This is my pathetic garden for summer 2012. It's so pathetic, I'm not even going to bother taking a decent photo. This is all I have to show for nearly 6 months of work.
I planted my green pepper seedlings early in April due to record warm temperatures. Normally it isn't safe from a frost until early May but the last freeze was March 12. My garden was planted nearly a month ahead of schedule. I expected it to be as tall as the plants in the photo by the start of May. By now, these plants should be 5 feet tall and covered with bell peppers the size of my fist.
I never got one single pepper out of these plants. All I managed to grow was a big crop of aphids. I never used any pesticides before, but this year I sprayed over and over and the aphids were unfazed. They ate all the blooms as soon as they appeared. I upgraded to a stronger pesticide but that had no effect. One of the plants even died. A replacement plant cost more than the 4 seedlings combined. I spent more money trying to get this garden to grow than I did in the last 4 years.
This is embarrassing. I've never had a crop failure in my life. All summer long, my neighbors saw my garden up on my deck and asked me why my plants weren't growing this year. Throughout the state of Iowa, farmers are reporting crop failures due to the record breaking heat. Food prices are rising, just as my summer vegetable supply disappeared.
I planted my green pepper seedlings early in April due to record warm temperatures. Normally it isn't safe from a frost until early May but the last freeze was March 12. My garden was planted nearly a month ahead of schedule. I expected it to be as tall as the plants in the photo by the start of May. By now, these plants should be 5 feet tall and covered with bell peppers the size of my fist.
I never got one single pepper out of these plants. All I managed to grow was a big crop of aphids. I never used any pesticides before, but this year I sprayed over and over and the aphids were unfazed. They ate all the blooms as soon as they appeared. I upgraded to a stronger pesticide but that had no effect. One of the plants even died. A replacement plant cost more than the 4 seedlings combined. I spent more money trying to get this garden to grow than I did in the last 4 years.
This is embarrassing. I've never had a crop failure in my life. All summer long, my neighbors saw my garden up on my deck and asked me why my plants weren't growing this year. Throughout the state of Iowa, farmers are reporting crop failures due to the record breaking heat. Food prices are rising, just as my summer vegetable supply disappeared.
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