The Ornamental Vegetable Garden: If this keeps up, we'll become a desert

No rain. Temperatures every day in the upper 90s. Fortunately, the nights are in the low 70s - for a little while.

I'm getting anxious to try one of those French melons.

Cucumbers are plentiful, and the vines still look good on the trellis. I thought they might be browning by now.

The runner beans I planted to grow over top of the cucumbers to produce beautiful pink blossoms didn't do it. I don't see any signs of the few flowers they did have producing any beans, either. So, I'm grateful that the cucumbers look so good.

Tomatoes are starting to ripen, but the plants are lush with foliage and not many tomatoes. No doubt, from the extreme heat ever since the first of May. The peppers are doing the same. I wasn't going to plant 'Moskvich' tomatoes again next year because they were supposed to be early and late both. They aren't very big, and they weren't early. Hopefully, they'll go on producing late. On the other hand, they're pretty tasty, and look at their beautiful red color.

Left: 'Moskvich'; right: 'Missouri Pink Love Apple'

I may have to reconsider.

The okra is producing, but I didn't plant much this year. I have to spray it for Japanese beetles periodically, much to my dismay.

The 'Violaceo di Verona' cabbage plants grew huge but failed to produce heads. I have a second planting of that variety and 'Kalibos' as well, and I'm hoping they'll decide to form heads in early fall. I did get a few nice heads of 'Early Jersey Wakefield' but I didn't start any new ones for fall harvest.

Onions are all harvested and drying in the cellar. I have a fan on them in hopes they'll cure without rotting, which has plagued me in previous years. The lack of rain didn't hurt them any.

The garlic is also all harvested. I don't plan on growing it again, as I never get big enough cloves to make it worthwhile. They were better this year than previous ones, though.

Beets still look good. I pickled two pints the other day and have had some nice helpings of steamed greens.

I have to go out by 6:00 am to be able to stand doing any work at all. Fortunately, with the type of no-till, dense planting I do, there aren't many weeds at this point, and there is minimal work necessary aside from harvesting. And watering.

Several days ago, I stumbled upon a rather large blacksnake in the garden. I gave her a wide berth, and she sat still with her head up and tongue flicking. After a few days, I forgot about her. And then one day I started turning over the soil in the empty onion bed and turned up ten eggs. They're leathery and kind of squishy - rubbery - at the same time. Much larger than I would have imagined.

I hope I got them all. I know snakes are beneficial, but I really, really don't appreciate running onto them unexpectedly nor having them near the house, so I confess to dumping the eggs in the pond. Do snapping turtles eat snake eggs? Will the mother come back looking for them?

The cut flower garden is lush with beautiful blooms, and the roses are doing the best they can in the presence of Japanese beetles but require regular Sevin sprays to do it. For some reason, the beetles don't bother the red roses or the little 'Acropolis' blooms. They're particularly fond of the yellow roses. Yellow seems to be an attractive color to many insects.