Garden Disaster : Plants are Dying + Stray Cat is a Snake Hunter!

I posted some months ago about our small backyard garden. We are lucky to not get hit by the typhoon and manage to grow some really good sponge gourd. It's just shame that I forgot to take pictures. Sponge gourd can be eaten if it's not too mature, it became husky because of the fibers so better harvest it earlier if it is for consumption. Actually, we gave most them to the neighbors. We could have dried them to have an infinite supply of body scrub but opted not to because it's quite laborious. Nonetheless I still manage to get 2 fruits dried naturally and I'm still using one now.

I uprooted all the vines earlier this March. The dry season makes it hard for the plant to grow healthy. The fruits are getting thinner and the insects were starting to infest. Here's a remnant sponge gourd. It's very thin, the normal size should be at least 4 times larger than this one. See that tiny black hole that's an insect bite. They get the nutrients so the growth of the fruits became stunted. Most of the wasted gourd had this kind of bites or pokes.

_{Insects marks on the gourd}

I also manage to grow some tomatoes but as it gets hotter the fruits become smaller. There's even a couple of plants with leaves and stems already dried up. Anyway, if you do not know I live in the Philippines so summer here is anything but ordinary.

_{Still fresh}

_{Ripe but stunted. Plant is dying.}

The young bitter gourd is also not that promising. The plant is doing great it even bear alot of flowers but the problem is those tiny yellow fruits. I'm not so sure if it's the natural color for fruit on that stage, some species tend to have yellow coloration in these stages but other turned green until maturity. Bitter gourd is quite pricey, we could save some money if these fruits can grow well.

_{Tiny flower of the bitter gourd.}

_{After a few weeks they turned into...}

_{A closer look}

Summer is literally killing the plants. Insects and pests are more active, and though there's water it's not just enough to satiate the soil. The leafy greens are also under nourished. I sowed some bock choi seeds a few weeks ago but only a few manage to sprout. Worse is the leaves are very thin. This is the same for the water spinach.

_{Young bok choi or pechay}

_{Thriving water spinach}

If there's one plant that really loves summer this might be the chili pepper. It looked very healthy and I already manage to use in some dishes like caldereta and sisig. Not that spicy and very flavorful.

_{Green chillies (A)}

_{Green chillies (B)}

Anyway, the plants drying up is quite the headache but there's another issue in this garden. A snake. We saw the resident stray cat feasting on a seemingly venomous snake. We often feed strays but it's still mesmerizing to see their predatory side.

_{I wish I could catch the snake and release it somewhere far but it was already too late. The cat had already torn it into two pieces. This cat is one of the most savages and badass stray cat in the neighborhood. One word: SAVAGE}

If you're curious of how he's been doing lately. He's far from dying sleeping and doing some awkward things only savage cats can decipher.

_{Just chilling in an awkward position}

Thank you very much for reading.
See you again next time.

P.S.
All images are mine.