Garden Updates 2023

It was a hot summer. My garden did not fair very well after...the middle of June. I think I was able to eat maybe 2-2.5 pounds of tomatoes I grew myself and maybe 3-4 small bell peppers. My basil has been producing and thriving through the summer. I have more basil than I know what to do with. My bushes are still full and I feel like I've pruned them a lot. My freezer is full of pesto. My refrigerator is full of pesto. There's a lot of pesto. 

I turned all this basil into pesto. Two colanders turned into about 2 cups of pesto. 

It turned perfectly orange. Beautiful.

These I used green and turned them into a delicious stir-fry.

Some of my tomato harvest.

Now that fall is officially here (although yesterday's high was nearly triple digits again), the plants are beginning to thrive again. My pepper plants are about twice as tall as they were last year at this time. I attribute it to consistent and daily watering. My garden is on an automatic watering system and it waters the exact same amount at the same time every day. I love it. I do still walk around the corner to say hi to them in the mornings and do a quick visual inspection, but I'm not hand-watering the plants on that side. 

I use tomato cages for pepper plants. Works like a charm.
These are about 5 feet tall (including the raised bed height).

I pulled one of my three tomato plants because I'm pretty sure it was diseased. I left two of them because I wanted to see if I could get a fall harvest. I'm not entirely sure I will, but it doesn't hurt to try. One of my tomato plants is now coming back for the third time. Yes, you read that correctly, the THIRD time from being cut back twice.

This tomato plant has been pruned twice. It's on its third life. 

The first time was not on purpose. When I bought the tomato plant at the store, one of the larger stems was bent and hanging over. When I planted them into my garden, I cut off the bent stem and replanted it in another pot. Tomatoes propagate extremely easily and this stem grew nicely and became a great producer for me in early summer. About 4-6 weeks ago, I cut it way back again to let it restart for the fall. It's now got some blossoms on it along with growing new foliage. If I'm lucky I may get another 1-2 clusters of tomatoes. 

The best surprise I got was seeing monarch caterpillars on my milkweed plant. I inherited this plant from the neighbor behind us when they were moving. It died last winter in the freeze and started growing again this spring. When I went out in the morning for my daily watering and walkthrough, I saw caterpillars all over my milkweed - eleven to be exact. I opened out patio door and called my children to come out and look at them. 😂 I think they enjoyed it but weren't as impressed as I was.

How many can you find in this photo? 

These caterpillars are not to be confused with tomato hornworms. I have gotten rid of my fair share of hornworms this summer. Those little suckers are resilient. I threw one over the fence and it SURVIVED. And it was a 10 ft fall onto cement. What can I say...nature is pretty amazing, even if I'm not a fan of how they amaze. 

I don't know how much more gardening excitement the rest of the year will bring for me, but it's been a pretty fun journey this year since I started in April. 

2022 I started with peppers. 2023 I added basil and tomatoes.  2024 I may try beans! Stay tuned.