What garden there is....

Not much happening on the gardening end of things here besides the watering, although we were blessed with a two nice little rainstorms this past week.  That makes two times in one week that I didn't have to water!  Pathetic, I know, but I'll take whatever break from watering I can.

I have three teeny-tiny watermelons on the vines that managed to live through the constant chicken onslaught (bastards!!!) and there are flowers everywhere on those and the cantaloupe.

Baby Watermelon!
(Wonder if Susan has an issue with both baby veggies AND baby fruits?)

This morning I went out to the "berry garden" (i.e. mostly other-than-berries in there) to find what looked like a gardening Shock & Awe campaign had happened overnight.  Holes dug every where.  And mostly around the roots of my plants!!  An armadillo had obviously shoved the garden gate open and went to town looking for grubs, and in the process, dug the roots out from two of my squash plants and around several of the grape vines.  The grapes weren't hurt too badly, but two of my squash plants are dead because of it.

The pumpkin, acorn and butternut squash that I planted last week (or week before) have been almost totally destroyed by what I believe was the bastard armadillo.  There are only two little acorn squash plants left.  I think I'm going to try again (and again, and again) but find something to put over them.  It will have to be something like netting or a small wire cage because anything solid like a milk carton or plastic cup would just cook whatever plant was underneath.  But if it was indeed an armadillo, he'll just bulldoze over any covering anyhow.  

My tomato plants (i.e. jungle) are looking wonderful.  Except that there is only a handful of tomatoes.  There were flowers a-plenty, and still some more popping up, but I've read and heard that the pollen dies over 95 degrees.  And since we've only had maybe two days in the past, say MONTH that wasn't over 100 degrees, I'd say that those flowers will be yielding no fruit.  Figures.

The peppers are doing ok, but nothing spectacular.  The squash plants that survived the armadillo's rampage last night are also doing well, but only because I've been religiously watering them.  I picked an eight inch yellow squash that just appeared overnight (honestly!!) and a probably too large patty pan squash.  From the only surviving patty pan plant (mumbles obscenities about armadillos to herself). 

The green and yellow bean bed (i.e. another vegetable jungle) seems to be doing well, but I grabbed a small green bean off the plant yesterday for a little snack and it was pretty tough.  Guess the heat is doing that?  Not sure, but if they are all like that, I can only hope that canning them will make them less tough. 

I'm going to prepare the two raised beds in the front yard (i.e. chicken-proof them) and plant some cabbage, beets and maybe even some cucumbers this week.  I really would like to put some lettuce out but it's just too darned hot out.  Wonder if lettuce would do ok in the heat if I put it on the porch where the sun isn't beating on it?  Guess I'm going to just try and find out.