Summer in North Texas

Summer is here, and in Texas, it mean extreme heat and dryness, which make it very hard to maintain a garden. Its been in the mid-to-upper 90s most days, and haven't had any good amount of rain in about 2 weeks (while we were on vacation).

Pretty much all the stuff I planted in the Spring is done with.  The onions, squash, garlic are all picked. The rutgers tomatoes are done producing too.  But the cherry tomatoes, being much more heat resistant, are still producing. The plants have gotten huge, and very long, so I have started burying many of the tomato vines so encourage more rooting, so that they might produce more later on.

cherry tomatoes can take the heat better

These cherry tomatoes have been great.  The ones that escape the mockingbirds, I often pick and eat them as a snack, as they have a very good flavor.  The rutgers tomatoes are all done producing, Unfortunately the mockingbirds ate a lot of them, in spite of that we  still got a pretty decent amount of tomatoes from the plants.
 I have layed down their long vines and dug trenches, and dug in the vines to encourage more root production.  Hopefully if the plants stay alive they produce more in the fall. ( may be foolish thing to do considering the water I'll have to spend to water them) but we'll see what happens.

buried tomato vines under a sunflower (being propped up by a stick)

 In late spring my son Andrew wanted to plant something so I helped him plant some cucumbers.  It was kinda late in the season but I thought was worth a try.  He seeded them in a large pot, and later he transplanted the plants once this space was available( where the snap peas has been growing).  His plants have grown pretty big now, and are producing. These are the "straight eight" variety. We have picked 3 nice ones, and a few more are growing. There are lots of cucumber beetles on them, and a few squash bugs too, but I have not wanted to spray anything on them.  Hopefully we can keep getting some more until they succumb to the heat and bugs.

cucumbers with some basil nearby.

 There are many volunteer basil plants and some milo plants around which I water occasionally.  I very much welcome the basil.  They have been coming up every year, and I just let them grow where-ever they pop up.

New Plantings

One of the reliable hot-summer plants is okra.  I seeded a few plants a couple weeks ago, and they came up.

Emerald okra from seeds saved from last year

I have the chicken wire over them for protection since we have a small dog that sometimes goes into the garden has tried to make holes.  This is to give them a little protection until they get a bit bigger.  I have 7 seedlings, but once bigger may thin down to 4 since that should provide more than enough for our needs.


 I also planted 4 "Round Zucchini" seeds last week, and 1 has come up.  Not sure what to expect since it will be growing maturing during both the hottest part of the summer where the pest are in full force too.  But my plan for these is to:
- While small, monitor every few days for SVB eggs, and keep area clear to prevent squash bugs.
- Put some aluminum foil around base and as mulch to see of this keeps SVB from laying eggs, (I've read about this but have not tried it.
- Once plants are bigger (maybe 2 weeks from now)  do a good inspection for eggs, then cover all the plants will tulle netting.  (not doing it now since I want them to get full sun so they grow fast and strong in their early life)
- Once female flowers appear, then hand pollinate, as long as aphids don't start being a problem and force me to remove the covers to deal with them.  Eventually just remove the covers.


The other thing I am hoping to grow during the summer is peppers.  Last week I bought a packet of sweet peppers:

I just planted 10 seeds in small pots a couple days ago.  Hoping they come up soon.  I thought about just direct seeding them, but thought it would be easier to keep the soil moist by planting them in pots, and putting them in the shade, until they germinated.