The Modern Victory Garden

The forecast is calling for hot and dry weather for the next week or more.   This follows many weeks of warm and dry conditions and watering is turning into an every day chore as a result.   It has been my custom not to use sprinklers on the raised garden beds - preferring instead to use either soaker hoses or to hand water with a hose and wand attachment.  I prefer those methods because it avoids watering the garden walkways, putting water only where it is most needed at the plants roots.   However, this past week I have come to the conclusion that unless I quit my job to stay home and water several hours a day, that this is just not going to cut it with the dry/hot summer we are experiencing.   The fact that we expanded the garden considerably this year has a lot to do with the extra time too.   So, for the third day in a row, I have the sprinkler running on a section of the garden tonight.   I still need to hand water the containers and odd sections, but the sprinkler is helping me cover a much larger area with less of my time consumed to do it.   I will just have to deal with the fact that my walkways are going to sprout an overabundance of grass and weeds as a result.   Perhaps next year's big garden project will have to be laying down an impenetrable cover in the walkways for weed suppression as well as aesthetics.    Would love to hear what your recommendations would be (if you care to share them) so I can consider various options before planning that project.                                                     

The sunny warm weather is definitely a positive thing for the garden overall.   Although it is making me work hard to keep everything hydrated, the resulting accelerated growth of the warm weather crops is something to behold.   The corn patch now has many ears of corn formed and many more just forming.             

I skipped growing corn last year due to space constraints and I must say I did not realize how much I missed it until just recently.   My husband adores fresh corn, so he really missed it!                                      

A couple of the Legend tomatoes have just broken color (finally).   It's hard to see the color change (lowest hanging fruit in the photo) because it was getting twilight out when I took the picture and the angle of the fruit makes it hard to see.    I think it should move quickly to a fully ripe status with the high heat forecasted for the next many days.                   

 I am bracing myself for this first big ripe one not to taste very good because it took so long to mature.   Sometimes that seems to create a more bland tomato than one that matures quickly from fruit set to ripening.                 

The real action in the garden is in the squash and pumpkin patch.   I should warn you that it may not be safe to stand for any length of time by my squash patch - because it is engulfing all open areas adjacent to it and the vines and tendrils are latching on to anything they encounter!   The successfully pollinated Buttercup winter squash and Small Sugar pumpkins are growing in huge leaps with each passing day.   Just to give you an idea of how fast these things grow when the conditions are right - here is a Buttercup squash as it looked on Sunday July 19th.                                        

And here is that same squash fruit 3 days later on July 22!                    

Even more dramatic, here is a Small Sugar pie pumpkin as it looked on Saturday July 18th.                                        

 And here is that same pumpkin 4 days later on July 22!                         

Green beans are setting and I am expecting they will be ready for a really big initial harvest just about the time the 95 + degree weather really hits us the hardest.   It always seems to work like that.                           

What is happening in your garden?