Fruits of Labor - Hive Garden Journal Challenge - July 2022

mers (72)in HiveGarden • 3 years ago (edited)

Hello dear Hive Gardeners and Hive Friends!

It is the time of the season when harvesting begins in our part of Europe. Some of the plants I have were already harvested a couple of weeks ago and some more are in the ripening process. I have always done container gardening before, all lettuces were planted in used cracker boxes. Now that I have a balcony, I planted everything in pots.

The progress of the plants growing in my containers was not that good, this time it is slow. The newbies were planted in April but the cold temperatures affected them badly and some of the leaves of spices have had burns when the temps were below zero.

This pepper bush took so long to start flowering. By this time, most of the pepper should have grown bigger by now. At least these two need about a couple of days more and will be ready for the harvest.

Cukes

They are also for harvesting, I harvested three last week which were made into salad. They call this variety snack cucumber because they are smaller in size. This is my first time planting this type.

Blackberries

It takes so long for these berries to become ripe. The raspberries beside this bush were already harvested about three weeks ago. These berries get sturdier, bigger and robust as they ripen.

I planted this last year in Fall..not bad for its 1st year, plenty of berries are still green.

Beefsteak Tomatoes

I had this variety last year and they were really huge. These are the type of tomatoes used to top/trim hamburgers . I have tried them and they are awesomely sweet.

Cherry Tomatoes.

Their start was affected by the cold temps in April. And all the branches are thin and grew so tall vertically despite the feed. Perhaps, it has something to do with the soil used. I used new and old soil from last season and enhanced it with feed like brewed coffee and tee rest. I saw to it that the soil was not from the same tomatoes I grew last year.

Parasite attack

The tomatoes got aphids this time and another white parasite, but I was able to eradicate them by using a homemade spray concoction of 1 liter water, 2 teaspoons of mild liquid soap , and 2 teaspoons of cooking oil which were combined and sprayed to the affected area. Two days after they were gone. Depending on the plant you want to use this mixture to, be sure to try first in a small affected area. Another homemade spray I used in the past is a combination of 1 teaspoon of baking soda and 1 liter water which is very effective when plants have white molds.

Honeysuckle Lonicera

Aside from the vegetables and berries, I also got 2 honeysuckle bushes planted in containers. This is the 1st one that almost died from freezing temps because it was still a young plant... But it recovered and a couple of buds showed-up and bloomed yesterday under 33°C.

And lastly, this is how my container garden looks like today in the above image. The eggplant is also a problematic bush, it begins to flower every time but its flower begins to get brown and simply falls down.

That's it for now... I thank the Hive Garden Community Team for initiating this Garden Journal Challenge. A shout out to @sisterhood2, @jurich60, @olivia08 to join this fun challenge.