I hope this works
Between going on vacation and the temperature being above the mid 90’s last week, the arugula and spinach had had enough. Also from the looks in the above photo the garlic is going to come out within a day or two. I spent a good three hours turning turning most of the remaining arugula into next years’ supply of pesto.
I decided to try some watermelon along with the standard okra planting this year. Watermelon does very well with the hea,t but the fruit has a long maturity, about 85 days, so I am not sure if planting it this late will be good or bad. Hopefully the summer will be hot and nasty all the way through September like last year. Then I should get some nice sweet big melons. Time will tell.
This will be the last year I plant okra from plants since I had to hunt through five different garden stores before finding enough suitable transplants. I do not know why people plant okra before it gets hot since the plant is the perfect addition to a summer garden. It thrives on low water and high heat, almost as well as a cactus. From now on I plan to sprout them from seed starting in late April to have good plants ready for early June in the garden.
Oh and here is a quick look at some tomatoes starting to ripen.
I can just taste the salad already
Rufus' Food and Spirits Guide 
nice…I love gardening
Gardening is such as satisfying endeavor . . .
G’day! Growing my own herbs and veggies is on my list to do! 🙂
Cheers! Joanne
You have too much heat, and we have not enough!
Pretty tomatoes.
I’m growing rocket/arugula from seed this year. I planted late, but as everything is late, it’s now on schedule, very like the trains in England.
Only a day or two above 80, and my first planting of arugula bolted…it comes out today. Fingers crossed for your melons! 🙂
Awh those tomatoes look so nice 🙂 You give me high hopes that my sister’s tomato plant grows like yours 🙂
Tomatoes look great. I planted my melons within the past few weeks. You should be fine with them.
Arugula pesto! Delicious and bitter! You live in the South and you can’t buy okra seedlings? That doesn’t make sense.. 😉
I can buy seeds at certain times in the year. I can buy plants up through May usually, but this year was a little cooler longer so I did not need to re-plant until mid June.
With your hot Summers, trying to fit in a trip and maintain a garden must be nearly impossible. This one didn’t seem to bother your tomatoes, though. That’s a great pic of the tomato “spray.”
Sorry to hear about the okra decision. It’s one of my favorite veggies!
Normally I have had a bumper crop of arugula every year. Last year into this year, i couldn’t grow arugula, lettuce or spinach, but tons of chard, which I still have in spite of the hot weather. Go figure. Your tomatoes look great, and if you get watermelon, too, then I will be officially jealous!
Wow – your tomatoes are doing well!
It sounds like you are going to have a great gardening experience this year. Fingers crossed for sweet watermelons for your later in the year.