August in the Garden

Hi--it’s Mary, and I want to tell you about my experiments with inter-plantings of vegetables in the azalea bed in the front of our house and container eggplants. And my first encounter with assassin bugs! But first, some background…..The front yard is the perfect exposure for vegetables, facing south, great sun til mid-afternoon. Wrapping around the front of the house is a large bed that slopes away from the house, planted with azaleas, “dwarf” gardenias, and nandinas--typical suburban landscaping. In past years, I planted some eggplants, peppers, and a couple tomato plants discretely between the landscape plants. Being something of a neatnick, I tried to keep them neat and staked so the view from the street isn’t ratty. This year I decided to make more room, so I cut back the front row gardenias (they were suffering—maybe too much sun?). Now there was room for a row of peppers (King Arthur, Chocolate Beauty, Anaheim) and eggplants (Hansen, White, Rosa Bianca). I’m kind of an eggplant and pepper snob, as you may have guessed. There was even room for a few heirloom tomatoes, but the Dwarf and Penn State Plum were badly hit with early blight in July. Other than these casualties, the inter-plantings have been a success. Twice-weekly watering was just what the eggplants and peppers needed to be prolific and reach 4’ in height. I wasn’t quite prepared for such altitude and had to scramble to add support—and still, a few pepper-laden branches broke clean off.

Back in May, I had two eggplants that wouldn’t fit in the garden. I hauled two decent-looking glazed pots, about 10 gallons each, filled each with a mix of potting soil and mushroom compost, planted the seedling, and put them in front of the bed. They’ve thrived with daily watering, producing as many eggplants as those in the ground. 

A couple weeks ago, I was just about to reach out and pick a pepper when I noticed what I thought was a swarm of red ants on the leaves and peppers. But wait—they had orange bodies and black legs. Not ants. And they were crawling all over the top of the plant. Out of respect, I left them alone and started looking at websites for “garden pests in Georgia.”  InsectIdentification.org was quite helpful and where I found images of assassin bugs, both adults and nymphs, which are like the youngsters and adolescent-aged bugs. So these were assassin bug nymphs. At first, I thought, “ugh—how do I get rid of these before they bite me?” A bit more reading told me that they are a garden asset and will eat some of the more pesky insects that attack vegetables. So I let them be, and they’ve grown and changed to a greenish color that is more typical of the adults. I steer clear because I don’t want to sample their bite, which isn’t too painful but it can itch for several days, like a mosquito bite (to which I’m quite sensitive). And in the pictures below you can see that they are definitely not ants—and how their back ends are aimed up in the air!

The assassin bugs seem to like the front bed and have been cruising from plant to plant in the past two weeks. A second hatching has brought a second crop of tiny critters, so I look rather carefully before I pick vegetables. But they stay busy hunting for bugs and ignore me, for the most part. I’m perfectly happy to let them do their work and haven’t had to use any insecticides since a brief (and unsuccessful) attempt to get rid of the eggplant flea beetles that chew holes in the eggplant leaves. The plants seem to thrive despite the increasingly lacey leaves. If I decide to make a more serious effort, I’ll try an organic pesticide. I understand that diatomaceous earth works as a repellent. It is a dry powder that can be dusted over the leaves. I’ll see how well it works, although eggplant production has not been affected, and it is almost the end of the season.

July 16th

The garden is producing quite well right now despite really hot weather and high humidity particularly at night.  Low temperatures at night on in the low to mid 70's over the past couple of weeks. Not really ideal for tomatoes but the plants are producing  as you can see from the collection below.

Those pictured above include Green Giant, Sweet Sue, Black Krim, Black from Tula, Black, Cherokee Purple, Purple Russian, Speckled Roma, Pineapple, Nepal, Prudens Purple and Amana Orange among others.

We continue to treat weekly with Daconil to try and hold off early blight which has infected a number of plants. We have had to pull another 5 or 6 plants which have been heavily infected with early blight or septoria fungus. Fusarium wilt ( at least that's my belief based on what I have read regarding that disease which is systemic and highly infectious) has also been a culprit. All of those infected plants have been removed and destroyed. We have around 65 plants left which are still producing. I am considering changing over to copper base fungicide this week or next.

The critters (squirrels, chipmunks and birds) are taking their share also as the hot summer conditions drag on. We try to keep these critters focused on other food sources such as sunflower seeds and other types of bird seed. I believe we have been somewhat successful with this approach.

With the extreme heat (nighttime temperatures in the mid to high 70's) and high humidity we are not getting as many blossoms to fruit. We are also now irrigating on a fairly regular basis since summer showers are few and far between.

Eggplants and peppers in the front yard are producing.  Eggplant varieties include Japanese and Calliope.

Initial Thoughts

We call this site "Yardening" because we plan to talk about general happenings in the yard, as well as gardening. One of our initial goals in "yardening" has been to eliminate high maintenance Bermuda grass areas. Our little habitat in the suburban Atlanta is in a constant state of flux as we try to make it a better home for plants and wildlife.  Over the past 5 years we have tomato and vegetable plants just about anywhere that gets decent sun (6 to 8 hours) during the growing season.

We begin our blog site during our 4th season of growing heirloom tomatoes. It's midsummer and there are lots of green tomatoes, and we have just begun to pick a few: Tasmanian Chocolate, Amana Orange, Mexico Midget, Black Krim, Sweet Sue and some Dwarf Giants.

                                                                       Heirloom Harvest

We've also begun to harvest a bounty of eggplant, cucumbers, Anaheim peppers, and zucchini.  Since we are entering midseason, many of our initial posts will relate to summertime tomato and vegetable episodes.

We started with 85 tomato transplants this year, which we began from seed in March of 2015. Mary handles all of the seed starts, and I take over when they are ready to transplant. The vast majority of our plants are heirlooms. (note from Mary: it's hard to get approval to start a non-heirloom tomato!)

Most of our tomatoes are in a 20' by 25' plot in the backyard.  I think we have around 50 plants in the plot and this is our 3rd year using this area.  Eight dwarf tomatoes planted in 10-gallon bags form a front row.  Other tomato plantings are along the side of the back and front yards. We try to ensure that the front vegetable plantings are somewhat visually pleasing.

When I transplant the tomatoes, I use lots of mushroom compost. I generally use several applications of an organic fertilizer, such as 5-4-3, during the growing season.  I use drip irrigation when I have to water. Previously I watered by hand, using a hose and sprayer; this was a lot of time and work. I also used soaker hoses, but they weren't very efficient or durable. Drip irrigation delivers water to the base of each plant and seems to be a better alternative, especially since we are up to 80 plants.

Things seem to be humming along, but as I mentioned, this is our 3rd year of planting in the main plot. We have started to have issues with fungal diseases; namely, early blight and septoria.  I feel sure the fungal spores are in the soil from last year when these fungal diseases first appeared. These are foliar diseases that have killed several plants, but repeated treatment with a fungicide seems to have controlled the infection in many plants and they appear healthy. Perhaps the recent HOT sunny days helped. I like to think that the Daconil (R) and copper sulfate treatments have made the difference. I can't say which has been most effective, but I've been treating plants about every 10 days since the beginning of June. Loss to date is 5 plants, I suspect there may be more lost later, especially if humidity stays high and brief afternoon rain showers continue into July. I'm working on a new plan for next season because I expect fungal disease will become more widespread. Interesting that the remaining 25 tomato plants  planted around the front and back yard are disease-free. The most likely explanation for this difference is that we planted the tomatoes in the same plot for several years, so the fungi have become established in the soil. The tomatoes planted in various locations around the back and front yards are "new to their neighborhoods" so there isn't a buildup of fungus, ready to pounce on plants.

This year Charlie discovered a great new resource: the book Epic Tomatoes written by Craig LeHouiller. It's a fantastic compilation of how to grow great heirloom tomatoes, origins of many early varieties, and it is filled with outstanding pictures.  We met Craig and his wife, Sue (inspiration for the heirloom tomato, Sweet Sue), at a seed swap in Atlanta.  Craig was full of helpful and practical tips for starting and growing heirloom tomatoes, and he shared seeds from several dwarf tomato varieties that he has been developing. We have several of his dwarf tomato plants growing in the plot and around the yard--wherever the exposure gives them 6-8 hours of sun.  His book is my go-to reference book for open pollinated and heirloom tomatoes. Less than a year old, the book is dog-eared and heavily marked up!

Just as an aside the most consistent thing I hear from our friends growing tomatoes is that they have healthy looking tomato plants but no fruit. More than likely their chosen spots for the plants are getting insufficient sunlight. It's futile to plant tomatoes unless you have lots of sun and the more the merrier!

Enough on tomatoes.  Bluebirds. We have 2 bluebird houses in the backyard and have had pairs of birds raise their young in both of our houses over the past few years. We estimate that at 4 eggs per clutch, we have had more than 40 baby bluebirds hatch over the years we've had the houses. Unfortunately, 2 hatchlings died this year, just days before they should have fledged. (Explanation: a fledgling is a baby bird with feathers and has left the nest) From my research and examination of the dead birds, Charlie concluded that the cause was blowflies. He read several articles related to blowfly infestations in bluebird nests and how to prevent them, and decided to use diatomaceous earth to rid the nest of the blowfly larvae that infect the hatchlings. Here is a url to one of my sources describing this problem and the suggested diatomaceous earth remedy. (http://woolwinehousebluebirdtrail.com/2012/07/21/first-brood-loss-to-blowfly-infestation-since-2008/) After removing and destroying the infected nest we treated the house with diatomaceous earth--just after the mother built another nest but before any eggs started hatching. Charlie monitored this nest once it contained eggs every 2 days or so up until the babies had hatched and were around 12 days old. After 12 days, it’s unwise to open the house, because you might cause the babies to leave the nest prematurely. Success! On June 30th I found the nest flattened and the babies had fledged! Awesome! Probably too late for another clutch but I have cleaned the house up anyhow just in case. Bluebirds like a clean house and won't use old nests. So we remove each nest after the babies have fledged.

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                    Checking to see if the coast is clear before 1st flight