We're Havin' a Heat Wave...

...a tropical heat wave... the temperature's rising, it isn't surprising....   Okay, maybe not... but now the song is stuck in my head.  Sorry if you now share my pain....

Tonight I went out into the garden to see if anything needed picking.  13.5 lbs. of Butternut Squash (with about half that still left to go) and two tomatoes.  My 2nd to last Watermelon is going to be ready in a couple of days, as will my last Cantaloupe. 

It's a good thing I got pictures when I did.  The long stretch of unbearably hot weather and no rain has done a number on my garden... well, It's probably more of the pests than that but still. 

Broccoli,  Tomatoes, and Peppers really didn't do too well this year, but then again, I got them in late and them moved the plants a time or two so they wouldn't be mowed over. 

I have some Cabbages that are starting to curl up into their cute little heads, but they are starting to have nightly visitors that think these cabbage leaves are supposed to look like doughnuts!  Um, I don't think so, but at least it won't affect the way it tastes, and once it's cooked, no one will notice a thing anyhow.


Much Love & Hugs ~

Can a garden be TOO good?

Spaghetti Squash

Watermelon

Pumpkins, Beans, & Corn

With the harvest of strawberries, wild blackberries, cucumbers, zucchinis, potatoes, summer squashes, and purple green beans, I've had little time to keep up with the aspects of garden work like watching out for bugs or weeding... not to mention the inside of my house!


Although I can't exactly say that my garden looks as pretty as it did this time last year, I sure have had a bumper crop of many of the vegetables so far.

These are what purple green-beans look like

I have about 8 bottles of pickle relish, about 2 gallons of dill pickles, 25-ish bottles of blackberry jam, (plus made 2 blackberry pies), cucumbers for eating nearly every day, 11+ pounds of potatoes (this after moles/voles took out 2/3 of the potato patch), 3 pumpkins, approximately 25 pounds of zucchini and summer squash (feels like 50!), beans for eating as well as two quarts in the freezer. Plus we ate all 25 pounds of strawberries before I could make jam of them!

Carrots & Cucumbers

Even though the cucumbers look to be about done and the ears of corn flopped, (yes, that was a lame attempt to be clever and witty) we ended up with only one ear that made me think of a jack-o-lantern's toothless smile with a lonely kernel here and there.

But the watermelon and cantaloupe are coming along beautifully! The first watermelon fell off the vine prematurely but there one that will be ready for harvest in about 2 days, with 3 more ready a week or so in between each other. *Do watermelon plants do that on purpose? How convenient!* The cantaloupe is growing on an old wooden ladder someone had put out for garbage pickup and has several melons growing on the various steps. There are probably 5or 6 melons so far... also conspicuously times for approximate picking a week or so apart.... hmmm....

Cantaloupe & my 'new' old ladder

Tomatoes are starting to ripen and the butternut squash plants went completely CRAZY this year! I have at least a dozen of them turning a pretty peachy orange color. Even my lonely spaghetti squash plant that ended up being 1 zucchini plant and 1 spaghetti squash plant has a new squash on it. So, one almost ready and another one coming along nicely. If I get busy, I can plant some more for fall. They will be a little smaller, but small is better than none.

I'll admit the peppers aren't doing so great, probably because I had to keep moving them within their bed for one reason or another, and the broccoli has mostly gone to seed this year. They just didn't have enough cool weather by the time I had them ready to plant. And the cauliflower... it never even made it into the ground. I ran out of stamina and motivation by that time. But I have to say I've been impressed to see the cabbages looking pretty nice.

Broccoli, Dill, & Cabbage

The raspberries transplanted well, so we got a taste test of what it will be like when they produce next year, and the asparagus... we'll have to see. It took what felt like forever to figure out where they could be planted without having to move them and I have no idea if they have or will survive the wait that was forced upon them.

So what's next you ask? I've started some more corn seed *learned my lesson from hungry voles eating them all* and we'll see if it has time to do anything before the end of the season... I'm REALLY hoping! I also need to replant potatoes, peas, beans, and a couple of other "fall" garden crops. I make no guarantees that it will happen.

So far, all the pictures have been from mid-June. Below are the pictures I took today. = )

Garden looking South-West

Garden looking North-West

Garden looking South-East

Cantaloupe

Cucumbers front left

Spaghetti and Butternut Squashes

Watermelon

Tomatoes

Raspberries

Okay, Fine! One more... Last but not least, my poor, sad, neglected strawberry bed. R.I.P *Sniff*

Strawberry plants playing hide & go seek with the weeds

Nothing pretty, I only show it as motivation for me to do something about it. Let the heat (or even just the humidity) dissipate a bit and I'll have it prettied up in no time! Maybe...