Perspectives of a Canadian in the Old/Deep/New/Geographic South: This is where I ramble on about nothing in particular and post a few nice pictures.
Picked a few jalapenos today. There are a bunch of them on the jalapeno plants in various stages of growth. These were a pretty decent size and colour and looked ready for picking.
Also spotted a new butternut squash starting to grow. Hopefully this one sticks around.
The jalapeno plants seem to be doing pretty well, and are recovering nicely after getting solidly munched by the tobacco hornworms.
Haven’t spotted any more hornworms on them recently, but there was this little green lizard hanging out on a jalapeno. Hope he’s finding lots of bugs to eat.
Looks like there will be a bunch of jalapenos to harvest in a few more weeks.
The butternut squash plants have been struggling lately and it looks like there might be just one plant left that’s still sending out runners.
There have been a few attempted new butternut squashes, but they all ended up shrivelling up before getting very large. Might be time to pull the plug on this batch.
This mystery plant started growing in the bed next to the jalapenos a few months ago. I was curious to see what it would be, so I let it grow. The leaves look like maple leaves except for the serrated edges so I don’t think it’s a maple (I’d be very surprised if it was).
A Google Lens image search suggests this is a sweetgum tree, which seems plausible. I know there are a few of these growing in other yards around here
Late in July, the ornamental cherry tree out in the front yard surprised us with a big display of leaves on the lower branches. Then Tropical Storm Debby came, dumped a ton of rain on us. After that, all of the leaves shriveled up and dried up. I was starting to think that maybe all the water drowned the tree and that it was done for.
Last week, the tree surprised me with some new leaf growth. Seems like the little tree might recover after all.
The fig plants continue to do well, and there are a bunch of figs now. They’re still pretty hard, and seems like it will be a few more months before any might be ready for harvesting.
Found a bunch of these big fat green caterpillars monching away on the jalapeno plants. Google image search identified them as tobacco hornworms (manduca sexta).
Plucked 6 hornworms off the jalapeno plants (they have a pretty good grip for something so squishy) and flung them out into the road where at least 3 of them ended up getting squashed by passing traffic.
The caterpillars really did a number on the jalapeno plants. The jalapenos were looking big and bushy a couple days ago. The leaves from a big section of the top of the plants have been stripped off now and I had to prune off a bunch of half-eaten jalapenos.
Looks like the week ahead is going to be pretty wet and soggy thanks to TS Debby. Current forecast has it slowing down as it goes through FL and GA and dumping a lot of rain on the area in the process.
From the 11AM 04-Aug-2024 NHC forecast discussion
After the system makes landfall, the steering currents are likely to weaken as a trough over the northeastern U.S. moves eastward from the area, which should result in a decrease in forward speed. There is significant uncertainty in the track of Debby in the 2-5 day time frame. Much of the track guidance keeps the center over the southeastern U.S. for the next several days as a ridge builds in over the Carolinas.
The cyclone will weaken after it moves inland, but since the system will not be far from the coastline for the next few days, it is not predicted to fall below tropical storm strength through 72 hours.
Should be an interesting week ahead.
We got back from vacation a few days ago to a veritable explosion of roses. They’re a few days past their prime now, but I was surprised at how many of them there were. Time for a bit of pruning I think.
The butternut squash plants are still growing and spilling out of the raised bed, but aren’t producing as many squashes as they were. I suppose as long as they’re still growing, I’ll leave them alone.
The jalapeno plants grew a ton over the last couple of weeks, and I spotted some pretty good size peppers on them.
I think the biggest grower over the past month has been the fig. There are two fig plants there and they’re kind of swamping the blackberries now. That’s a lot of progress from how they looked in late June. I’m thinking now that I might have put them a little too close to each other. Seemed like plenty of space when they were smaller.
There are figs too! They’re still pretty small, but it’s exciting to see them. They’re only on one plant though so far.
