Somehow, it's not as objectionable to be this hot in July as it was in the middle of June.
BONUS: The weather forecast was calling for .03" of rain overnight. I'd take it if that's all we were going to get, but....
We got 1" of rain! Happy dance. We also got some hail, but thankfully, no damage. The garden looks as relieved as I feel.
The jalapeños are still looking poorly and aren't fruiting yet, but the snack peppers are fruiting and managed to grow well with periodic watering.
foreground left: snack peppers from seed of grocery store peppers,
right: volunteer 'Marketmore' cucumber; background: 'German Johnson' tomatoes
small sweet ("snacking") peppers
This year I'm trying a second cucumber - 'Beit Alpha'. An internet page pronounced it "bite alfa" so that's what I'm going with. It's reported to have a tender enough skin that it doesn't need to be peeled. I'm not a fan of unpeeled cucumber, but I'm giving it a chance.
'Beit Alpha'
My standby 'Marketmore' plant is really struggling, but a volunteer over in the tomato patch seems to be doing fine. You can see a big difference in the form and surface of the two varieties even at this early stage.
'Marketmore'
The plants themselves don't look much different, except the 'Beit Alpha' flowers are much larger. And by not much different, I mean the leaves look pretty much the same. In the picture below, 'Beit Alpha' is on the left, and 'Marketmore' on the right. There's quite a difference here, but I believe it's due to the start they each got. I don't know why 'Marketmore' lagged so far behind, unless 'Beit Alpha' is more drought tolerant. And possibly, 'Marketmore' was undermined more by moles, which are excavating the whole darned garden.
The literature says 'Beit Alpha' is best when picked small. Small being relative term, I wasn't sure when to pick it. I picked one this morning that's 5" long, and they're right that you can eat them without peeling. The skin is very thin and tender. Not bitter at all. I'll be planting these again.
'Beit Alpha' cucumber
'Beit Alpha' cucumber
'Speckled Roman' tomatoes are looking good (much better than 'German Johnson' - see last post for comments on that).
I'm eager for these 'Sugar Baby' watermelons to be harvestable. I suppose I'll have to share with the raccoons if I can't figure out a way to protect them. Unlike other melons I've grown, these seem to have a lot more female flowers and are showing little fruits all along the stem.
That's a picture from three days ago. This is the same couple of babies after last night's rain:
They're fast!
They're growing along with (and being overtaken by) small Persian cantaloupe on what has been my compost hill in years past, so I haven't decided how I might try to protect them yet. I think the cantaloupe maybe does better trailing on the ground than up on cages, which is how I always grow them to save space in the garden proper.
I'm really loving this 'Rouxai' lettuce. It's so dark and curly. And now it's starting to show a contrasting neon green at the center. This is the first year I've planted it, but it will definitely not be the last. (By the way, the internet pronouncer says it's "rooksie".)
I thought it was rabbits eating my 'Calima' green beans, but now I'm wondering if it's deer. They're keeping one half of the row pretty well mowed off.
The other half is lovely, tolerates the dry heat quite well, and produces lots of lovely, tender beans.
I don't know what keeps whoever is eating them from going on down the line, but they stop about midway. The reason I think it might be deer is that they often walk a path across the garden, and they might just be munching on their way to the other side. And it does seem like bunnies might not keep them mowed off like that.
'Calima' beans are long and thin, which I like for making dry cooked oriental beans with ginger, garlic, and cayenne pepper in sesame oil. Halved, they also made a nice little mess of one of my favorite simple dishes: green beans and new potatoes boiled with bacon grease.
'Yukon Gold' potatoes and 'Calima' green beans
The potatoes were also tasty seasoned and oven roasted with 'Tender Sweet' carrots and 'All Blue' potatoes.
The blue potatoes are not very appetizing when cooked. The skin loses its rich dark purple-black color, and the inside (which doesn't look that great raw) turn kind of gray. They look bluer in the picture than they actually look IRL, as the kids say online (in real life). They taste good, but not good enough to make me want to grow them again. Too bad, because the flowers on the plant are pretty, as are the raw potatoes. But, 'Yukon Gold' potatoes are creamy and delicious, so I really don't need anything else unless I just want a pretty picture.
'All Blue' and 'Yukon Gold' potatoes, 'Calima' green beans,
'Tender Sweet' carrots, and 'Babybeat' beets
'All Blue' potato flowers
Things should spark up quickly now with the much needed and much appreciated rain, and the tomatoes might even set fruit with the slightly cooler temperature. Such a relief.
'Queen Lime' series zinnia - 'Orange Blush'
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