Thirsty garden

Even though we had a little rain yesterday, my garden was bone dry today.  One banana pepper plant and the squash and zucchini all began to wilt.  I spent quite a while watering this evening (It's after 5PM and still in the 90's!) but there are a few that might not pull through.

I picked about 15 tomatoes tonight - mostly early girls but a few bradley and roma.

I think this week will be a salsa week!

Pickling Banana Peppers

I finally broke down and pickled some peppers yesterday. I used 2 separate recipes, one with apple cider vinegar. So many of the ones picked last week were already squishy so I only made 4 quarts.

7-24 How Does My Garden Grow

The melons are looking so great, but I'm sure they are not sweet yet.  I'm so excited!!

The fall squash is looking great.  Rather than thin it too much, I'm thinking of going vertical with them as in square foot gardening.

The Early Girls are starting to ripen more quickly.  The Bradley is still slower, but picking up speed.  So far the tomatoes from it are extremely tasty!  I took a pic of my 2nd oldest between the Bradley and the Early Girls to show how tall they are getting.  They are taller than the fence now.

Flowers From the Backyard

The hydrangea bush wasn't very profuse this year. I don't know if we cut it back to late in the season or what it was. Here are a few pics.

The first sunflower bloom peaks out over the fence. More are getting ready to bloom soon.
I love the pic of the sun setting in the background behind the fence.

Some of My Flowers

I've focused only on the vegetable garden and missed some of the flowers. I didn't get many pics this year but here are a few:

These are some of what's still blooming in the heat of summer in my front yard.

Spirea - These plants were put in when the house was built, so they are 14 years old.

Butterfly bush. It was in its bloom peak about 3 weeks ago, now only a few left. We only put this one in 2 years ago and its already the height of the house. Drastic pruning needed this fall.

Balloon Flower - These are in my front flower bed for the 3rd year. Something weird though, each year 3 are getting lighter than the others. Hmmmmmm.

First Roma and Mountain Pride Tomatoes

Today we harvested 1 roma and 2 Mtn. Pride tomatoes.  Yummy!

Of course - more banana peppers

2nd Bean Harvest and 2nd Beetle Spraying

2nd harvest of beans.  Still mostly coming from 'Contender' ones.  I'm thrilled to have decent beans this year!

The banana peppers still continue to be prolific.  I've given them away, cooked them in stuff, and my oldest eats them raw.  But still I can't use them fast enough.  I guess I'm going to be conned into pickling some to make my 2nd oldest happy!

I sprayed Organicide again to try and chase off the beetles.  I've been looking around the nearby houses to see if someone put up one of this idiotic beetle bags (which only attract the little buggers) but I haven't seen one.  I'm guessing they are just bad this year.  

The birds have been constant visitors.  Especially a cardinal couple and a lone bluejay.  The are nested in the front yard.