Not dead

It's been a long time since my last post. A very long time. It's garden season, and times I would normally spend posting are now taken up with watering.
A heat wave has hit Georgia.
Normally, you can always count on help from Mother Nature in the early summer. Humidity rises, afternoon and evening thunderstorms are then normal. The last two weeks, however, there's been none of that. While humidity may begin at 60% in the morning, it drops dramatically during the day. There's been no rain since the tornado storm just before Memorial Day weekend, and a forecast for rainless days stretches out through next weekend at least.
What's in my garden this year? I'm glad you asked.
I planted spring peas, though I probably should have gotten them in earlier than I did, so they'd be higher by now. I suspect their days are numbered in this heat, but they are producing right now. I'm a little too impatient to wait for them to make peas, but I have about a handful in a bag in my fridge - they are great cool snacks. In the same bed, I planted cucumbers. As the peas begin to die back, they will leave room for the cucumber plants. The cucumbers are thriving in the heat and loaded with blooms.
In the next bed, green bell peppers and serrano peppers. I have never grown serranos, and I'm beginning to question that decision, as I assumed they would need the same growing conditions. Serranos however are a mountain region pepper, preferring less water than the bells. While a container may not be the ideal location, I think I am going to put my last serranos in a large container so I can control the amount of water they get.
Another new addition to my garden are tomatillos. I've had spotty success with those plants, but three or four of them have settled in the third raised bed and are creating healthy looking thick main stems. At this point, I can't tell if any of the PURPLE tomatillos survived - in the early stages, if plants failed, I switched them out with seedlings I had in pots, so I'm not really sure what died.
But seriously, who doesn't want to see a purple tomatillo?
Next, zucchini and crooked neck yellow squash. Doing great. Normally I have to worry about chipmunks munching on the squash, but this year I took a large roll of bird netting and tacked it down with plastic spikes. This netting isn't strong, but it's diaphanous. It's like trying to walk through strong spider webs. I think anything trying to approach it would avoid it to avoid getting tangled in it. I hope it will hold out until I get at least one of each of the vegetables in there. Last year, the chipmunks cleaned me out.
My hybrid tomatoes are looking great, and are growing so well I'm struggling to keep them fed and watered well enough to accommodate their growth. They are utterly loaded with fruits - romas, early girls, pear tomatoes, better boys. Again, waiting for them to ripen is now like watching a pot in pre-boil stage.
Finally, there are the heirlooms, whose slow growth rate continue to confound me. Here's the heirloom list: Arkansas Traveller, Big Rainbow, Black Krim, Brandywine, German Johnson and Pruden's Purple. Where the hybrids are growing out of control, these hybrids are barely 8 inches tall. As was recommended, I amended them all with both compost and lime. Perhaps what's happening is they are building beautiful roots. I'm not sure. So far, they've been like the sea monkeys for me - beautiful pictures, no fruits. This morning, I realized that the seedlings I kept in pots looked better than the ones in the larger raised bed, so I dug out an area next to the raised bed, pulled weeds, and planted the remaining seedlings directly in the dirt.
I feel pretty blessed actually, to have the extra plants left, enabling me to experiment to find the best growing conditions. I'm also blessed with good enough health to have the stamina to stay out there in the morning heat. I'm blessed with enough interest to experiment. I think that's what gardening is, really, a spirit for experimentation. You're just not going to find the right conditions for everything on the first try.
So that's my vegetable garden. Additionally, earlier this year I added 4 hydrangeas to the family. One, unfortunately, was popped off at the base by a rather large limb. But my autumn ferns survived the early snow and ice, my heurcheras (caramel) are growing well both in shade and full sun, and my new viburnums are hanging in there, though this week has been tough on the last. I am fertlizing and watering and hoping for the best.
It's enough to keep you busy all summer.
I will post pictures sometime soon. After watering.

--Laura