Hot Tomato

It's hot hot hot...and HOT here. Temps in the 100's on a daily basis and no rain in sight. Well, I take that back. It did rain (was that what it's called?) one day for about 30 min. But one day in 60 is not good (I really don't know how long since we've had rain...just a perspective). So I water water water every morning before the kids are up. I avoid watering the grass as much as possible. I say that, because I walk on it/by it every day to get to the garden and there are some days I feel torturous to our grass as it crunches beneath my feet. So I'll occasionally give it a little spray here or there. Or set up a sprinkler to where it's really watering the garden (*wink wink*) but the grass is in there too. Shhh...don't tell Brad. He doesn't like me "wasting" water on the grass. It's pointless he says. Ok, who I am kidding? He reads this blog too...sometimes. But anyways, I digress. I just feel so bad for our grass. Really I do. As I'm watering it (on the rare occasion), I think to myself...is the grass screaming at me? As I just give it enough to survive, yet not enough to thrive? Maybe it'd just rather be dead than be forced to live in 100-degree temps with a 'sip' of water here or there. I don't know. I know, I know...I think too much. But that's what I do when I'm out there watering. I just can't help but feel bad for our little blades of grass out there. That's when I set up the sprinkler for the kids to play in (*wink wink*).

So on to garden news....

Several things have dried up. Our spinach and cilantro couldn't hang with the heat. The strawberries are still green as all get out, but have slowed in producing any berries. The peppers (bell, jalapeno, and banana) are all still doing really well and the tomatos are really still producing as much as before. The only difference is the tomato plant itself (all of them) don't look as green and pretty and leafy, but they are still going somehow. I am expecting at any point in the near future that our amt of tomatos will soon be dwindling. Which is ok. This is exactly why I started planting so "early" this year. I had people in shock that I was putting things in the ground (esp tomatos) while there was still potential to freeze. But this is why. From past experience (at least for me!), I know that we loose things to heat and drought too early for me. So I backed up my gardening time this year and it worked! I have had more tomatos than I know what to do with and have given sooo many away. Also before the spinach dried up, I had sooo much of it too! Same with cilantro. So, if the garden goes patoot this month, I'll still be coming out okay. The watermelon, squash, and cantaloupe plants, however, are loving this heat. I have to be sure to keep them REALLY watered, but they are really thriving! Here's a pic of it as of today (hard to tell, but the tomato plants are really starting to look worse and the cantaloupe/watermelon are starting to look better and bigger and greener!).... I have, however, lost 3 cantaloupe already. :( Remember my cute little hanging cantaloupes? Well, there are only 2 left. The other 3 committed suicide. They fell off their vine (or jumped?) too early in life and had to be tossed. Such is it with cantaloupe. I have learned (or maybe not) that cantaloupe and watermelon are tricky little guys to grow. Having to keep them off the ground, yet attached to the vine takes special skill...or luck. As they get bigger, they really start to lose their attachments easier and any little thing can knock them off. But of the 2 left, this one looks promising. Looks like we may get one to bring in to eat very soon. Yum! I can't wait! Even if it falls off now, it would still be salvageable, assuming it falls and I notice and get to it before the bugs and dirt rot does. Hard to tell from the pic, but as of today, it's a normal size cantaloupe, as you would buy from your grocer (that's how big those other leaves are), so any day now....
Another pic of the hugely growing viney mass of watermelon/cantaloupe/squash....mess. (what else can you call it?)......And I keep going outside to water and checking on my orange tree. Any day, I keep saying, before we'll have oranges. (another lesson - orange trees like LOTS and LOTS of water) There is probably more than a dozen out there all the same shape/size/color right now...
I have a few limes out there as well. Still no plums? But both the plum tree and 2 apple trees are green and leafy..just no blooms. Again, I'm ok with that. My goal is to keep them alive till next year, hoping I will get a 2nd year fruit off of them.

And remember me telling you about our little bug-be-gone friend? Here he (or she?) is...