August Balcony Garden Tour (Zone 6B) —Tomato Splitting, Squirrel Wars & a Full Messy Update

This is the honest August garden tour: a Chicago balcony garden (zone 6B) and a community garden plot a few blocks away, both a little wild right now. Record rain this summer means powdery mildew on the cucumbers, wind and storms that knocked down half my tomato stakes, and more tomato splitting than I've ever dealt with. I'm walking through what's actually working — Hill Country Red okra, Tasmanian Chocolate tomatoes, shishito peppers, two ripening Kazakh melons, a Prescott Fond Blanc melon taking over the community plot, and a Sugar Baby watermelon growing in a corner guarded by spiders — and what's coming out for fall. If you garden in a small space, in a rough season, or just want to see what a real container garden looks like in mid-August — not a styled one — this is that. Come back soon for the fall garden reset in the GreenStalks — collards, mustards, cabbage, and more going in. 📝 Substack: tissaliving.substack.com 📸 Instagram: @tissaliving 🎙️ Kinfolk Unscripted (the podcast with my cousin Chanel): ‪@KinfolkUnscripted‬ kinfolkunscripted.substack.com | @kinfolkunscripted