Demise of a Garden

As I said before..it is HOT! Temps were over 100 again today with no rain in sight. My once lush garden now stands a big chance of withering away to nothing but a pile of rubbish. In a mere five days, the beautiful, green plants that were full of yellow blossoms and tiny, green tomatoes have become crispy, dry stalks. The ground around them is hard and dry. It makes me sad. Not so much that the garden has passed beyond its usefulness but that no matter how much I tried, I could not save it. I always feel so guilty walking past the poor wilted plants standing there in the blistering sun.

These tomatoes will be pulled from the ground on the first day that it is cool enough to work outside. The ground will be turned, fertilized and reseeded with Butternut Squash! Butternut Squash are great as fall garden plants since they should bear before frost. Once picked they can be over-wintered with very little trouble. I am pondering whether to put the tomato cages on the squash to see if I can contain them inside the garden. My gardens are tiny patches scattered throughout the yard so anything that vines soon takes up way too much space. This makes it difficult to walk down the boardwalks in between the gardens and even harder to care for the plants.

The garden in the shade stands a much better chance of survival. Here the Bell Peppers are wilted but revive during the night hours. Surprisingly enough, the one plant that appears to be doing quite well is the watermelon. The rogue melon that is meandering around the garden patch as if in search of cooling water. As with the gourd, a grasshopper ate the stem off of the first melon that appeared on the vine, but now there is a much larger fruit hanging from the fence. It is about 14 inches long and has already started pulling the chicken-wire fence over on top of it. Perhaps this is a self-preservation tactic! We have a multitude of raccoons that would love to make a meal of this watermelon! Maybe if the weight of the melon pulls the fence down on top of it, the raccoons will have too much trouble trying to get at it. Ahh..wishful thinking anyway!