The Thunder Moon

I just drove right through a thunderstorm on my way home from work, but when I got here, it looks like it missed my house. Bummer.

The deer found my sweet potatoes, and munched the leaves off of everything that wasn't protected by wire.

I've still got tomatoes ripening, but it's probably too hot for any new fruit to form. The neighbor's chickens have been stealing a lot of them. I've caught them in the act, and they'll grab tomatoes and run off with them.

The Bishop's Hat peppers that survived the winter are starting to make little peppers. I think I'll plant all peppers in the fall from now on, and keep them in pots over the winter. The ones I planted in spring are still small.

The Rosa Bianca eggplants have some golfball-sized fruits on them. I hope they make it to full size. The chickens have pecked a couple of them.

I've also got three Charantais melons forming. They're about tennis ball sized right now. I'm only growing these because someone gave us seeds. They're from France, so I'm afraid they might not be able to take the heat.

The Gardenville okra is like, "Hot? What do you mean hot? It feels great out here!" I just ate some the other day. I like how this variety is short and fat instead of long and slender. Seems to stay tender longer that way.

Here's Basil checking on the cactus garden in the front by the driveway.

In the back, the cucumbers think it's too hot. I got a few fruits, but since then they've been aborting. Oh well, they were getting bitter anyway.

The pole beans are also not looking so good in the summer heat. I just hope they survive the summer and pick up again in the fall. Pictured are the snap beans. The lima beans look better.

This is my one watermelon. It's about the size of a softball. I had another one, but it split. Hope this one makes it.

The squash also aren't looking that great. The Tatume pictured here isn't so bad. I've gotten a bit of fruit off them, and now they're probably going to take a break and grow back in the fall. The Black Futsu hasn't been doing well at all. I should have know a Japanese variety wouldn't like the Texas heat.

Last, the Malabar spinach is still growing very slowly. I did start them late, but they're supposed to like heat.

We've just started getting close to 100 over the last few days. Yesterday it finally hit 100 on my thermometer, but not today. Might later in the week. It's not too bad to make it all the way to mid-July before getting to the century mark, and we've also had almost-normal amounts of rain. Not too bad at all.