Start of Summer

Summer has begun, and with it some fairly high temperatures. Sadly, as a result, none of the green beans survived, nor the calendula or the summer squash (although the winter squash appears to be thriving, how ironic). Also, a combination of chickens and lawn mower have sadly ended the surprise the mystery plants growing in the grass presented.

The Japanese red kuri squash is starting to give in to the summer heat, much like it did last year. Hopefully it survives long enough to produce some squash perfect for pumpkin pie. If not, then I will have learned that this one is easier to plant in the late fall and let over winter with the mild winters here.







Here we have an heirloom variety of winter squash the is doing quite well, and continues to get larger each day. Knowing from past experience that summer heat does not treat most plants nicely here, you can see the shade cloth draped over top that has kept the sun from drying out the leaves.

Here is the zucchini, still doing well for now, and starting to grow some zucchinis as well. I'll be needing to find some more uses for zucchini soon, as I have discovered that quite a lot of zucchini remains in the freezer from previous harvests (along with a bunch of anaheim peppers I got from a couple pepper plants that lasted a full two years).

 Here we have the cantaloupe enjoying the warmth of the summer, starting to flower. The only issue now is to keep the chickens from taking their dirt baths in this garden box. I find so long as I keep the soil moist, the chickens tend to avoid taking their dirt baths here, the trick is to not keep the dirt too moist for the plant.

And last, but not least, we have the watermelon plant here. The last couple years I have had absolutely no success in growing watermelon, but continued to try again in hopes of growing my own. After all, my grandpa got a nice, juicy and sweet watermelon from a stray seed. After eating some watermelon, a seed one of the seeds ended up growing a thriving watermelon plant. Now to hope that these watermelon plants continue to thrive as well...

Last of all, I have noticed from these pictures that I am quite behind in my weeding. Sadly, I am not much of one for hot weather, so little to no yard work is done by me during the summer. However, I suppose I should see about getting some of the weeding done during the early morning...