I'm sorry to say the chard died due to my neglect of my garden. I'd asked Mr. A to water last week, and he got out there every morning faithfully for me, but I assumed he knew what to water. He didn't realize the shelter over the Swiss Chard was there for a reason, so he didn't water that bed. By the time I thought to ask him about it, it had gone without watering for three solid days, and was already dead.
Sorry, Chard. I'll plant some of your brothers and sisters in the fall.
The squash plants have also succumbed to the heat. Today we expect it to reach 115°F.
Last night we had a dust storm with high winds blowing for almost a full hour. It was like an oven out there, blasting hot air full of dirt.
The tomatoes and eggplants are still alive. The eggplants are thriving, the tomato plants are looking a bit bedraggled. Here is my harvest for the day – my camera took a very grainy photo, but still you can see what I got:
2 pounds, 10 ounces of tomatoes; 4 pounds 4 ounces of Lavender Touch eggplant and 2 pounds of Raveena eggplant.
Unfortunately, the Raveena eggplant is tasting bitter fresh off the plant and is basically inedible since I just don't “do” bitter. A couple of weeks ago I forced myself to eat some bitter eggplant and my stomach ended up aching, so I just don't think I'll do that again. It was not tasting bitter initially, and I have been picking at similar sizes.
The Lavender Touch eggplant continues to taste delicious. My favorite way to cook it now is to just heat up some butter in a cast iron skillet, slice the eggplant into 1/2″ slices. Brown on each side, then pour in about 1/4″ of water in the bottom of the pan, cover and steam for 10 minutes. Quick and easy.
I'm thinking my current garden harvests are nearly to the end, so here is the totals for my harvests from June 4th through today, July 18th – six weeks:
- 5 pounds Manyel tomatoes
- 13.5 pounds Cluster Grande tomatoes
- 1 pound Anna tomatoes
- 3.5 pounds Prudens Purple tomatoes
- 5.5 pounds pickling cukes
- 3 pounds regular cukes
- 2.5 pounds Yellow Crookneck squash
- 4.5 pounds Scallop squash
- 1.5 pounds Butternut squash
- 15 pounds Raveena eggplant
- 20 pounds Lavender Touch eggplant
- 2 pounds Yellow Pony Watermelon
- 2 pounds Malali Watermelon
I estimate the veggies above to be worth $147.
Do you have a garden? How's it doing?
Yours Truly,
Just goof off on the computer looking at different blogs that I haven’t been to.
Or it been a while.
My swiss chard is doing ok. But my egg plant is in the roll which nothing real thriving.
It hotter at your place then mine. I believe it in mid 90’s
Stop on in for some coffee.
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I think it’s amazing that you’re getting veggies at all in this unholy weather!
My chard has struggled along but isn’t edible, despite daily watering: just little piles of wilted greens sitting in the dirt. The tomatoes wither and fry on the vine. The ones I’ve harvested (all three of them) have tasted OK but were kind of dry on the inside–unjuicy tomatoes, if you can picture it.
The butternut squash is doing better since I laid an old, discarded sheer curtain over it to protected a little from the blasting sun. Before, it was wilted by 9 or 10 in the morning. Now it stays plump through the day, assuming it’s been watered before 7:00 or 8:00 a.m. Ditto the cantaloupe. The squash has a few tiny babies; I don’t think the cantaloupe has set fruit at all.
The basil is holding its own, though sometimes has to be watered twice in a day.
My water bill is through the roof! I could have bought six months worth of veggies at Whole Foods for what I’ve spent on trying to keep the plants alive.
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