Finally after over forty years of gardening I have had a spectacular first half of the season. Although I cut down on the number of tomato, cucumber and squash plants I set out this year all of them have produced far more than any year I can remember. Even my beans did spectacularly well. Pests have been minor as well as foliage diseases. Usually by this time of the year I am in full fight mode against both and I am sure that is coming up soon; but for now it is wonderful. We had a long spell with cool nights and my tomatoes set very heavily so much so that I had to cull a lot of small fruit from clusters that were way overloaded. Despite that I still made as many or more large fruits as I ever have. I think I have gotten all the large ones off the vines now that I picked that 2 lb Virginia Sweet yesterday and now can settle in to a more leisurely pace of harvesting. The cucumbers should slow down soon now that we are getting some days in the upper 90s and I don't know how much longer the squash can make it without the dreaded squash vine borer.
We did have one spell of 12 days in a row of rain at least once but more often several times a day and I feared the season would be a mess but I had very few splitting fruits during that time and have had to do almost no watering except for a two week dry spell. I couldn't have asked for better rainfall amounts as the tomatoes have been wonderfully tasty with nary a watery mushy one so far.
I know that writing this down is just asking ror a complete reversal of the good fortune I have had this year; but I just couldn't resist after all the seasons of constant recurring problems in the garden. I have had a good many very successful seasons but not without a fight. It is really a rare thing down here to have this kind of wonderful four months of gardening success without the constant distractions of fighting numerous pests and relentless diseases. I know that it is too much to hope to see this again in my lifetime and I am just thankful to have had the experience.
Now that I have gotten that off my chest it is time to get ready for the flood of pests and foliage diseases that are just around the bend.
Bill