Fall Garden in Texas

Today is officially the start of fall.  There are still issues, but I am glad to report that our vegetable garden is finally beginning to look like a garden.  It was always intended to be a fall garden, but for many months through the summer it looked like there would be little or nothing there when fall arrived.
 

Garden on 9-20-16

There is still not much produce that will be available soon, but at least it looks better.  If the plants continue to grow, there may be plenty to harvest in October and on through to at least the first frost (approximately mid-November).  If we are lucky we might have fresh garden produce for Thanksgiving dinner.

From left to right in the foreground inside the cages: lettuce, broccoli, carrots, beets, and onions.  In the back: tomatoes, peppers, and beans.

Banana peppers.  Most notable among the successes is the banana pepper plant.  This was one of the first plants put into the garden way back on June 6.  For most of the summer it did essentially nothing except grow taller.  The plant now tops out above the six foot tall pole (11 inches of which is in the ground) that I recently added to help with any gusts of wind.   When a week long "cool" snap hit in mid August, with high temperatures only in the 80's instead of 100 or above, the plant immediately began to flower like crazy and set fruit.  Despite the return to warmer temps since then, the peppers have continued to grow.  I am not 100% sure when the peppers should be picked, but based on their yellow color I am presuming soon.   In the next week or so I hope to turn them into something like the pickled banana peppers they serve at Subway. 

Banana peppers

Continuing struggles.  Despite the success of the banana pepper plant, there have been more "learning experiences" than successes.  Why all of the problems?  1. We had no idea what we were doing...mostly we still don't.  2. There are more predators than I could have imagined.  They span the range from very small (an army of aphids) to moderately large (the neighborhood bunny).  They all view the garden as their personal smorgasbord.
 

Aphids and Lady Bugs.   Aphids love the cantaloupe leaves.  Due to the aphids, many of the cantaloupe leaves were badly distorted and the plant was struggling.  I used insecticidal soap to kill the aphids.  Unfortunately, I applied it incorrectly, did not rinse it off, or something.  In any case, the cantaloupe leaves ended up badly burned and I nearly killed the plant.  It does not look great now, but it has at least partially recovered and looks great compared to what it did. 

Since I thought I had killed the plant, I stop spraying and the aphids underwent a population explosion.  That is when several lady bugs, a natural predator of aphids, showed up. 

Lady bug on cantaloupe leaf (8/22/16)

I only saw a few lady bugs, but they were obviously crawling around eating aphids.

About a week later I noticed lots and lots of these strange looking bugs...almost like black and orange miniature crocodiles.  They are lady bug larvae and they, too, love to eat aphids.

The black and orange bugs are lady bug larvae.  The teeny tiny white things scattered across the leaf are aphids. (8/29/16)  Not sure, but the funny looking white thing on the left may be an aphid lion larva (sans dead aphid bodies, see below)

Fortunately I was able to identify these as good bugs before taking action to get rid of them.  There were lots and lots of them and they quickly spread throughout the garden.  They seem to be little eating machines.  Within a week or so they had taken care of the aphid problem.

It was at about that time that I started seeing these strange "growths" under the leaves, which I found out were lady bug pupae, i.e. little lady bug cocoons.

Lady bug pupae on green bean leaves

I never did see a lady bug emerge from one of these, but that must have been what was happening here since the wings are evident and it kind of looks like a lady bug.

Partially formed lady bug from the pupa (9/5/16)

Of course, these were not the only bugs in the garden.  I noticed this very strange black bug one day.  I took its picture in hopes of identifying it.  I still don't know what it is, whether it is friend or foe.  However, I did notice the white bug that was also in the picture.

Unidentified bug (black bug on the upper left) and a green lacewing larva more commonly known as an aphid lion (white thing on the right)

Aphid lion.  I had been focused on the larger black bug, but it was only after looking at the picture that I realized there was something else interesting in the frame, the white thing that looked like it was covered with small bugs.  It is apparently the larva of a green lacewing, another good bug since it eats aphids.  The dead aphids are what are covering its body.  According to this source, it uses these as camouflage against the ants (which protect the aphids) as it runs around eating aphids.

Now that I know what to look for, I did some exploring on the plants and found another one.  It is nearly impossible to see the individual aphid bodies in person, but they are readily apparent when blown up in the picture.  (Not bad for my cell phone camera!)

Close up of  what is apparently an aphid lion.  The individual white aphid bodies are visible.

Tomato ghosts.  While the aphids, lady bugs, and aphid lions were battling it out, there was even worse damage due to larger predators.  In an earlier post I had noted damage to low hanging peppers from night predators, presumably rats.  Soon after that they also took a bite out of a small green tomato. 

Predator damage to one of the green tomatoes

In addition to upping the war on the rats with the aid of our pest company, I added organza bags to the low lying tomatoes.  I think of these as tomato ghosts.  The bags were available through Amazon for wedding favor items.  I was not sure they would be enough to deter a truly dedicated predator, but I was hopeful they would encourage the casual predator to move along to something else.  It did work for at least those few low lying tomatoes that were hanging on through the worst of the summer heat.

Tomato ghosts (8/10/16)

Neighborhood rabbit.  Despite the success in battling these various pests, the biggest nuisance and greatest threat to the garden is a cute little bunny that spends a large amount of his time in the side yard.  He is around so much, even when I am in the yard, that he is almost tame. 

He often "hides" (although not especially well) behind some of the plants while I work in the garden.

Bunny hiding next to the house. 

He has gotten so tame that he will often roam around and come out to eat even if I am close by.

 

Bunny eating clover while I water the garden

He has even hopped up into the garden while I was standing there watering.

I knew he was eating the new growth off of the cantaloupe vines that were on the ground, but figured I could live with that since it is sometimes recommended to cut back on the vines to promote ripening of existing fruit rather than more vine growth.

However, he seems to have taken a liking to green bean leaves.  I thought I saw evidence of where he had been munching on them and even caught him in the act.  However I was not overly worried.  How much could one little rabbit eat?

Caught red-handed (red-pawed?) eating the pole bean leaves

Apparently he can eat a lot.  The final straw was when I came out one evening and discovered he had eaten the leaves off of all of the young wax beans, about eighteen plants. 

The two squares with the bare dirt had a full complement of young new wax bush beans growing.  This is a picture of what was left after the bunny's afternoon snack, i.e. only the stems.  The chicken wire around the outside was added later. 

Unfortunately there is not a good way with the current location of the trellises to completely fence off the entire garden.  However, I have now enclosed a good number of the bush beans.  I had originally intended for the covered cages to only be used for seedlings, but will leave them on as long as possible.  Before the next garden I will incorporate some type of fencing to exclude the bunny.  Of course, a perimeter fence alone will not be enough since the birds and squirrels can still get in if the top is open.  Sigh....

Despite the issues, planning for and working in the garden have been fun ways to spend my time.  I have learned a tremendous amount about all kinds of things.  The garden may not be a great success as a source of food, but it has been a rousing success as a hobby.