We've been hit by the the extreme heat up here too. Our cool weather didn't leave till mid-June.
But, seems my garden is doing ok, because it was already behind, and caught up nicely. My tomatoes are loaded, and starting to ripen. I found out why the one is called Goliath. Not the size of the mater, but the plant. It will definitely clear 8 ft. A good 7' now most likely. Been harvesting mostly them, grapes, and a few Cherokees thus far. Loaded down with San Marzano, Kellogs Breakfast, Sweet Isralei, and Orange Peach.
Okra plants are stout, but only planted 3, so harvest is slow for slicing and freezing. Prob go back to heavy hitter. That's the best production I've had overall on trying okras. It's more of a dehybridized Clemson Spinelss. And some pink japanese or chinese okra.
Squash has been relentless. If you are in search of the best squash - Yellow (Tempest from Johnny's Seeds. F1 hybrid with a splash of Acorn bred in. Prolific, cans well, best flavor and texture of any yellow squash you can find. Zuchinni - Italian Cocozelle. Firm, silky smooth, but firm. Best flavor of a courgette I've ever had. And an heirloom so seeds are already drying for next year. Both of these varieties have been pretty resilient for summer squashes. First signs of borers, I spray the bases with a mix of sevin and peppermint oil. Seems to have helped extend their useful life. And I prune out the lower leaves and stems if they start turning or get wilty.
Went with all boston picklers this year and got covered up with cukes. Plus no bitterness and great fresh eating flavor doesn't hurt. So , a one stop cuke.
Got canada gooseneck squash all over the place, and melons are coming out ok.
Fig has grown really well, but has set no fruit. Not sure why. They did freeze off and sprouted new growth. So maybe hte new growth came in too late with hte prolonged cold weather to bear fruit. The 2nd fig froze off really bad and just sprouted new growth 2 weeks ago.
Green beans were slow to come in cause the deer kept eating the leaves. But, the sot beans fianlly took off acrrose hte road, so they're out of my garden now, and hte beans have revivied. Got some succession planting intertwined with the beans that are now producing so will see how that goes into late august or so.
As usual my nemsis is corn and sweet peppers, but I always try. Except for Mad Hatters. They always crank it out. I may go just all mad hatters next year. Fully red they are fantastic and by far the best sweet pepper, but they are small and thin skinned, though you can still use them like a bell.
Egg Plant showing out, but not sized out to ripen yet. I'm not tyically drawn to eggplant, but I really like this one (Rosita). And my BIL loves eggplant and is not able to garden outside of some tomato and pepper pots on his deck.
Blueberries were pretty good for small plants. Luckily got huge 20 year old bushes at my brothers house. Got extra blackerry and raspberries planted in this year. Peach is recovered as well as can from the great Fall of '24 buck antler debacle. That's a good reason to stop at Lane Orchards outside Warner Robbins on our summer trip to Valdosta to see the kiddies. By and large, late cool weather and frosts got my peach and apples even though I selected late bloomers for that reason where we live. We got cold weather even into June this year. Think I'm gonna have to junk my cherry bush and try another one. But, the grape really came on this year after not growing much last year (Muscadine/Red seedless grape cross. Season long producer) Gets lots of little bb sized clusters, but no real production yet. It's only year and a half old.
Have put up:
-6 quarts of squash and fixing to do another round. Didn't realize I already had so much sitting around again.
-14 pints peaches
-5 half pints peach butter
-6 pints summer squash relish (absolute best relish. Love it on any type of hot dogs or burgers or butter peas. So glad I ran accross this recipe last year).
-6 pints dill spears (Got 8 dill chips leftover already)
-Bread and Butter pickles on the menu board.
-Green Beans on the menu board
-Blueberry jam on the menu board
-Corn on the menu board but will have to go down the road to get some.
Best gardening year for me overall, even with a few quirks, in several years...If the green beans come thru after the raids and it loks like they might. The succession beans are rattlesnak, and they're supposed to be prolific so I hope they help me out. Biggest change has been spending $70 on straw to mulch in 60 of my 80 feet. Only thing not mulched was corn. Prob took about 8 bales IIRC, and 4-5 tarp full of leaves. Good rotting in for the soil. probably 80% decrease in weeding. Can still see my melons. By now I've caved and my melons would be hiding in knee high bermuda weeds and such. Good moisture retention. Only broke out hose twice for some spot eatering outside of the strawberries. Maybe more if I'd gone with a thicker bed. I usually only mulched the maters and peppers. even with the slowed rains, we haven't really gone over 2 weeks without a spot shower finding the house. Last year tried cloth and drip irrigation. Didn't like it. Figured if I mulched in, it would greatly reduced the need to water, and would feed my soil as it broke down. I'm easy to please. If I get my beans and maters in moderate to high success, everything else is a bonus.
