Summer Can Be Devistating

May was hotter than normal and my garden took a hit at that time. Then June was cooler than normal. Most of June was actually cooler than May. Then July came along and the heat was on again. With tempratures above 110 in July my garden was mostly devistated. Along with the heat came grass that over took just about everything. I will post pictures later... but be warned it is not going to be pretty.

June 11 2008

My watermelon vines are finally starting to put on fruit. I have never had too much success growing watermelon. As you can see form the pictures above things are looking promising this year. This year started my watermelon seeds a little earlier. I have also planted several varieties in a relatively small area. The reason for this was to improve the chances of pollination, to allow the vines to shade themselves along with the melons and to save space and water. It seems to be working so far.

Here you can see my watermelon patch in the foreground with passion flower vine, zinnias and sunflowers in the background.

This picture is the same as above, but with more of my watermelon patch included.

My Other Plants are Doing Fine

Despite the havock in my tomato patch other plants in my garden are still doing just fine.

Zucchini Squash

Watermelon Vines

Bell Peppers

Passion Fruit Vine Seedlings

I planted all of the passioin fruit seeds that I had left over from last year. After several weeks they have sprouted. I have also obtained some root cuttings from some runners that my passion flower incarnata vines have put out. Once it warmed up shoots started showing up in my watermelon patch. I have dug up 3 root segements so far and given them to friends to try planting in pots. It has been a couple of weeks and one person has reported back to me that theirs is growing.

Tomato Vines Withered

As you can see my tomato vines did not fair well once things heated up around here. I am not sure what I did wrong, but I suspect watering was the problem. I think my watering method was too frequent and shallow. I know people in the area who still have beautiful tomato vines so I can't blame it on the heat alone.

Every year we encounter challenges with our tomatoes. The biggest problem is fruit that just stays green and never ripens. We also experience sun scald, blossom end rot and splitting. This year we have had the same problems. Even with the problems we have gotten lots of delicious tomatoes. One thing I have tried to do is pick the tomatoes as soon as they show first hint of color. I bring them in and let them ripen on the counter and the still taste great. Picking them like this spares them from sun scald and splitting and to a certain extent it also help with blossom end rot. Fruit that stays green on the vine can be brought in if you do it before they tomatoes have been on the vine too long, but they don't turn out the same as the ones that have developed some color before picking.

If anyone has any reccomendations for growing tomatoes successfully in the Spring and Summer here in phoenix I would really like to hear your suggestions.

Sunflowers

Passion Flowers Attract Butterflies

One of the benefits of growing Passionflowers is that they attract and host butterflies. There are always several of them fluttering around the vines. They also flutter all around the yard. The butterflies all appear to be Gulf Fritillary butterflies. This past weekend I was able coax one off a leaf and into my hand. I was also able to pass it off to my daughter. She carried it on her finger to show her mom. Unfortunately we didn't get a picture of her with it. I suspect it was coming to the end of its lifecycle because when it would try to fly it would only fly a few feet.