Well, good heavens, it is July, you know, and a hotter-than-usual one at that. It doesn't matter how good my garden looks in June, July is a garden-slayer. So, take comfort in the fact that you are not alone....and the fall planting dates are coming up!

The heat makes cucumbers bitter, so you can plant another round of cukes for fall and have delicious cucumbers once again.

Yellow leaves on a tomato are signs of many things. Often the oldest leaves near the bottom just turn yellow as they age, or it could be a sign of a disease or heat stress. Remove the yellow leaves. Water the tomato (at the ground level to keep water off the foliage) and feed it if you think it needs to be "boosted" at little, and you should see new growth soon.

Bumpy bean leaves do indicate a plant virus but, if the plants are still producing beans, I wouldn't pull them yet but would pull them if production has stopped or almost stopped.

I can't help you with the pooped-out garden helper, though, because I feel the same way....it is too hot "out there" in the garden to do much of anything.

As far as $$$$ spent compared to the harvest received, it will get better as you gain experience AND in the years that the weather cooperates a bit more than it did this year. Remember, too, if you are gardening organically, to consider how much more expensive organic produce is at the grocery store. Finally, if gardening is fun and enjoyable, it is worth the $$$ spent. For me, gardening is a 'lifestyle' and I spend the money on the garden that other people spend on movies and amusement parks and vacations. Since I enjoy my time in the garden so much, it is worth the money to me.

I always encourage veggie gardeners to 'try again' in the fall because often the fall gardening season is more productive than the spring/summer one. Of course, it is largely dependent on the late summer/fall weather as well as the timing of the first fall freeze. Still, the produce I get in the fall makes me forget how horrible July and August were.

And there's one more "dirty little secret" in the gardening world that no one really talks about, and it is this: While it is nice to have lovely, deep green, lush, healthy-looking tomato plants in spring and early summer, it is normal for them to look yellowing, browning, sad, sick, pitiful, crispy and half-dead as the season wears on. Producing tomatoes, especially in very high heat and intense sunlight, is very, very, very hard on a plant. I just ignore how awful the plants look by mid- to late-July and keep them watered and fed, if needed, and keep on harvesting tomatoes. Am I proud of how the plants look in mid- to late-July? Definitely not. But, are they doing their 'job' of producing fruit? Yes. So, who cares what the plants look like.

Hang in there. Cooler weather and the joy of fall gardening are just around the corner!

Dawn

Thanks for the words of encouragement, Dawn. When I day dream, I dream of working in my garden in the fall! I don't know why my cuke pic didn't post, it showed up in the preview.

My green beans haven't had nary a bean in 2 weeks, but neitehr have my not virus infected ones, but they have blooms aplenty so I am waiting.

I have to admit, I do have this urge to pull it all and start over, so I don't have to watch it suffer, but I am going to resist unless it is warranted.

I hate wishing time away, because we don't get that much, but I sure wish fall would get here!

My garden is fading away also - everything except the peppers. This time of year will do that. We had a narrow window for tomato fruiting this year.

Keep after it!

I'm glad to hear that yellowing leaves can be normal on tomato plants. The lower leaves on most of my plants are turning yellow and looking unhappy. The upper leaves still look good. I have lots of tomatoes, but they're all still green.

I had four cayenne peppers on one plant until a couple of days ago. Suddenly two of them went missing! I found one, along with a small branch of the plant, laying on the ground. The one I found on the ground looked like it had a hole pecked in it near the top. I wouldn't have thought birds would be interested in hot peppers.

I can say that in spite of the aphids my little purple hulled pea plants are hanging in there. I only have three plants but have gotten three pods off them so far and can see at least three more forming. May not be a huge harvest, but I'm thinking I'll enough to make my own homemade peas for next New Year's.

Debra

Debra,

As far as I know, birds aren't bothered by hot peppers...that is why some companies sell 'squirrel-proof' or 'squirrel free' birdseed for birdfeeders which is birdseed coated with capsaicin or oleoresin. The squirrels don't like the hot pepper taste and leave the bird seed alone and birds receptors do not perceive the capsaicin or oeloresin as hot or unpleasant, so they can eat the seed. So, if it looked like birds got your peppers, then they probably did.

In Texas there's a very small pepper (Chile pequin) that grows wild in frost-free areas and the tiny peppers are very, very hot. I grew it in Fort Worth and while it was not perennial for me there in zone 8, it did reseed itself every year. Most Texans always just called them 'bird pepper' because the birds liked to eat them.

In our garden, black-eyed peas and okra have withstood just about everything and kept on producing over the years, and hot peppers are only a slight bit pickier (the peppers demand a bit more water). Many years I have grown okra and blackeyed peas "dryland" style, relying only on rainfall.

Dawn

That's very interesting, Dawn. I really would have never thought birds simply didn't have receptors for the "hot" in hot peppers. I guess I just figured every creature perceived them the same. I may have to see if the bird netting can be stretched over the peppers as well as the tomatoes.

My okra is just now beginning to really take off. They've had about five pods so far, although the first one I've left to go to seed, but they seem to be putting on a lot of small pods now. The last one I picked did seem to grow a lot faster than the previous few.

I'm still amazed at the little purple hull pea plants. These guys have had aphids all season, as far as I can tell. I hose them off once or twice a day, but the plants seem to be happily growing and making pods in spite of the ants' little herds. I only have three plants so I doubt I'll have a really large harvest from them. I guess I need to start now determining how and in what direction to try to enlarge my little bed for next year. I'd like to plant a several more of these next year.

Debra