(Part 1 of 2) The Garden in May

So with the end of session and beginning of special session, May and this first week in June were really crazy at work. Even with 120+ comp. hours worked last month, I tried to keep up with the garden and get a few other creative things done around the house. Plus, I had a couple of great family visits that rendered some new and exciting stuff!

Now to the garden, May was not the best month for gardening here in Casa de Nezda. All of my plants began to bear lots of fruit which was very exciting but not without tradgedy for some. Below are all the pepppers on the banana bell pepper plants along with some pretty tomatoes which I have now devoured.

I have never been a big fan of tomatoes and to this day don't really care for the kind that come on sandwiches at most restaurants, however, a garden tomato is totally different. Squeeze out the seeds, add a little salt and some olive oil and what a wonderful treat. Plus, these tomatoes seem to be able to reach a deep reddness that their store bought counterparts could never hope for. The heirlooms, had some pretty serious problems, including major drought/cold cracks that made them not look so pretty, even though they still tasted wonderful, and one of the two got attacked by pests and had to be thrown away.

Now for the really terrible news, the dreaded squashvine borer... I was warned by a very nice gentleman at the Austin Garden Club that these little pests would be a problem but when I read about them, all the articles said not to worry until June or July. Apparently this is not true in Texas, in Texas a gardener needs to worry about squashvine borers at the beginning of May. Basically, these wasp like creatures lay thier itty-bitty eggs on your squash plants and they are barely visible. When they hatch, they burrow into the the healthy stems and begin eatting. One day the plant looks vibrantly healthy, the next it's wilted, then it's dead. These evil little larva managed to kill all 5 of my lovely squash plants. As soon as I knew there was a problem I tried to help the little plants by cutting open the stems, digging out the white worm looking larva and popping them (yes, they pop), very disgusting, I was very glad for gardening gloves. Here is the damage, very sad.

Healthy, squash stem or so I thought.

Wilted squash plant.

Dead squash with the exposed stem where the borer ate the middle.