MidSo August updates

I am a rookie, and a late starter (planted all in end of May), so may be way behind on some things.
Things I had so far:

• squash is doing great, picked about 10-12 of them so far, and bunches are getting ready to ripen
  
• bush beans took forever to get green (feeding was needed), but now I am harvesting here and there, and it's enough for my kid to get lunch veggies regularly. There are still tons of flowers on them.
  
• pole beans are flowering crazy, and there are tons of small beanies, not ready yet
  
• cucumber (pickling) is fruiting at a nice pace, enough for breakfast daily
  
• cucumber (slicing) is reaching the trellises and is ready to start climbing (planted in july)
  
• watermelon produced two spectacular fruit, one fell down, second one is in a sling
  
• melons produced two "for sure" fruits, they are swelling fast. there are tons of embryos but not sure if they are fertilized.
  
• tomatoes are storebought this year, and planted very late, they are just now coming to life, and produced some flowers, not spectacular.
  
• store bought eggplant is doing AWESOME - tons of blooms, and it's mushrooming fruit in great quantities. I harvest them young and small.
  
• peppers are store bought, they are coming to life.
  
• radishes - junk, all leaf and no root, probably too hot or not enough of something, I pretty much gave up on them.
  
• bunch of herbs overheated and died, while we were away
  
• basil - enormous and bushy, amazing flavor, use daily, took forever to start it, but now it's a super star
  
• pumpkin - poor amputee, almost lost it to vine borer, still fighting for the remaining 1/3 vine. it looked awesome until the bugs got it.
  
• planted recently some lettuces (leafy) and two varieties of spinach - put them all under the melon "shade", so they should be ok there.
  
• still planning - broccoli, cauliflower, and if spinach sprouts well, I'll plant tons of it for fall, we are big spinach eaters here.
  
• also in the works - strawberry basket (won't allow flowering this fall, but planting rather for next spring)

overall, I am very pleased, fully realizing that my planting schedule was way off.

We've lost track of Jason, the middle South Regional Host, since he went off to rescue and clean up duty after the heavy spring rains hit Tenn. We hope he is doing well.

Middle Southerners, how do your gardens grow? Are you planning a fall garden?

Not sure of your region? Check here.

Overall I had a great first year SFG. It has been close to 100 degrees for a few weeks now, unusually hot for us, but I've been able to water & keep most things going, but the season is definitely winding down. I've probably forgotten something, but:

I had good success with tomatoes, oriental cabbage, corn, lettuce, peppers, cucumbers, Hales jumbo cantalope, delicata squash, yellow squash & zucchini. Cukes, delicata squash & cantalope are still going strong.

Fair success with Roma bush beans - they grew too high, more like a half runner, & were too crowded & molded/rotted in the center of the bed. I wasted 2 beds with a dried bean, won't do that again.

Carrots & onions rotted because I planted too close to squash & other larger plants.

Cabbage was destroyed by cabbage loopers.

I have a few more tomatoes on the vines, but they are about finished. The blight has arrived. There is still a lot of healthy foilage at the top, but I don't know how much longer they will live, plus it's so hot I don't think fruit will set. I have 2 small plants I started from suckers.

Still lots of hot peppers & bell peppers are just starting to come in.

I've never done Fall gardening before but I have planted 2 kinds of cauliflower, cabbages, bok choy, brussel sprouts, leek, 2 kinds of carrots & parsnips for Fall.

Will plant turnips (for roots) & rutabagas in a couple of weeks.

I've learned a lot this year & hope next year will be even better.

boffer thanks for transfering my post from UpSo to MidSo!
I feel MidSo much better here