Hot, hot, hot, hot, hot

This much heat is good for only one gardening task: washing out plastic pots for reuse next year. I get quite wet doing this chore, but I don't care when it's this hot.

The field poppies are looking a little more like the fields in Wizard of Oz.  Honeybees absolutely love these poppies.  They're abuzz all day long, so I don't know how Dorothy and the crew traipsed through the fields unstung.  

The small Persian melon plants are making their way up their cages and looking quite healthy despite the extreme heat and lack of rain.  (I've been watering from time to time, but they're in a spot they don't get as much as the rest of the garden. They do get some shade.)

Potatoes are harvestable size.

'All Blue' potatoes

'Yukon Gold' and 'All Blue' potatoes, 'Calima' green beans, 

'Tender Sweet' carrots, and 'Babybeat' beets

Cabbages have felt the heat for sure.  I was gone another week recently, and things were neglected.  Young cabbage plants obviously needed more attention.

'Brunswick'

Jalapeño peppers are not looking good.  I was hoping for a good crop this year in order to make more jelly.  Not looking promising.

The snack peppers look much better than the jalapeños and are flowering.  

I don't think this is going to be a successful year in the garden.  Much too hot too soon, and so very little rain.  I planted more tomatoes than ever before, hoping to have enough to put up some juice, but it's too hot to even set fruit.  Flowers dry up and fall off.  And if they do set fruit, it's too hot to ripen.  What a bummer.  I think my only hope at this point is for a cooler autumn and a late, late fall frost. 

The roma type tomatoes are doing better than the slicers, but I wonder if that's because they get some shade.  Their foliage is an ugly mess, but I've been told that's just the way they grow.

'German Johnson' slicing tomatoes

'Speckled Roman' roma tomatoes fronted by 'Cardinal' basil

'Speckled Roman'

'Babybeat' beets actually look good and are at the beginning stage for harvest.  They also get some shade.  Beet greens have been eaten up by insects in earlier years, so this year I'm trying to remember to spray neem oil on them.  Not bad so far.  I like to stir fry the greens with slices of roasted beets.

The celery I bought from a nursery this year seems to be coming along nicely.  I don't know what variety it is.  Sadly, it was only labeled "celery".

The pink celery I grew from seed is still very small.  Celery I've grown, no matter the variety, has always been such a slow grower.

Here's Ben's video on growing celery:  Growing Celery from Sowing to Harvest

After harvesting cabbage last year, I didn't bother to pull out what was left of some of the plants, and one of them took off again this spring.  It's now a triple-header, and one head is ready for harvest.  I think I'll leave this fall's plants in the ground overwinter and see if I get a repeat.

overwintered 'Primo Vantage' cabbage

overwintered 'Primo Vantage' cabbage

Unfortunately, I was up north when some things were ready to harvest, including this 'Seaside' spinach.  I'm letting it flower, and I'll try to harvest the seed for an attempt at a fall crop.

'Seaside' spinach

Some of the perennial flowers did better than the vegetables with the poor weather and lack of attention.

Drumstick allium

pink 'Shazam!' and yellow 'South Africa' roses

'Razzle Dazzle'

The forecast doesn't have any milder temperatures in store, but there is some rain showing for next weekend.  I hope it's still there when we get that far.