Leaning towers of peppers

I don't know what it is this year, but the pepper plants have really struggled to stay upright. At the beginning of the summer I had to put a t-post in to hold up the two plants of Cubanelle peppers because they were so prolific.

Now its the bells. It's been really windy the last few days and the plants have taking a beating despite the cages.

Before

After

I had to stand on a step stool to drive in the t-post, but I got it done. It's in all the way down to the floor of the raised bed. Then I attached the cages with zip ties.

Hopefully this will keep things upright for a few more weeks.

New assistant

My long-time four-legged assistant moved on to better gardens at the end of June.

The beginning of August I got a new assistant.

She's getting the hang of this gardening thing and is making a very good supervisor. The mulched paths make for a good place to watch the world go by.

However, we are still learning not to lay down on the weeds that need to be pulled.

Making up for missed time

I spent a lot of July on the road or doing contract work. Then August hit and the usually ramp up of late summer/early fall workload. It was all I could do just to keep the garden watered.

And at some point I realized the weeds have taken over.

 It's a mess.