the head so we gave it a nice, long salt water bath. Only one worm floated to the surface but lots of tiny white eggs were floating in the dish afterwards. Anyhoo (I am long winded).....we started using the cabbage this weekend.


WOW!!! In my lifetime, I have never tasted cabbage like this. I didn't even know I liked cabbage this much. It is DIVINE. We've been adding shredded cabbage to our salads every night. Not only is the color GORGEOUS but the taste is simply out of this world. I can honestly say that it was worth every damn worm I pulled off that plant. Worth all of my obsessing. I would otherwise never have known how good cabbage can actually be.



The good news? The Renfrow lady told me that I won't have those looper issues in the Fall. Oh happy day!!! I am seriously ready to pop open champagne to celebrate the very thought of growing this ridiculously delicious cabbage without all the looper issues.


AND, I just have to say.......I know you've heard it all before....but I love veggie gardening. I LOVE IT.

State of the Garden Week - Post #5

So, all in all, the garden is doing fairly well. Next week I head over to Renfrow's to purchase some pumpkin plants. Oh my, this will be interesting. I wanted to plant them this week but it's done nothing but rain. I'm going to end "State of the Garden" week with an overall shot of the garden. I love it. It has surpassed my expectations so far. And I've already started charting my fall garden (you have to start months in advance!)....but more to come on that!

I've been in the midst of several other projects this week so you'll be hearing about those in the next couple of days. Stay tuned.

Oh, and how could I forget, Alain made peach jam last night. It looks so good!!! We can't wait to try it......I'll send some photos so you can drool over it!

PS - For my tomato plants with blight, I removed all the foliage that was infected. I couldn't find a great resource on how to treat it. One place said to remove the plants all together. Ugh, I couldn't bring myself to do that. Another source said to remove the infected bits. So that's what I did. We'll see what happens from here. But the tomatoes are looking VERY GOOD! Fingers tightly crossed.....

State of the Garden Week - Post #2

Let's start with the good news.

This is one of my three cantaloupe plants. Lookin' damn good if I do say so myself.

The scarlet runner beans are slowly making their way up the trellis. There are a few nice red blooms but no beans that I can see yet. When I look at the garden from a distance, for me, this is the highlight. It provides a nice aesthetic that would otherwise be missing.

A peak at the red cabbage head. And, unfortunately, more examples of looper damage. Yes, I am still picking off worms every single day. Although, I do have less work now that I've removed the two broccoli plants. (silent cheering going on here behind the keyboard!)

It's been pouring (and I mean POURING) rain all day in Charlotte. I just took these pictures within the last hour. I am including this picture because I will never tire of the way water beads up on cabbage leaves. It's so lovely. Of course, a picture barely does justice.

The bad news? Two of my tomato plants have blight. I don't exactly know what this means yet but you know for sure that I will be researching this most of the evening. The two affected tomato plants are in the first bed that is the carry over from last year. I feel sure that it's something that I didn't do after last year's growing season. This year I will know better what to do with the bed once the season ends. For now, my fingers are tightly crossed that I won't have to remove the entire plants. More to come....