What a hot month July has been. The plants have survived despite the intense heat. Thank goodness we had a few rain showers to help keep the plants hydrated.
The potted Italian Patio Cherry above by the back porch has been producing a lot of fruit, rather large for a cherry, but cut in half they work out perfect for a salad.
The paste tomato plants are over 5' tall and I have been trimming them every week to keep them under control. This yellowish cherry has a lot of fruit on each stem, and they are sweet rather than acidic.
This hybrid slicing tomato plant is loaded with good sized fruit and the San Marzano's are a nice size as well. Before I know it I will be canning tomato sauce.
All the pepper plants are in flower and have a lot of peppers already. I have been picking the Banana Peppers for two weeks now and have been freezing them for now.
Check out the busy honeybees pollinating the Zucchini flowers. So far, I have picked four good sized Zucchini and have made bread and fried some too. I still have one on the kitchen counter along with some cucumbers to deal with today.
Speaking of cucumbers, this variety has grown so much in one month and it's loaded with small cukes.
I planted this winter Squash in a large pot next to one of the trellises and it has totally covered the frame. You can see a squash in the right-hand photo.
Next to the squash are all the grow bags with different varieties of potatoes that started to chit in early spring. They are all in flower at the moment and some of the plants are already dying back. I can hardly wait to see how many potatoes I get this year.
The onion in the metal raised beds are forming bulbs, but I thought they would be much larger by now. I did plant them at the end April when it was still cold out. I'm wondering if the new soil needed more amending do to all the rainfall.
The bean tower garden gave me a nice harvest of green beans. I did pull them all out this week and I am going to start another round of yellow string beans today. I should have enough time to get another harvest in.
I poste a while back that I had ordered Lemongrass seeds. Well, let me tell you, I did not realize how tall that grass could get. It is over my head which would make it about 6' tall and it is going to seed. I have to research what to do with it now. I know I want to dry it for tea but know there are other ways to use it.
I planted carrots, turnip, and beets in the large cold frame. They are all sprouting this week and now I have to make sure they stay watered well in this heatwave.
Another photo of the bees working hard on the Zucchini flowers. I do love having worker bees in the gardens.
The yellow Bell peppers are doing very well but are slowly putting on fruit.
So, I took the time to trim up the bottom half of the pepper plants so they would focus on putting more energy into fruiting. Hopefully, they will have enough time to get some good-sized peppers to freeze.
Along the front of the house, I have annual flowers at the edge of the garden, but behind those I planted a pumpkin vine. I trimmed some of the leaves back to get better airflow and found three pumpkins hiding so far. I may just get a few more by the time fall arrives.
You can see here how huge the plant has gotten, and it is starting to climb the fencing too. The leaves had covered all the flowers so that was an important task to complete. That is my end of the month update for the #gardenjournal. I hope you are enjoying the fruits of your labor too. Happy Gardening Everyone!
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