With too many days that hit 100º and no discernible monsoon this summer, the tomatoes have taken a beating. I’m not getting enough to can/freeze this year. They haven’t been setting fruit because it’s just too hot. Pole beans are starting to dry up so bean production has slowed, but that’s OK because I have a couple of gallon bags full of beans on the fridge. Cukes are doing fabulous, though. I’ll be making garlic dill pickles tomorrow. Onions also did well. So did the chile peppers.
The 2 eggplants I moved to pots did wonderful until one of the pest deer ate them both–and ate my zucchini plants too. I thought deer didn’t like eating fuzzy or prickly leaves. Seems I was wrong.
The deer have particularly aggressive this summer and have torn down the fencing around the garden more than once and have chewed anything that is near the deer mesh. A doe ate the potted flowers on my patio table, grazed the penstemon and bramble roses planted around the patio and is stripping branches off all my young trees. About the only thing the deer haven’t eaten on/near the patio or garden is my big pot of basil. Maybe I need to make some pesto for the freezer before they change their minds.
I want to plant some fall veggies–lettuce and peas, but it’s just too hot to think about working in the garden.