In a continued effort to keep planting fruit & vegetable bearing plants, we recently installed 2 raised garden beds. Our success rate had taken a beating in the last few months under tough environmental conditions such as strong winds, 40 mph and over, very naughty iguanas digging up our papaya plants and really motivated caterpillars eating our cucumber plants and lemon tree. White flies destroying tomato plants and on top it off, it has been extremely hot and water expense in Aruba is always an issue. Oh, I forgot to mention Leaf Miners, what a “Lovely“ surprise that was one morning on the cucumber plants.
Not giving up though, one of these days there will be home grown tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers around here, hence the reason for the raised garden beds. J Besides that, Neem oil has been our hero as well as soap water and a 3% Hydrogen peroxide/water mix for watering once a week.
I don’t want to get too excited but so far so good. Spinach and basil have become a surprising success and the rest of the plants are a work in a progress but growing well. Fingers crossed!