Man, those look sooo good!

I've got huge tomato plants, but not one tomato yet. Bugs have ravaged them. All my neighbors have been reduced to Sevin Dusting, but I've refused. This garden will be all organic and I'll learn how to deal with what comes along to keep it that way, even if I don't get any tomatoes

I think I'll probably get some green tomatoes here in the Fall. I'll let them ripen in the widow sills if I do. They'll still be really tasty, but it sucks not getting any right now.

But.... I have come up with a plan to deal the bugs while watching them attack my garden. It will cost me some money, and my garden budget is spent already for this year, but here it is.

I have a timer that I can connect up to 4 water hoses onto and control them all separately. Right now I only use two that are connected to soaker hoses that are run just on top of the raised beds.

What I need to do is connect a water hose that picks up the organic bug repellent made from soap, veggie oil, and pepper juice, from a 5 gal bucket and then pipe it into misters mounted on PVC pipes that sit over top and under the plants.

That bug repellent works pretty good, but it doesn't last long, washes off in just a bit of rain, and cannot be applied in direct sun. But if I make 5 gallons at a time and hook it up to be sprayed with that timer I can keep it pretty well applied and not have to think about it.

I still need to thank whoever it was here that recommended adding peppers to that mix.

I did manage to get a couple good cantaloupes, but only because I sprayed them enough to keep the turtles from getting to them. They really don't like that peppery taste, and they remembered it too

My cucumbers have done amazing though. We've gotten over 50 quarts of pickles put up right now, given at least 3 quarts away already, and eaten another 3-4 with friends. And I've given lots of cucumbers away that were table size too. This year I've done pretty good at picking them while they're still small though, so I have more "Baby Pickles" than ever before. They are the real "Gourmet" pickles of the bunch!

My "Keg-O-Rater" is filled with pickles

The first batches are just really getting of age now, but none have survived the 30-60 days your supposed to let them age. The problem is similar to home brewed beer. You should let it set for a couple months at least, but you can't wait that long to taste it, and it taste so good after just a couple weeks that it's hard to have any left after that long

In another week a bunch of them will be prime time though, and we'll give about 20 quarts away to friends and neighbors over the next couple weeks. After that I'll tell them they cost $20 a quart