Basil -- growing well
rosemary -- growing decently
oregano -- growing very well
curly parsley -- killed all but one plant with replanting them, oh well
flat leaf parsley -- transplantation killed it
thyme -- growing OK to good
tomatoes -- four plants going CRAZY, two just so-so
cucumbers -- unsure, they are spreading but not yet setting 'fruit'
japanese eggplant -- looking productive finally!
honeydew melon -- ????
savoy cabbage -- got eaten by something, but clinging to life
brussel sprouts -- got eaten, but doing OK
celery -- alive and kicking but not growing very tall, ??? as to its future
potatoes -- I need to go look up what potatoes are supposed to look like, I think they might be DOA
peppers -- hots are doing well, others are either good, ok, or struggling depending
broccoli -- got eaten, but looks like they might produce a little
some kind of squash -- ???
Figs -- is bigger this year than ever before, I near to learn how to make fig jam soon
Strawberries -- plants doing ok and spreading
blueberries -- two new plants look very good, two existing survived and are doing OK

Lack of rain has been my biggest problem and the bugs that ate up lots of leafy stuff.

Hi TJ - I'm a novice gardner here - what do you mean when you say "overwintered" in your previous post?

This summer we are growing tomatos, basil, spearmint and rosemary.

I see you are having similar problems with your garden TJ. In the wine world, we say "a bad year", well a bad year for growing gardens also.

I have a fence. And, it has kept the critters away in the past years. The bastards found a way in, digging under the fence. The bastard did some good damage to the garden. The culprit is possom(s), the bastards. I sprayed with one of those critter repellant sprays. They claim it keeps all of them away. Yeah right it does.

Any one know what to do about damn possums, how to keep them away from the garden. The bastards found a way to get under my damn fence. The little crop that I did have growing well, the bastards ate it (salad, cucumber that are coming about, parsley, & some of the dill). :-(

A 12 gauge works, but you need some beers while you keep watch. You should probably also worry about the neighbors, circumstances depending. Possums are smart enough to understand bad karma.

-Al

LCC, bury chicken wire under the fence under the ground.  Another option is a motion detector sprinkler to scare the hell out them when they enter the garden.  We use those on deer around here.  

My tomatoes are in a lull due to the heat but I was getting quite a few.

Correction: not possums but that creature from 1 of the funniest, if not the funniest movie of all time, Caddyshack. It is, in fact, a groundhog.

Thanks guyz, I did a lot reading on the Internet after your posts as to how to get rid of these critters. It looks like it is no easy task. They won't just go away on their own over night. Even if you catch them, you have to drive them @ least 2-3 miles from your home so that they don't find their way back.

I hope I have more luck than Bill Murray. :-)

Thing is that they multiple/procreate rather easily too much like deer. It has come to a point where I am afraid to leave the house not knowing when I come back all my veggies will be gone. Until I find a way to get rid of them, I am screwed. And, their #1 target is a veggie garden once they hit up on it.

Damn it.

Due to my original garden plot apparently having some sort of a fungus in the soil and killing all of my tomato plants last year, I opted to expand the garden and now have a garden that's twice the size of my original one.  I still used the old plot but no tomato plants there.  Here's what's planted...

Thanks TJ for the explanation - one "home remedy" I heard (but never tried) to keep animals away is for a male member of the household to urinate in the area... anybody heard about this?

I don't know about human urine, but you can buy different types of animal urine from Home Depot, etc. for this purpose.

I prefer to use Barefoot Zinfandel instead :-D

Yes, some recommend fox urine & coyote urine since that's their natural enemy. Also, some recommend what Winetex posted, a wire under the fence. I now know more about groundhogs that I ever needed to know. No solution yet, I am considering my options.

Can you imagine being the poor shlub who has to collect the fox or coyote urine?  What do you do...grab them around the groin and squeeze????

Drew's Barefoot Zinfandel would probably do the trick.

Here is the update from my garden: the greens (basil, dill, parsley, salads, chives, rosemary) are now doing great.

Tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplant, peppers are still struggling.

Tomatoes/Cucumbers the last 3 years were in abundance for me, more than we could possibly eat. So, we would give it out to people we know. Not this year though.

Peppers/Eggplant: always a tough grow for me.

And, of course, I am still battling the damn groundhogs. Otherwise known as garden killers.

We've been harvesting plenty of small hot peppers and a good amount of japanese eggplant, too. Grape tomatoes are starting to roll in from their original trickle and there is a bumper crop of slicing tomatoes about a week out. Woo-hoo!

Things are picking up with me also. But, no way it is like the years past. I've read a lot about it. This year is not a great one on the East Coast. And, it effected every one including the home garden enthusiast(s). While things are picking up a little I just don't see the amount of flowers that I should be already seeing on the veggie plants.

I just had 7 tomatos (still green) taken by the resident squirrel living in the tree behind my townhouse. On Sunday I caught him red handed with one in his mouth.

He's dead. It's on like Caddyshack!!!

I am watering almost twice a day now just to keep my plants alive. Not much chance of actually getting anything from them. It is 103 degrees right now at almost 4 pm. My rain barrel has held out OK due to some rain 1.5 weeks ago but that has been almost it for the summer. Another rain barrel is empty just waiting for a fill. They aren't attractive but I've been able to water as much as I like. We have severe water restrictions in place and can only water twice a week. At over 100 degrees every day things are getting very crispy.

Even the deer are looking a bit desperate. I've put out a bucket of water for them at times which they will drain.

Please send rain.