07 August 2026

the beans

are coming on quickly, more and more. I have to pick every few days to stay ahead of them!
I do have one cherry tomato plant- I thought both had died but this one was just smaller for a while and then it grew up winding among the others so I forgot it was there. It's not very productive. However the sweet 100's and the cherokee purples, are my only tomatoes that are doing well at all.
All the big ones seem afflicted. The skin feels thicker or coarse and grainy, and some have dark cracks and when I slice them hoping to just cut away the bad half, too much inside is rotted black to save any. There are small dark stink bugs about, I am not sure if they are the culprit.

And something has done away with nearly all my swiss chard! I swear I had six plants on that side, and then one day it was down to three- I assumed the others had got rotted or eaten by the insects, rabbits. Today I went out there and there's only one. Not even a root stump remainder of the others.
Odd thing is- the leaf beet chard in the other bed is untouched- well, except for a few bug holes. I cut a whole bunch today for a dinner recipe, and half the bed is still green.
Collards are also doing poorly, between whatever is turning the blue leaves purple (a deficiency I think), whitefly and cabbage moth caterpillars riddling the leaves. I cut a bunch to eat the other day anyway, just wash it well and cut out the worst of the insect damage.
Cut a lot of the small young leaves as well, just to get them ahead of the bugs!
We are finally putting up the garden fence. Got the posts in today, before it was too hot, and then thunderstorms came through. Will have to finish setting the wire on another day. I've been laying cardboard and mulch over more of the grass paths, after cutting it short as possible. It's starting to look purposeful.

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