Other than a bit of gardening/watering in the morning and late evening, it’s been too hot to do much in the garden. Because of the heat, the peas are definitely done, just need to find a cool time to pull the plants. So far this year, I have been unsuccessful at seeding rutabaga and sunflowers. I think I’ll start both of them indoors next spring. Most of the other plants are doing pretty well, thanks to a comprehensive watering system and some diligent hand watering. Thank goodness for a deep well!

We dug up two blue potato plants last week and got enough potatoes for one meal. They were good … same as regular potatoes, but blue. Hopefully the potatoes will get bigger before the entire bed needs to be cleaned out. Also pulled some ‘Parisian’ carrots. They were small but tasty … nice and sweet.

The cauliflower is still not heading and the broccoli has one small head with a number of shoots on the same plant. None of the other broccoli plants show any sign of heading.

The last corn I planted was about a foot tall when I put it in the bed. They haven’t gotten much taller, but are blooming now! Don’t know if we’ll get anything out of it … maybe baby corn? :) The red corn is blooming now.

The tomatoes, particularly the Opalka and Golden Jubilee are fruiting now.

The banana potatoes are growing well and the plants look very healthy. I’ll have to start hilling them up.

We haven’t had any significant rain since June 9th. The grass is crunchy underneath. I’ve been trying to water flowerbeds that don’t have weeping hoses, but some areas are not getting enough. The tree peony blooms dried up and didn’t open. My bad.

There is still a ton of cleaning up to do in the flowerbeds, but with the weather the way it is, I don’t know when I’ll be able to do it. Had some disturbing news about a heart condition last week, and have been ordered to take it easy (further testing required) so it’s hard to find the time to get anything significant done, especially in this heat.

The photo is a panoramic view (I hope) of my vegetable garden. It’s difficult to get a really good photo anymore. I used to be able to take good ones from my third floor balcony, but the cedar trees have grown so tall that they block the view now.