We are having our annual family get together next weekend at my uncle's land. I will be spending a lot of time (hopefully) pulling cats out of the pond. Using the meat for the annual fish fry and the remains for the garden...

Thats a better idea IMO (decaying organic matter), adding rye grass or other type of grass may have you fighting to kill the grass all season long while your plants are growing.

Will do...


I pulled about 40 tomatoes and hundreds of peppers yesterday. My mom ended up taking them back to my sisters and some friends before I was able to take pictures... It's always good to see my mom, but I had planned on making pepper jelly today and that will now be put off a few more days...At least she left me 4 tomatoes for my salad...

Possible frost advisory for Thursday night. Please watch the weather and take precautions to protect your plants. I thought this was just for the northern parts, but apparently Waco news outlets are saying it could get down to 38 around here...

Guess it's time to pluck the rest of those peppers! Mmmm stuffed jalepenos

I never pulled up my summer tomato plants after they quit producing. I now have about 60 tomatoes about the size of golf balls on 3 plants.

Will they ripen? How do I protect them from frost (they are 5 feet tall)?

I have a bunch too

They should. If nothing else, you can pull them, place them in a newspaper lined box and they should ripen. You can protect them by putting a sheet, blanket, tarp, etc. over the plants, just don't let them touch the plants. However, the plants are the most at risk. I was able to get vegetables after a couple of frosts last year. It was the hard freeze that took the vegetables I hadn't harvested. I just know the further north you are, the worst it seems to be...

ineresting. Guess I'll just let mine keep on keeping on. I have about 100 tomatoes and 75 peppers still on the vine.

shoot, I am all ready tilling and preping soil for next season.

With the possibility of a light frost overnight, I decided to do some harvesting a day earlier than planned. We are having a huge family and friends function at my uncle's land Saturday and Sunday. These beauties will be part of the festivities...





An overhead view of the entire table:

NIce haul LSS. Were in Texas are you located?

This is my afternoon pickin' from today

are those small ones thai peppers, Frank?

Gonna try to grow some Habeneros next year.

Yes. the small red one mixed in with the Tobascos are Thai peppers.

Very nice...

I live in NE Bosque County on the NW side of Lake Whitney...

This morning temps got down to 38 degrees around here...I know in Joshua there was ice on the windshields and rooftops. Overnight it temperatures are once again expected to dip into the low 30's (34 is the predicted low). Some of you who have tender crops will need to cover them. I use empty 1 gallon milk/water jugs for this. Cut off the bottom and place them over the plants with the lid off. Remove them in the morning...

I will once again plant tomatoes, squash, peppers, okra, onions and cucumbers. Does anyone have any suggestions for okra? I have grown several varieties over the years and was thinking about switching things up. The soil where they will be planted is a little more rocky and they will be used as a wind break to protect the tomato plants...

I planted 2 okra plants this past season. They got in late but still produced like mad. I believe they are Clemson Spineless The got to about 7-8 feet tall and I was harvesting everyday.

Question - Are there any summer squash varieties that can't or are less likely to be attacked by those darn vine boreres? I love me some squash and zucchini but all plants were destroyed this year and I ended the season with ONE zucc.

Same here, I planted three times during the season. They were ALL lost to vine borers.

Nope. The best way to deal with them is to check the back of the leaves. You will see little brown spots like those in the picture...



You can then remove the eggs from the leaf by cutting them out, or remove the whole leaf. To treat the adults, I use Sevin Dust...They are a pain in the rump...

I've planted Clemson Spineless before and the plants got over 8 feet tall and almost as wide. That's fine, and I'll probably plant a few plants of those, but they take up a lot of space. I've also planted the Red Dwarf Okra plants and the Longhorn Okra...I just want to plant a couple of other varieties and am looking for some that worked for y'all...

This thread is making me hungry.

You eat a lot of Vine Borer eggs?

I believe what you posted is the squash bug/stink bug and not the squash vine borer. The vine borer eggs are mainly on the stems close to the dirt. If you remove them dont just flick them in to the dirt, they will still hatch. They usually feed on the plant for a while then exit the stem and go into the ground a few inches and make a cocoon and overwinter.





This is what lays the eggs. They are the debil....