Things are exploding!

We are in the middle of a little heat wave.  People in regions that are used to hot summers will laugh but 32C is pretty hot here on the coast!  The garden, however, is loving it.  I'm out there watering twice a day just to make sure that everything is happy.  This year I've abandoned my watering systems in favour of hand watering.  Now that I have more time to devote to the garden, it makes sense to pay more attention to what actually needs the water.  Early in the morning when the garden is still in the shade seems to be the best time with a selective top-up in the evening.

Copra Onions

I think these must be the best onions we've ever grown.  It's only the first part of July and already they're bulking up nicely with no sign of slowing down.  This bed had tomatoes in it last year, received lots of SeaSoil and had a good dusting of homemade fertilizer before the seedlings were transplanted.  We only lost 2 seedlings and none of the plants show signs of going to seed, which is the result of a cool, wet spring. So far this year, we've been fortunate.

Corn and beans!

The Three Sisters Garden is a veritable jungle!  There are only 4 squash plants in the beds this year and all are positioned to sprawl out of the bed - which they are definitely doing.  I see lots of little Waltham Butternut Squash forming.  The Fortex Beans are scrambling up the corn stalks and they're a much better choice than the Italian heritage beans, having smaller leaves.  Hopefully they won't break the corn stalks.  The Italian heritage beans are starting to form flowers, so it won't be long now before we can have beans for supper!

Sweet Millions

The tomatoes are also very happy with the heat.  Sweet Millions has fruit starting to change colour.

Classica Tomato

All of the tomatoes have heavy crops and I can see some busy times ahead processing the bounty.  Both Classica and Health Kick have lots of tomatoes and while both are bush varieties, Classica seems to be a bit more compact and the fruit are more elongated.

Cantaloupe

I placed a piece of fencing behind the cantaloupe which is growing in the compost bin.  This way, the vines will climb up the fencing and the fruit will be much easier to find and keep clean.  Here, too, small fuzzy balls are starting to take shape.

I pulled out the snow peas yesterday and we carefully removed the zig zag fence so as not to damage the sunflowers.  Several were staked as I'm not sure how stable they will be now that the fence has been removed.  Then I transplanted 2 of the peppers to this bed and today seeded kale for a fall crop.  If the wood bugs leave the seedlings alone, I'll transplant them to the small bed that had Seiglinde Potatoes in it.  When the garlic has been pulled - in a week or so - I'll plant a fall crop of snow peas in their place.

I may not enjoy the hot, hot days, but the garden certainly does!