Ozempic Sucks, Plus Other Garden News

Vegetable Garden in Early May

This is a blog about vegetable gardening. It will always be about vegetable gardening. That is the main subject. The main idea. It is why I write these things down. However, I reserve my right to digress from time to time to take in other areas. Like this one: Ozempic is a horrible medication. I have lived with those daily injections for three weeks. I cannot begin to describe this horrible experience. It is one reason as to why I haven't updated this blog recently.

I am not about to describe the side effects from this medication. Many of them are listed online. You can read it for yourself. I've experienced all of them, plus others that are not described in detail as they probably should be. This has been one terrible trip. However, I have come to the decision that it is simply not worth it. No more Ozempic. Ever. I will let Diabetes win.

Rant Over. Back to the garden. I promise.

Vegetable Garden in June

This is the state of the 2024 summer vegetable garden. It is the "progress so far" report between plant out and the first month of garden growth. The picture above right represents the vegetable garden just after every last starter plant and seed was set into the prepared beds. That's 30-tomato plants, six hot pepper plants (including The Survivor), 15 sweet or bell pepper plants, three tiny basil plant starters plus one row of Sumter cucumber seed and a separate row of two different types of bush bean seed.

The three or four squash starters that I had kept around would go into another nearby bed that would not be prepped for another week or two. I'm still attempting to locate some additional starter plants for this bed, but I don't think tomatoes will be one of the choices. 30 tomato plants will be quite enough. Or, perhaps too much. It all depends upon your state of mind.

The second photo, located above left, is the state of the garden in June. This photo was taken in the same spot as the first photo was. It was just taken 30-days later, June 3rd to be exact. The tomato plants then, which are about twice this size now in mid June, all got off to a great start. There was one exception to this fantastic start. It was a plant that Bandit the Border Collie paid a wee bit too much attention too. It has since recovered from this Border Collie attention and is setting a terrific early crop.

Purslane With Peppers

No, I am not about to tell you the kind of attention that Bandit paid to this particular starter plant. It's not the kind of attention that would normally be considered to be helpful. Although, it just might have been based upon the number of blossoms that this plant in question is putting out this June. It appears to be quite happy!

The orange garden protector known as Mango the Magnificent is back on the job once again. It's hist job to deter the garden pests that come to visit late at night, hoping to filch a snack or two. Despite suffering some problems with his back legs over a long and cold winter, it hasn't deterred or affected his ability to patrol the garden rows at night, or quietly stand guard in spots around the yard that critters have used in the past to gain garden access.

One of the biggest problems so far has been weeds and weed control. The spring garden pest known as Purslane is once again putting on a terrific show in the garden. Yes, Purslane is reportedly edible. Reportedly. However, I am not the "forager" type of backyard gardener. With the exception of a volunteer grapevine that is poised to deliver a massive amount of grapes later this summer, I tend to stick with what I planted.

This means I avoid the Purslane. Yes, I understand Purslane is edible. The University of Wisconsin-Madison Horticulture Department goes a step further by proclaiming the following: It is considered quite nutritious because it is unusually high in omega-3 fatty acids (found mostly in fish and flax seeds) and contains significant amounts of vitamins A and C, as well as calcium, iron, magnesium and potassium and antioxidants.

Weeding Out the Purslane

However, I still did not plant this. I'm not quite ready to forage for something I didn't plant. Unless it's a wild green grape. Which, I must admit, is pretty darn good.

At some point, when my appetite for any type of food returns (another fine side effect that I am suffering from), I will actually get to enjoy the fruits that this garden will eventually produce. I hope that appetite does return. Because the day of extreme garden production isn't all that far off.

I have implemented a few changes in this year's garden. Most of the changes deal with water. All gardens need this vital resource. However, the changes I have implemented this year have either resulted in some mildly impressive growth and early fruit sets, OR, it's just "one of those years." I appear to be blessed. Time will tell.

The Survivor

The Survivor

This experience is not unique. Not by any stretch of the imagination. But it is a first for me. I've been planting and nurturing summer vegetable gardens in numerous backyards for a very long time. While I have heard stories like this before, I've never counted myself as one of the "lucky people" to receive this gift.

I can't tell you what I did. Whether it was "right" or "wrong," I do not know. It just happened. I chanced upon this "gift of gardening" while clearing out the very last portion of last summer's garden about a month ago. The section of the garden where pepper plants, both sweet bell peppers and hot varieties like the time-tested Jalapeño, are planted here. I always tear these out late because they keep producing right through fall and the first part of the coldest winter months.

Mother Nature usually delivers the "coup de grâce" or death blow to the entire garden at some point. It's usually after winter temperatures drop into a sustained freeze level. I live in a cold area of Northern California. The weather can deliver a whopper of a freeze every winter and often does. Several times. The tomato plants that I had not removed yet are normally finished off by a good freeze, and that includes the mighty pepper plants. Peppers love heat. They normally cannot stand cold winter temperatures, but some do perform better than others.

 

Imagine my surprise when I found this guy. It was located in last year's pepper bed, which contained about 25 different pepper plants. There was nothing special about this guy. It is your normal, ordinary Jalapeño pepper plant. It produced about the same number of spicy peppers that the two other Jalapeno plants did. However, unlike the other two, this one was not brown, barren, twig-like, or dead. For some strange reason it survived. No other garden plant did. Every single other plant in my expansive gardens kicked the bucket over the winter. Which is a normal development for most plants in a summer vegetable garden. But not this one.

 

New Growth Emerging

When I discovered it, in fact, it was in the process of sending out new growth through extensive vines that had intertwined with the branches of other peppers and the tomato cages I employ to support these plants in the garden area. Hidden by tall weeds and two dozen or so dead pepper plants, here was this one lone survivor. It was not planted anywhere near a heat source. It received no protection whatsoever. It just survived. For some reason, it decided not to give up the ghost. As for the two other Jalapeño varieties that were planted just inches away, they were long gone. They had become a collection of brown and crispy twigs.

 

Color me amazed. This is the first time I've encountered anything quite like this. But I did not let it stop me in that day's quest of tearing out the old garden to make way for the new one that will soon be planted. I nearly pulled this survivor out of the ground and tossed it into the large and expanding pile of dead pepper plants and various weeds. But I was struck by an epiphany. I've never encountered anything like this before. Why should I take action to kill a solid garden producer that obviously isn't quite done producing yet?

 

It would still be forced to survive a brutal haircut. Which it did receive. All of those long vines with new green growth were pruned away and tossed on the growing refuse pile. Those vines had grown into other plants that were dead. Plus, I had to remove the tomato cage support. So, if this mighty garden survivor was going to see another growing season, it would be forced to survive some fairly brutal treatment. It received a solid haircut, just like you see pictured above.

 

2023 Pepper Garden
Survivor is Front and Far Left

The "Survivor" refused to perish. Even in the face of the abuse that I just outlined. It lived through the brutal destruction and clearing of last year's pepper garden. It survived my onslaught of pulling and tearing out every last weed that had grown around it. It even took on the brutal haircut I delivered and laughed it off. Today, the survivor stands tall. The base of this plant looks like a small tree stump. It's gnarled and carries a none-too-pleasing brown color. Yet, green growth is springing forth from the survivor as I type this blog missive. It is the Jalapeño pepper plant that refuses to die.

 

I did make sure to show it a little bit of love this past weekend. As I chopped, mowed and chopped down even more spring weeds with a furious purpose, I dragged the garden hose over to the survivor. It received a slow drip of nourishing water, plus a sprinkling of garden fertilizer sprinkled at the base. It has reacted with a pleasing spurt of green growth over every section and branch that was not pruned away.

 

The Survivor may have survived the first onslaught of summer garden prep. But the abuse isn't over yet. It still may not make it. It will be required to survive the absolute injustice of whirling blades from the Mantis Rototiller that I put to work in the garden area every spring. I will make every effort to spare The Survivor from those churning blades that cut up the soil, but who knows how it will react.

 

Rat Exterminator on Patrol

I do consume my fair share of Jalapeño peppers from the garden. Sometimes I seed them. Sometimes I do not. They are chopped and placed into a collection of summer dishes such as soups, stews and even the occassional summer turkey burger. Even more find their way into the tomato salsas and sauces that I create from the abundance of a summer vegetable garden. Neighbors far and wide can expect a bounty of Jalapeño peppers. Provided they want them.

 

What kind of production can I expect from The Survivor? I'm not sure. I've never encountered this type of good luck charm before. But, provided it survives, I will keep my eye on its progress. Hopefully, it will provide a bounty of peppers. Just as it did last summer. Time will tell.