A Veggie Garden Update

Meantime, back to the vegetable garden.  Here are my 3 raised beds for vegetables.  First is the corn bed which seems to be doing great.  The larger stalks are showing the flower that starts the corn on the cob. I have a hill of zucchini in the middle of the corn that you may not can see. It has huge leaves and big yellow flowers. I have about 3 small zucchini growing larger. 

The second bed has peppers, squash and recently started cantaloupe, okra and watermelon sprouts. I have harvested one sweet bell pepper and one sweet banana pepper.  They really pepped up a salad! More are soon to be ready.  I recently added a few pole bean seeds to this bed which are just up.  It may be too late to start beans, but I decided late that I had a little more room. We'll see. 

The third bed is mostly tomatoes. They are all doing well.  I have harvested a handful of small tomatoes from a Sweet 100 bush. Many green tomatoes are growing on all bushes, and I have plenty more blooms too.  I planted a few carrots, garlic bulbs, onion sets and chives between the tomatoes. I have oregano in the corners too. All this spice helps deter pests.  They all appear to be doing fine.  

As the heat increases, the bugs and insects appear. If you have a veggie garden, check often for pests and damage.  Be sure to handle the intruders immediately so they don't get out of hand. You can look online to identify bugs that you do not recognize.  Then you can hopefully find a gentle remedy to send them on their way.  My worst offender so far was ants eating the okra.  This is a common problem. Ants like okra.  I didn't mess with them. They can take down everything if ignored. I sprayed Sevin, in a liquid spray form, carefully in that area only.  I didn't want to kill every bug around, especially the lady bugs on the corn.  Ladybugs eat aphids so not all bugs are bad ones.

Also as the heat increases, so should your watering. We are in the high 80's and low 90's now in June in East Texas.    For now, I water every other day.  I may go to every day as it gets in the high 90's.  You have to watch your garden.  Don't let anything wilt.  It will affect your produce.