June turned out to be DRY and HOT here in Atlanta. The hot we're used to, the dry, however, did a number on the garden. Despite trying to keep everything watered as much as possible, it just doesn't compare to some good summer showers. Unfortunately, a few things either stopped producing or completely gave up the ghost. All is not lost, though.
Before the heat completely thrashed my squash, we did get some nice harvests of the golden zucchini. Not quite enough to really share, but enough for us to enjoy in some meals here at home.
You may also notice our first Zucchino Ramipicante, as well. It has also slowed down on production, but we've gotten a few solid specimens off the vine. I shared the first one with @dksart's mom, but we haven't had enough to share more of these yet, either. The plant seems to be bouncing back now that we've had some rain the last few days, so we'll see how if we don't get a few more coming off the plant soon!
Most of the other squash plants have also suffered with the weather. Though I can always count on the volunteers from the compost to make out better than the seeds I actually spend money on, haha! The butternut-ish volunteer plant has already put out an 8.5 pound beast. I think that monster was sucking all the energy out of the vine, because of course now that I clipped it off more babies are popping up.
After an initial strong start, the pumpkin plant was the first to completely wither and die. Not before getting one nice little pumpkin to harvest. Given our long growing season, I may just try to get out a few more new seedlings and see if the second half of the summer is more forgiving than the first since I do love having lots of roasted squash to put up in the freezer for the winter months.
As opposed to the strong start of the pumpkins, the tomatoes gave me fits trying to get any past the seedling stage. I think we have only ended up with about 5-6 plants, but luckily the cherry tomatoes are fairly prolific. I think it's helped that the bed we have them in gets a little more shade than some of the others, so they haven't gotten completely scorched in the heat. I'm pulling off a small handful each day, which is always welcome. And so far, not a hornworm in sight! (Though now I probably jinxed us...)
On to one of my two star producers this year--eggplant! We've got the first of the long ones emerging that should be ready soon, but the real winners so far are the new to us Melanzane. They look like little baby pumpkins!
I pulled the first handful off the plants last week to try. They definitely have a thicker skin than some of the other varieties, but we enjoyed them in a veggie pasta medley. I'll keep experimenting with different ways to use these cuties, because we should have plenty more coming in...
The other winner of the season, which is very welcome--cucumbers! They took a while to really get going, but at this point they are still thriving out there in the heat of the summer. The bees are quite happy for all the little yellow cucumber flowers, as well. The plants are absolutely swarmed in the mornings, so I do my best to let the pollinators keep doing their job with little interference.
The best part about a regular influx of cukes is of course homemade pickles. A few years ago I learned the trick of fermenting pickles from @dksart's mom. While mine may never hold up to her decades of practice and skill, I have to say I am getting close! We just opened up the first jar yesterday, and with how good they turned out I already started a second batch today!
The fresh cucumbers are delicious on their own, but my goodness do we love a good pickle. In addition to the pickling cucumbers, I think we may finally get some of the little lemon cukes soon, too. So while I may be a little disappointed in some of my other harvests, at least there are pickles!
I'll finish out this edition of our Garden Journal with our latest visitor. Up to this point I had only heard about the great cicada invasion of 2024, but we finally saw our first little fella early the other morning. It was kind of fun to see that it had just emerged, so the shell looked almost like a second cicada underneath the leaf.
Nature never ceases to amaze me! Even when she's testing my patience with unpredictable weather... ;)
