Been gone a few days..

..and not much has changed. No rain. Watering every other day. Couple of cukes about ready to pick. Squash is flowering and failing, mostly. Not sure what the problem is.

Watered..

..everything thoroughly by hand. Harvested some squash and peppers (prematurely- still green). Staked tomatoes some more- they are really growing and covering other plants.

Cuke and beans

OK, so it's not the cornucopia yet, but the summer is young (yesterday was the solstice) and things are looking up. There are a few more squash almost ready, some little cukes, peppers look good, and the tomatoes seem to be setting more fruit. No sign of flowers on the eggplants yet.

It's hot as hades though and still no rain. It was 102 yesterday and probably at least 100 today. I'm watering every third day for an hour, but wetting the potted plants and straw bales daily.

Basil

Forgot to mention Laura harvested some beautiful basil from the pot on the front porch and made a great pesto for Father's day today. Yum!

Washed..

... the garden with dish detergent using the hose sprayer early yesterday, watered from 7 to 8 PM. Sprinkler is set for every 3 days but I'm watering the straw garden and potted plants daily. Temp was officially 100 today!

Sprayed bloom-set...

..on tomatoes and other flowers in hopes of getting more fruit, 2 days ago. It's really hot and miserable right through here, no significant rain in 3 weeks or more.

Picked one squash and one (LOL) green bean today. Squash seem to be doing poorly; lots of flowers but the fruit wrinkles and falls off or rots early.

All in all I'm not real happy or impressed with results so far.

Cleaned up..

...literally with a good hose spray with soap solution to deter insects. Did that on Sunday 6/13. Also took the accompanying pictures. Laura thinks I'm watering too much so I compromised by hand watering the straw-garden and potted plants, and will hold off on the sprinkler for another day (let it go to every third day). Man it's hot and humid- haven't had rain in weeks.

Vigorous Growth...

... but disappointing fruit, especially in tomatoes. The plants are strong and vigorous, and seem to be producing flowers, but I only have 3 or 4 tomatoes among the 4 plants!

Also yanked the last two cauliflower today and discarded them. Caterpillars all over them. See some tine cukes, string beans and squash, but again not as many as I'd like. The plants look healthy, plenty of flowers, just not much fruit. Maybe too much nitrogen?

The pepper plants are coming along fine. No sign of any flowers or fruit on the eggplant.

Had a lot of rain all around us yesterday - just not here. I'm going to water this evening (hadn't watered in two days since it's been cloudy and damp.)

Coming along...

We need some rain. It's been hot, humid but no precip for over a week. I've been watering with the sprinkler daily.

Here's a status:

Lettuce - about had it; kind of wilted in this heat

Tomatoes: growing vigorously, had to re-stake. Lots of growth but not many flowers and even fewer seem to be setting to fruit. I only see about 4 small green tomatoes in all that growth.

Beans: growing well, rigged a string support for them

Squash: looking good, lots of flowers and small squash beginning to appear.

Peppers: look good, see small fruit forming

Cukes: growing and flowering vigorously

Eggplant: Plants growing well, some wvidence of insect activity but not too bad. No sign of flowers yet

Cauliflower: kept 2 in the ground; look better than before and forming new heads, but still see catipiller damage. We'll see.

beets: fuggedaboudit.