Injury Alert: Heat Exhaustion!

As the season has progressed, “Gan-Green Thumb” and I have done our best to fight the bugs and fungi that have threatened to creep into our garden. Things have gone pretty well on that front so far, although my plants will probably never be featured in a magazine that shows pictures. I am beginning to wonder if my tomato plants might be showing signs of “early blight”. After reading more about it, I am pretty sure that my tomatoes last year might have fallen victim to this. So I’m spraying and doing what I can to try to save my tomatoes (once it starts, can you ever really stop it?) "Gan-Green Thumb” strikes again!

However, more than bugs and fungi, my biggest foe this year has been something that I can’t do a whole lot about: Texas heat. I don’t even know what this month’s water bill is going to be. I once watched a home gardening show produced out of Utah, and the hosts were actually talking about watering ONCE A WEEK! Were they kidding? Everything here is just absolutely baked, even with constant watering. Here is a picture I took at 5:00 p.m. of ground that had been soaked earlier in the day (about 8:00 that morning):



The Old Coot Who Married Me has been doing some experiments with various kinds of container gardening, but Texas is not conducive to that. These pots were thoroughly watered the night before (about 8:00 p.m.), yet this is what his plants looked liked by high noon the next day:


Fighting the heat has been my biggest struggle this month. So how is everything else going? Let’s take a look:

One of The Old Coot’s peach trees has major problems:


Is it the heat? That was my guess, although he has found some evidence of damage on the tree that he suspects was caused by the 10 million squirrels that live in the neighborhood. This is likely, since “Gan-Green Thumb” and I have found lots of peaches on the ground that have been enjoyed by the squirrels:


The grape vine is recovering (thanks to a barrier put up by The Old Coot), but there will not be grapes this year:


My bush cherries were finally planted, and at first glance seem to be doing okay:


But closer inspection reveals that the Golden Marauder has struck again!


Despite their struggles, the tomato plants are seeing a little progress:



The birds and squirrels got most of the blueberries, but there are still a few left. Occasionally the Old Coot and I find a lone ripe blueberry (they never ripen at the same time!), and whoever is lucky enough to get it will giggle like a kid while chewing that ONE berry for all that it’s worth!


The pepper plants have a lot of growth on them, but I’m not really seeing any peppers yet:


The strawberries have a little growth on them, but they sure look hot sometimes:


The corn in The Old Coot’s “experiment” is hanging in there:


His green bean experiment is hanging, too:




And joy of joys (for a Southern girl!), the black-eyed peas are coming along, too (Mom and I picked some this morning):



The Old Coot pushed his blackberry bush underneath our tree, and it is doing well. (I asked him if he was trying to make it easier for the squirrels to get to them and he laughed):


The Old Coot also scored big when he passed by a house that was getting rid of an old-fashioned claw-foot bathtub (it was missing a foot). His was tickled to death when the owners said he could have it, and we planted some of our raspberry bushes in there. They seem to be pepping up a little now that they are out of their little pots:


And the plants that are doing the best out of everything in the whole yard? The plants that were planted by the squirrels! You see, I buy a wildlife mix that has “pumpkin” seeds in it (although it was cantaloupe that grew from them last year) and the squirrels always have to “hide” a few:


Maybe I should just forget gardening and turn the whole yard over to the squirrels!