The Ornamental Vegetable Garden: Hot, hot, hot ... and dry

So I'm back from my two weeks away, and the garden is overgrown with weeds. Some vegetables didn't survive (there was .6" rain in my gauge), but the garden is a riot of color, and the roses have absolutely outdone themselves.

'Zepherine Douhin'

'Shazam!'

'Razzle Dazzle'

'Neptune'

left to right: 'Grande Amore', 'South Africa', 'Shazam!'

foreground: 'Neptune'

Hollyhocks only had buds when I left.

After a couple applications of dicamba, I've finally managed to get rid of weeds and crabgrass in the paths around the flower plots. I'll seed the bare ground this fall.

Some vegetables didn't get nearly enough water. Peas are scraggly and drying out. Kohlrabi that wasn't shaded by adjacent rhubarb has burnt leaves.

Five cucumber plants dried up and died. Only two survived. Fortunately, one of them is the new variety I'm trying this year - 'Beit Alpha'. And the other is my staple 'Marketmore'.

Most lettuce is ready to bolt. 'New Red Fire' has matured to nearly all green.

I really like the variety 'Rouxai', a new one for me. It may well be a new one for everyone. The seed was expensive. The leaves are a beautiful dark wine.

I only have a few plants (the ones below were nearly lost in weeds), so I'm going to let them go to seed and have a bigger stand next year. That is, if they're come true to seed, and they might not.

The arugula stand is quite lush.

Baby beets, arugula, and, surprisingly, the cantaloupes look fine. I imagine it's because they get a certain amount of dappled shade under a mimosa tree.

The 'Savor' cantaloupe plants that were scrawny when I put them in are smaller than the small Persians, which was expected, but the plants look healthy now.

'Savor'

Small Persian cantaloupe

The weeds have had a two-week-long party.

'Calima' bush beans infested with purslane

I weeded the lettuce plot and the bean & pea plot this morning. It took me 4 hours. The picture below shows the difference in weeded vs not yet weeded halves.